So, you lost touch with former cow orkers from your earlier career?
:p:

:p: .

BTW we did not spit beer on the patrons we poured champagne off... well use your imagination ;)

per wikipedia: "Cereals, grains, or cereal grains are grasses..."

all grains are grasses.

Interesting article a friend sent me reminded me of this IotD. Read how you have never, and most likely never will, eat Kobe beef even though people are telling you that you should give them lots of money for it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolm...kobe-beef-lie/

A year or two back there was a foot-and-mouth outbreak, and once the culling stopped, there were exactly five Kobe bulls left.

In a few years time, you'll be able to recognise Kobe beef by the thick eyeglasses and funny teeth.

While interesting, I think he gets a little carried away with his indignation.
I see people trying to be pretentious by buying what other people say is good, and get snookered because they don't know shit. Anyone stupid enough to think a bottle labeled Champagne can only come from France, should be drinking Ripple. :haha:

Really?
American women don't scrub shit out of toilets for a minimum wage?
British women do.

Massaging cows and spitting beer would be a step up methinks.

ETA - didn't read the thread thoroughly.
Came very late to the beef party.

Also I suspect that the lack of reported BSE cases in America came from poor reporting.

I lol'd.

Hmmm...

Wow that pic sure has evolved. lol

Oops, I was joking about bovine inbreeding, not crossbreeding.

No No Beef in Europe is generally around 3-5 years old before its butchered because many are not grain fed so they take years to be table ready. Beef in the USA is 24months at the most with the exception of Holstein butcher cows and bulls and other breeding beef animals that are generally used for fast food, luncheon meats and hot dogs. Impossible for BSE to happen in an animal that is less than 3 years of age. So there was no under reporting. Also cattle in the USA are not fed the bone meal that was widely used in other European countries.

Just to add the only human cases of BSE in the USA or {Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease] were traced to meat products that originated in other countries.

We've taken to purchasing our meat products (beef, chicken, lamb, etc) from local farmers only. The farm we use most frequently is a grass fed operation - their beef animals recieve no corn 'enhancements' to their diet during their growing phase. It's all grass/grain feed. We've found that it's better tasting than corn fed cows, it doesn't have as much fat in it (which is a plus for us), and has more of a 'beefy' flavor - so we actually end up eating less of it.

I believe it was in one of Pollan's books that I read about how CAFO cows (confined agriculture feeding operations), which are fed corn to 'finish' them, or get them to optimum weight quickly before slaughter, actually were often sick - because the anatomy of a cow is not designed to process corn - which also explains why so many 'commercial' beef products come with the extra added antibiotics (which causes a whole other issue).

I don't think that grass fed is a 'marketing ploy'. I think it's the growth of a market for people who are starting to see exactly what 'industrial food' is doing, and how unhealthy it truly is.