Back to Basics: Natural Beef

By Jonathan Berohn

When mad cow disease hit England a few years back that was pretty frightening. When it surfaced in Canada more recently people began taking more notice. Now that is has been confirmed in US cattle, people across the country have started becoming more and more interested in natural and organic beef that is never fed the animal byproducts that seem to be the cause of mad cow disease.

Along with this safety net comes the additional benefit of great flavor, so organic and natural beef is becoming more and more popular. In fact, several restaurant chains, including Chipotle and Good Times Burgers, have recently adopted and advertised their switch to natural beef.

Natural Beef at the Grocery Store

The easiest way to buy natural beef is find it at your local store. As you might expect, health food stores like Whole Foods and Wild Oats generally stock quite a bit of organic beef. If you can't get to one of those stores, most supermarkets are starting to offer some natural options. Coleman is a common brand of natural beef. Now strictly speaking, Coleman isn't organic, per se, but it does follow an all-natural protocol, meaning Coleman cattle never receive antibiotics, hormones, or any animal byproducts. In short, the main difference between natural and organic is that the vegetarian feed that Coleman uses is not certified organic. The sacrifice there is fairly minimal-and the taste certainly does not suffer from it.

Online Options

If you are having trouble finding good organic or natural beef near you, you can also order it online from some of the better-known ranches. Both Niman Ranch and Maverick Ranch offer a full selection of beef and other meats for mail order delivery. Both Niman and Maverick ranches again offer natural rather than organic beef, but as the Maverick Ranch web site details, less than 2% of cattle feed is certified organic, so it is hard (and expensive) to come by organic feed. Once again, though, the trade-off is minor, and you won't be sorry you opted for natural when it comes to taste.

Whichever natural option you choose, you do need to be prepared to pay extra for it. Natural beef, as you might expect, costs appreciably more than traditionally raised beef. For that premium, though, you get a little peace of mind and a lot of taste.