Digital Social Hour - The Shocking Truth About Grass-Fed Beef | Cloe Parker DSH #758

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Discover "The Shocking Truth About Grass-Fed Beef" with Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour Podcast! 🌱🥩 Dive deep into the meat industry with Cloe Parker from Parker Pastures, as we unravel the myths and realities behind grass-fed vs. grain-finished beef. Did you know that "grass-fed" doesn't always mean what you think? 😲 Tune in now to find out why the source of your meat matters more than ever! Join the conversation packed with valuable insights on how beef is raised, the impact on nutrients, and the truth behind controversial meat practices. 🌍💪 From the challenges of sustainable farming to the surprising facts about meat labeling, this episode is an eye-opener! Don't miss out—watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Be part of a community that values authenticity and transparency in today's food practices. See you there! 👀 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - What is Grass-Fed Beef 01:51 - Understanding Meat Grading System 05:27 - Vaccines in Agriculture 06:32 - Bird Flu Impact on Livestock 06:49 - Overview of the Beef Industry 08:43 - Cloe’s Personal Story 11:28 - Life in Feedlots 12:38 - Benefits of Raw Milk 19:46 - Rise of Plant-Based Meat Alternatives 22:05 - Finding Quality Meat Sources 23:57 - Raising Cattle Timeline 26:39 - Dining Out: Meat Choices 27:04 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Cloe Parker https://www.instagram.com/parkerpasturesgrassfed https://parkerpastures.com/ SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

spent on grass. Oh, wow. Versus like, okay, well, what's where's it at the other 50% of its life. But most people think like grass fed means like it's on grass entire life. But unfortunately, it's not the truth. I thought that to be honest. Yeah, but it's it has to be grass fed and grass finished. That means grass finished means they spent their entire life, even the end of their life on pasture. All right, guys. Got Chloe Parker here today from Parker Pastures. Thanks for coming on.

Yeah, thanks for having me. This is awesome. Yeah, we're going to talk about the meat industry. Let's do it. A lot of stuff going on there. Yeah, there's a lot of disgusting things going on with our meat. It's crazy. Yeah, I go to grocery stores now and I can't even buy most of the meat.

Yeah, no, I will avoid that at all. I mean, it helps that I have a lot in my freezer. But yeah, just the things you just don't know where it's coming from. The fact that the fact that always grossed me out is it's all raw, like our meat's all frozen or that's all raw. So it's like, who knows how long it's been sitting out for? Right. Yeah, there's a whole there's a whole list of all the things where i'm like oh i don't want to eat that yeah even the coloring sometimes it looks off like when i go to whole foods and i look at the coloring of

the meat it's like kind of dark yep Atmospheric Packaging, where it's carbon monoxide is kind of like the main ingredient and there's a couple different gases. And if they package it with that, it'll keep that dark red color. And there's some crazy comparisons of like when it's packaged with that versus when it's not, it'll be like gray and oxidizing a lot faster so that's another thing where it's like well it might not be as fresh as it looks because of that packaging wow that's crazy what do you think about the meat grading system the usda prime and the choice and all that um that's a great question um i mean i think it definitely has some, like, benefits to it. Honestly, I don't grade any of our meat.

I mean, we're kind of going off of, like, when I'm looking at an animal out in the pasture, I'm like, is this animal plump? I look for something called bubble butt. So I want them to, like, have kind of almost like bubbles around their tail. And it's like I'm looking for that to be super marbled. And that's more of what we're kind of going off of. It's like an animal that looks healthy and is fully finished. So I think the meat grading system definitely has some say, but I'm just coming from like a rancher's perspective. That's kind of what I'm going off of when I'm like, okay, that animal's ready to be harvested. That's going to be really good beef.

