I finally got to see Food, Inc. last night.  That’s how the movie ended, with simple text on a black screen urging viewers to change the world…  Seems tough with the entire US food industry and farm policies stacked against the consumer.  So, this morning I’m doing my small part.  My daughter and I are headed to the Matthews Farmers Market.  April to November, they have a Saturday morning operation (downtown) that is open 7:15 to noon, and a Tuesday operation that runs 10am to 2pm (near Presbyterian Matthews Hospital).  They even have a winter market every other Saturday downtown.

My garden (previous post) has done well this summer, but can’t provide all our veggies.  But my main mission is to pick up my grass-feed beef order from Baucom’s Best, a local operation near Matthews.  A parent of a student turned me on to their operation.  I grew nostalgic for the grass-fed beef my grandfather raised.  He gave my mom a half a cow each year at Christmas–we had a freezer just to hold that beef.  I realized that the beef I grew up on, was healthier than the feedlot beef my kids were eating and decided to try something different.  Why grass-feed beef?

Well, here’s what is under the FAQ section at the Baucom’s Best website:

Isn’t All Beef Grassfed?
The term grassfed beef can be confusing to some, after all most cattle enjoy grass as part of their diet during their lifespan.  However, this does not make them grassfed.  Conventional cattle start receiving grain just a few months after birth and spend the last 90 to 120 days at a feedlot where they have no access to grass at all.  Although cattle from “natural’ or organic beef producers may stay on pasture their entire lives, most are still supplemented with grain.  True grassfed beef consume no grain at all.  Why is this distinction so important?  Because all of the wonderful health benefits of a grass diet diminish as soon as grain is added, even just a little grain.  If the “natural” or organic beef you are buying isn’t 100% grassfed, then  you are missing out on more than just antibiotics and growth hormones.

I recently read a book called Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch, by Dan O’Brien.  Great read.  O’Brien switches his cattle farm over to buffalo (another story) for several reasons, but along the way he does a good job explaining why we’ve come to favor corn-fed over grass-fed meat.

• Corn-fed meat can go straight to market, whereas grass-fed meat is supposed to cure for a while.
• Corn-fed meat has more fat (marbling), so it doesn’t burn or char as easily on the grill.
• Corn-fed meat is cheaper (due to the surplus of corn the US maintains).  American farm policy tipped the scales in favor of cheap corn in the early 1970′s.  Since then, the majority of our beef supply has become corn-feed.

So yeah, it may cost you to change.  But, you can “vote” for change in our food system when you spend your dollars.  Beyond cost, their are numerous health and environmental reasons to choose grass-fed over corn-fed.  That’s probably best left for another post.

We rolled in so late last night, I could not really tell much about Las Cruces.  Day light comes around 5 am here, so I quickly got an idea.  It is beautiful! Brett and I grabbed a cup of coffee and did some birdwatching for about an hour before breakfast.  My favorite find was a pair of Toucans attacking their reflection in a window.  Here is one in a tree just over my head:

Toucan at Las Cruces

Las Cruces is another OTS site, but in the very southern corner of Cost Rica (see Map below).  The original property was the Wilson Botanical Garden, and this beautifully manicured garden remains at the heart of the 300+ hectare facility.  The true mission of Las Cruces is biological research-particularly in the area of restoration ecology.  Las Cruces has acquired hundreds of acres of rainforest fragments and pastures and researchers come from all over the world to study human impacts on rainforest and how to “repair” them.

Our current location

Click here for a flickr slideshow for more images of the biological station.  Brett and I toured the ground this morning and took a quick hike in the rainforest.

This afternoon, we took a field trip to a local farm to view shade-grown coffee and small-scale integrated organic farming methods.  I would post more pics, but my camera battery died and Brett forgot his USB cable.  I was so impressed by his conservation ethic.  This farmer grew coffee plants under banana trees and other native trees.  This method attracts wildlife (natural predators of pests) and reduces the need for inorganic fertilizers (certain trees enrich the soil).  That’s the simple version.  It is actually rather well-developed science–the kind taught at EARTH U (see previous blog posts).  Brett and I are thinking of having our kids work here for a day helping with the coffee crop.  Check out this web site that features this farmer, who belongs to a local growers co-op.  Tomorrow we will hike more of the property with a guide, then drive back to San Jose before flying out Thursday.

We left La Selva Biological Station around noon today, then drove about an hour west to Earth University.  At the website, you can find this description under Our Identity:

EARTH, inaugurated in1990, is an international, private, not-for-profit university dedicated to education, extension, research and the generation of value through production, transformation and commercialization activities. The academic program, leading to a “licenciatura” degree, emphasizes the agricultural sciences and the rational management of natural resources. The University seeks to contribute to sustainable development, with a special emphasis on the humid tropics; a region characterized by immense biological and cultural richness, yet threatened by social marginalization and inappropriate agricultural and natural resource management systems.

Pretty impressive facility, I must say.  Amazing what folks can do with enough resources.  The campus is a beautifully manicured modern university sprawling across 8,000 plus acres.  They recruit the best and the brightest mainly from Latin America.  The website states there are 400 students from 23 countries around the world. At least 80% of students are granted full or partial scholarship. EARTH U. has graduated 1,082 professionals from 19 countries in Latin America, Europe and Africa.  Below is the library building, obviously built with funds from the Kellogg Foundation.

Kellogg Library at EARTH U.

We were given tour of the grounds this afternoon by two sophomores.  Each has hopes of returning to their respective communities and beginning businesses in medical herbs or ecotourism.  The coolest thing we saw was an organic banana farm and processing plant.  They even use the banana stem leftovers to make banana paper.  Supermarket chain  Whole Foods has been selling EARTH University Brand bananas from the farm for a few years now.  So, find a Whole Foods store near you and support “the EARTH!”

Organic Banana Farm