Yeah. I was talking to a butcher in San Diego. He owns a butcher stop. And he was saying he'd rather eat Creekstone choice than Costco prime. So I thought that was interesting. Yeah, that is. Cause he was saying the source matters a lot. Totally. Yep. It does. Cause yeah, there's so many different ways that take cattle, for example, can be raised, but how can be raised, but how they're raised, where they're coming from, affects not only the quality of the meat, but the nutrients of the meat as well as the flavor of the meat. Like even just the label grass-fed, it just means 50% of their life was spent on grass.

Oh, wow. Versus, it's like, okay, well, where is it at the other 50% of its life? But most people think grass-fed means it's on grass its entire life, but unfortunately, it's not the truth. I thought that, to be honest. Yeah, but it has to be grass-fed and grass-finished. Grass-finished means they spent their entire life, even the end of their life, on pasture.

Right. And that's definitely where the like nutrients are in that meat because meat's super nutrient dense and you rarely see grass finished anywhere no yeah it's less than like i think it's less than five percent of all beef in america yeah it's a very very small percentage yeah i've never seen it at costco at restaurants i almost never see it why do you think it's so rare is it more expensive way more expensive well I mean there's a few different reasons because most animals like they'll like say a calf is born on usually a ranch it's gonna spend three to six months with its mother and then it's usually weaned and normally it'll either continue being on grass or it'll go

to um like they call it backgrounding yard so kind of where they're going to be giving corn or hay. And then they'll usually be back on pasture for a little bit. And then the final stage of most cattle, like 85%, 90% of cattle is. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook, born in Vegas, gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron

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Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. In a feed yard. And that's just kind of the system we have. And like it's, we grew, America raises a ton of corn, like the size of California and corn each year. And then that's just kind of the system we have. And like America raises a ton of corn, like the size of California in corn each year, and then that's cheap feed that can go to cattle. We can get them fattened fast, and then you have that beef. So it's just the system is so broken,

and that's why it's like, yeah, versus if it's grass-finished, grass-fed, like it takes way more time um it's just different so it's just not really the norm but grass finished grass grass fed grass finishes where the nutrients is that's where the flavor is that's where like the health benefits are that makes sense from a business point of view why they would prefer the other route because it's quicker turnaround more money yep corn has gmos in it they don't care yep that's nasty and people are eating that and i heard some cows are being injected have you heard about this um with like the mrna vaccine yeah vaccines

hormones yeah i mean hormones are definitely used a lot because it just helps with that growth um antibiotics as well because like they're in a feed yard they can get sick they're in confinement and then the mRNA vaccine is don't I don't think they're injecting anything yet but they're testing it and trialing it and that's gonna be a whole nother can of worms and I'm like oh boy do you treat all your cows as naturally as possible when it comes to the injections yeah yeah no growth hormones no antibiotics and'm going to do everything in my power to stay away from the mRNA vaccine. I love that because that gets in the food. Yeah, yeah.

It's crazy. I mean, it's like what it does to the human body, and then what if we're eating that? Like, what is that going to still do to our body? That's nuts. Yeah. I'd imagine they're going to pressure farmers into getting some sort of vaccines in the future.

Yeah,'s definitely seems to be rolling out that way um which is like control the food control the people um so i don't know that's nuts did you see a bunch of chickens died like a month ago like millions yeah yeah it's definitely got because we're it's interesting because they're kind of rolling out the bird flu tying in the mRNA vaccine. And it's all like this thing where I'm like, hmm, this doesn't make sense. And the other crazy thing is like the beef. You look at the cattle market of like live cattle. It's at a record high.

But beef prices are kind of like a low. And 85% of beef is controlled by four companies. Wow. And they're all processing companies. Not controlled by four companies. Wow. And they're all processing companies, not all U.S.-based. Some ones in Brazil, like they're all over. And so they can afford to lose a bunch of money on beef to push all the small producers out and then really control that entire market. So there's just a lot of interesting things happening. And I just find it ironic because beef, especially like take beef liver,

it's one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. It's like you can attack that, but it's like, well, that's where all the nutrients is versus like you take corn or some other product. Like there's not nutrients. There's not the health benefits. There's also not the environmental benefits of like cows can be really healing to the land. Like they can reverse reverse degradation they can sequester carbon all those things

um so it's just interesting how everything's aligning and the tack on it follow the money right yeah that's super concerning that four companies control 85 it's wild has it always been like that or is that recent um i mean in the last it kind of started in the 19 i want to say 70s and they've kind of built up um over that period but yeah now we're at i think 85 90 percent they're trying to get that last little bit of control wow yeah it makes sense because they're in all the grocery stores they got mass distribution yep and they use all kinds of different logos and labels. So you don't know that it's from one of four companies.

Right. And they buy out companies, right? Yep. And then change all the ingredients. Yep. So even if you're like a healthy mom and pop, they're going to buy you out and then remove all the healthy ingredients to make more money. Mm-hmm.

Crazy. It's definitely about the money. That is nuts. Yeah. How long have you been doing this at Parker Pastures? My entire life. Yeah. Yeah. My parents started it when I was super little. And so I've kind of just grown up ranching and like having meat in our freezer and selling meat. And then after I graduated high school, I kind of went away, worked on some other ranches.

And then my mom actually was diagnosed with cancer. So I was like, I need to come back. And I was running our ranch and meat company. Um, and I was like, wait a minute, I actually like this. Like, I feel like this is what I'm supposed to do is provide people with nutrient dense food. Cause our food system is so corrupt and so broken. Um, and so I took over and ever since just been, yeah, it's like I want to put good nutrient-dense food back on the table, but also raised in a way that's like healing to the environment, the earth, not degrading it like most food is. I love it. They tried telling us meat was bad for you a couple years ago.

Yep. I mean, they're still pushing it, and it's like, yeah, if cow, it's all, there's a saying, it's not the cow, it's the how. Like cows of themselves, like they're not good or bad. It's like how they're managed. And like if they're managed in a way where they're overgrazing or they're like staying in that same area and grazing it again and again or whatever example you want to use. Like, yeah, that can cause problems to the land it can cause deserts to be created or they can be managed in a way that is healing regenerative restorative whatever word

you want to put on it but the concept of just like i like to take the idea of like there was millions upon millions of bison roaming across the plains. And the wolves were keeping them on the move. So they would graze an area of grass and then they'd be on the move. And that grass could regrow and recover, put those roots back into the ground, bring that carbon back into the ground. And then when it was fully recovered, then those bison would come again and graze that. And like that's what we –, we want to replicate nature. Like nature has a good model.

And so like, for example, we use like electric fence and we're moving them daily or every other day or however often. Oh, wow. But we're keeping that like same mentality of like bison and wolves, just a little bit different approach. I didn't know that went into raising bison.

That's crazy. Yeah. So you got wolves too? I mean, there is some in Colorado, but we just, it's like just the idea of like keeping an ant, a group of animals in a smaller space and getting, keeping them on the move. Um, just like bison and wolves, like similar idea. Cause like, that's how that we had all that top soil and the land was abundant makes sense rogan's big on bison really yeah do you like eating bison um i mean i'm if i had to choose it's always i'm always beef yeah but um yeah definitely bison bison same thing

if cattle like most of them are finished in a feedlot at the end of their life they're fed grain um so it's definitely being aware of where you're getting it from but yeah bison can be a really good source of protein and nutrients for sure yeah so feedlots are just what like slaughterhouse what is that feedlot is um feedlot or CAFO confined animal feeding so it's usually like multiple they're like a big one is going to be tons of different pins of animals they're going to be in a tight space um and they're going to be fed a ration of usually like corn some hay like a whatever that whatever protocol they're on to get them to gain weight as fast as possible. And then once they reach whatever poundage or whatever ratio they're going off of,

then they'll go to the butcher or slaughterhouse. So it's mostly just like a tight area where cattle – Sounds traumatizing for the animal. Yeah, it's really bad for cattle, and it's even worse for chickens and pigs. They won't even see the light chickens and pigs like they won't even see the light of day and they spend their entire life in one of those cattle usually it's been just a little bit of their life so it's like concerning i wonder if the animals know what's going on i think they do more so than we think yeah yeah i see videos like pigs looking upset

yeah for the slaughterhouse and i wonder if it's real or just propaganda. No, I think pigs are very, they're similar to humans in like they definitely can feel those I don't know if emotions is the right word Yeah, maybe energy. Yeah, but it's definitely like I know what you're talking

about where it's like that just, they don't look good like that doesn't and then you look at like the meat or even taste it it's like it's not doesn't have flavor it's it just doesn't seem good because the animals wasn't the animal wasn't living a good life no there's not a spiritual component in food people don't even realize yeah it's so true it's like yeah they're not eating locally or like from a good source, it's draining energy out of you, in my opinion. No, I 100% agree. Damn, that's concerning.

Yeah, I gave up pork, to be honest. Yeah, we have pasture-raised pork. I work with somebody, and they raise it for Parker Pastures. And I'm like, I know how those animals are raised. So I'm like, okay, I'm okay to eat that pork. Same with chicken. But otherwise else, I'm like, no. Because, yeah, just how they're raised yeah chicken eggs that are not pastures are actually

bad for you apparently yeah they yeah just don't because they inject the chickens nuts it's a scary time and most people buy their meat at grocery stores so they're not even aware that this is going on yep i mean it's convenient to just go to the store. But, yeah, it's like there's so many hidden secrets. And, like, you take meat or vegetables or anything, it's like, I mean, in 2020, 50% of organic labels weren't compliant. Wow. So it's like. 50%. Yeah.

It's like, well, what is happening to our food? Like, if the labels aren't even compliant or is that even mean like we says organic but is it yeah and now they're spraying stuff on the vegetables did you see that yeah so crazy oh at whole foods are literally spraying people thought it was water but it's not yep yeah i was looking i've always wondered about that and then i saw that i was looking into it i'm like dang now i have to buy all my vegetables from a farmer yep totally that's like the safest way to go I don't know what else you do yeah I mean it's tougher in Vegas but yeah hopefully I could find someone for some raw milk too yeah that one's a tricky one that's a tricky one legally yeah we just had

a guest on and their baby had eczema and they were giving it dairy from like the grocery store, switched over to raw milk, gone in three days. Wow. That's wild. Just from raw milk. Yep. No, that stuff is powerful. But if you sell it on your site, the FDA comes knocking at your door and bans you. Yep. The regulations around it are ridiculous. It's crazy. I used to order from an Amish farm and they got banned. Oh my gosh. The FDA came on their door. Dang. I mean, I don't know what they're trying to hide. Yeah. Raw milk's good for you. No, it's so good for you, which is probably why there's so many

people trying to control it. Well, when big food's in bed with big pharma, it's a tough opponent. Yep, yep. And that's exactly what's happening and it just gets worse and worse. Two of the biggest industries in the country, maybe in the world. You're fighting a tough battle. Yep, it definitely is, but it's like who else is going to do it?

It's like we need food. We need nutrient-dense food because just look at all the health problems. How much of that is directly tied to where our food is coming from? A lot of it. A lot, Probably 80%. Yep. What are your top selling cuts and steaks and everything? Definitely, I mean, my personal favorite is always ground beef,

but definitely ground beef. Like a New York strip steak or ribeye steaks. Those are classics. Or another one that's definitely popular is our ancestral blend of like 10 heart and liver ground beef because like i personally can't eat organs especially liver it's just too strong i'm like i know the nutrients are there the health benefits all of that um so this is just like a good way to mix it in so that it doesn't taste livery. It just tastes like ground beef, whether I'm making a burger or whatever. Yeah.

But the thing is like a whole cow, like there's so many different cuts from one animal. It's usually like 40% of ground beef, 10% steaks. Then it's kind of like 30-ish percent of like roast or short ribs or stew meat, fajita meat, and then you have the bones and then the organs. So there's so many different cuts from one animal. It's like everyone loves steaks, and like steaks are amazing, but there's some other cuts that have like ground beef is a great cut because it's easy to cook up, but it's got a ton of nutrients.

So it's always like trying to think about how to use that whole animal and get that diversity of all the different cuts. I always wondered what part of the cow was the ground beef. Do you know? Yeah, I mean, there's a couple different ways. Like sometimes they'll just like an entire cow will just be ground beef. But usually like for us, it's what's called like the trim. That's like this.

You have your like steaks. They kind of come from the like the back. And then your roast can either be ground into ground beef or you can keep the roast. So the ground beef is kind of just like that. Whatever isn't your classic cut is usually into ground beef is a kind of a good rule of thumb. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. Are you on the carnivore diet? Pretty much. I mean, yeah. It's like I pretty much just eat meat for the most part. It's like, yeah, that's where I feel best. I have a freezer full of it, which helps. You got

to send me a photo of your freezer you keep bringing it up yeah well i mean there's like multiple freezers of meat so it's like i can kind of my favorite part is just going into the freezer and i like to rob the freezer whatever i need people probably love coming to your house for barbecues and stuff yeah yeah it's always always good meat there's always a running joke that it's from walmart when in reality it's like no but it's just from right out in the pasture. I would never eat meat from Walmart. No.

Oh, my gosh. That's like just disease waiting to happen. Oh, yeah. Yep. Oh, man. Let's see. Anything, any new launches, products coming out soon? Any partnerships?

I'm excited. I partnered with a ranch that does grass-fed grass-finished bison so i'm pretty excited about that um just had a have a little more diversity um and then we'll have pork pasture-raised pork and grass-fed and grass-finished lamb in the fall um so those are all kind of exciting Products just a little something different than the beef. Yeah. What do you think of the plant-based meat movement, like beyond meat? I think it's very interesting that some of the four companies

that control 85% of beef are invested in those. And I think it's just another way to just kind of get people off of what's actually healthy and nutrient dense. I mean, I get the environmental side of like, yeah, cows, like somebody coming from that point of view of like, I want to eat healthy.

I want to do what's like good for the environment. But in reality, it's like good for the environment but in reality it's like eating beef raised in a way that was healing to the environment is like a better thing you can do than eating plants that probably killed hundreds upon thousands of insects or birds or whatever um so i don't know i guess i don't try to think about it too much just try to think about real meat because it's like that has one ingredient versus those have like 30 or 40 insane it's crazy it's like how is that even food it's not and they marketed it in a way where it was healthy that was a part that annoyed me because i believed it at first you know i mean a lot of people did and then you

read all the all the seed oils and whatever else is in there. It's like, wow, this is actually bad for you. It's not even neutral. It's like bad for you. Crazy. It is. And the vegan diet, it's a tough one. Cause if you're not getting the greatest source,

it's actually really bad. Yeah. Like all the heavy metals and everything. Yep. Yeah. I'll, there's definitely some of our customers who were vegan and then like for health reasons,

have to start eating meat again it's like yeah it's hard like you can't get the nutrients that you need or also it's like plants in our body break down versus different than meat like meat it's easy for our body to convert into the nutrients we need versus plants have all those chemicals and things that are protecting them when in some an animal or whatever eats them. They're trying to protect themselves. So it's just like what's going to be best for your body to break down? Where are you going to get the most nutrients out of?

Meat is a really good one. It's hard to beat. It is. Do you guys ship everywhere? Yep, everywhere in the United States. Okay, for people watching this in Canada or something, what are some tips to get in touch with someone like you? Yeah, Canada is definitely tricky because you have to be in your province.

You need to find somebody. But usually if you can Google and do your research of like, okay, are they grass-fed and grass-finished? Could you go and visit the place? Like I just ask all the questions. Do they do growth hormones? What do they feed the cattle in the winter? What are other things?

Yeah, and just like I think usually when you're knowing your source versus just the store, it's usually a better option because there's less mystery around it, and you can usually get a higher quality product. And one thing I do is if you go to a restaurant versus if you eat our beef, you'll taste a flavor difference. Flavor and nutrients are directly tied together. So if it's rich in flavor, then that means it's got a lot of nutrients. So you're usually pretty good to go. Wow. That's good to know. Good rule of thumb. I didn't even think about the winter. So yeah, when there's no grass,

what do you feed it? Um, yeah, we try to go elsewhere. Um, we have a few different ranches that we work with and just so they can be on pasture oh so you move them yep oh wow yep that's crazy that must be a process um it's it can be but it's not it's usually not as bad uh as you think but yeah it's like they just go up go on the cattle semis um take a little road trip usually not too far away and then it's usually green grass wherever dang i did not even think about it i just take it for granted that it's on my plate yeah yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of parts that go into it um which is why it's like yeah it's easy to go to the store and grab something yeah um so how long is the life cycle because i know there's a lot of criticism on how they're shortening it especially for chickens so. So for cows, what, what kind of timeframe are you dealing with?

Yeah, that's a great question. Um, I mean, most, if you're kind of taking the commercial approach, usually it's going to be like 18 to 20 months. Um, with grass fed grass finished, it's usually more like 20 to 24 months or even past that. So, yeah, we want like we want that animal to live out its full life, but also like get it needs to fully develop. Yeah. Once they can fully develop, then they can put on that fat, which will create that marbling, which creates like that buttery. Right. Rich flavor.

The wagyu. Yep, exactly. So about two years. Wow. That's shorter than I thought. The Wagyu. Yep, exactly. So about two years. Wow. That's shorter than I thought. Yep. Yeah. I know chickens are like months now.

It's crazy. I think they're like six weeks. Holy crap. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's kind of, it's wild. That is concerning. That's like a baby. Yep. And the crazy thing is if they go over that six weeks and they don't get harvested in time, they'll like die because they're so fat and so big they don't get harvested in time they'll like die

because they're so fat and so big they can't even walk oh my gosh so it's like that and then we eat that it's like that doesn't seem like a good idea yeah i had to stop eating chicken at restaurants actually because i know they're not using the highest quality so yep yeah chicken's definitely the ones where i'm like i will stay very far away from that. Like beef, because cattle have the four stomachs and like usually they are on pasture for most of their life. Like it's usually if you're going to go for a meat, like usually beef's like the safest option. Wow. Mostly because of like just how the animals can convert that whatever they're eating.

I mean, obviously you want to stick with like grass fed, grass finished, all the things. Um, but it's like, if you have to make a choice, it's like beef usually is the best option, but versus like chicken pork, it's like, usually they're fast growing. Who knows what they're fed. Um, it's just, and they don't have like the nutrient profile that beef does, even like if it's not ideal ideal beef like it still has a lot of nutrients and that's good to know i always thought chicken was the safer play but recently i'm learning it's not yeah it's really not or the fact they like bleach most chickens at processing bleach yeah they'll wash them in like a bleach solution why just to clean them it's kind of just like a protocol of like once yeah they'll just like rinse it i don't know if they soak i think they just like rinse it in bleach um and that's

disgusting that's getting in the food yeah so it's like there's just some things with chicken where it's just i mean they're just foul yeah that's concerning can you even eat out like at a restaurant um yeah i will i mean usually i'll go with beef. And then I just judge it against what I have. Have you ever been shocked at a restaurant where the beef was actually really good quality? Not unless it was at a restaurant that had our beef. I love that answer. I love that. Yeah, we'll end it there.

Anything else you want to close off with or promote? I think if you're looking for a source of good meat, like it's going to be a rabbit hole. You're going to probably learn some things you don't want to learn. But like if you're looking for a source of like chicken and pork and lamb and like all the things you just want to go to one place, buggerpastures.com, like all about nutrient density. It's like, let's get nutrient dense food, which also means it's going to be flavorful.

It's going to be good, delicious. So perfect. Yeah. We'll link it below guys. I've been eating it. It's amazing. Definitely try it out and I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for coming on.

Thank you. Peace.