June First

So I guess I'm feeling bad about not being consistent with the blog posts, but honestly sometimes I just don't have the time. So I promise I will do my best.

After Saturday's fight gone bad for both adults and kids, we watched Every Second Counts, consumed good food with good company and good drinks. Thanks to all that made it.

Congrats to Debbie, Denny's other or better half for finishing the foundations sessions. She did well and today was in for her first actual class. Again, she did a good Job.

We also had Susie and Dana in for their introductory class and they're scheduled for foundations starting tomorrow. As I will be in and out for the next two weeks it will take them longer than normal to complete the foundations but we'll get there soon enough. A note to other potential members the foundations sessions will be 4 in number and it's gonna be tough to convince me that they're not necessary.

Been getting a few calls from prospects that are looking for a traditional gym. Is that us?

For those of you that didn't make it in for today's classes, I announced the Dutch Lowy Challenge for the month of June. As many thrusters as possible in one set. Should be fun, both the WOD and the prep. Looking forward to his program this weekend in Vegas.

Below is the latest I would like you to be aware of. It came from CrossFit Balboa who received it from Dutch Lowy. Interesting stuff and if I had a link it probably would be better but I don't have the knowledge to make that happen so her it is:

All
Natural, Pasture Fed, Grassfed and Cloned Beef Labels

Continuing the philosophy that our customers are our
partners in raising and providing the highest quality and most nutritious
beef available, I need to inform you about some very misleading “beef
labeling” that you are seeing or will see in your local stores’ meat
counter.

With the increased interest by consumers in more nutritious
beef, the USDA (Department of Agriculture) decided to define (dictate) the
minimum standards of just what is required by ranchers/producers of beef to
qualify for certain beef labels.  Our
local Texas Grassfed Livestock Alliance, our national American Grassfed
Association and several other all-grass associations lobbied very hard with our
USDA beef labeling committee to seize upon this opportunity to “narrowly
define” exact protocols and standards so consumers would know exactly what
they are eating.  Of course, the big
meat packers and feedlot owners also lobbied very hard for a very “broadly
defined” set of protocols and minimum standards.  We lost and they won the lobbying war.

So, beware!  Here are
the standards the USDA now believes properly informs consumers as they shop for
beef.

1. All Natural—as popularized
   by Nolan Ryan’s Tender-Aged All Natural Beef:  Nolan Ryan owns no fewer than four
   mega-large “feedlots” in Texas. 
   Foreman’s Choice is jumping on this bandwagon also.  Now, according to the USDA, All Natural
   means producers can give Growth Hormones (steroid implants and growth
   promoters), high-dosage quantities of Antibiotics (when feedlot animals
   are sick), and low-dosage quantities of Antibiotic feeds (medicated feeds)
   with the grain-based feeds used in feedlots.  FYI, 70% of worldwide antibiotic
   consumption is in U.S. feedlots. 
   NOW, the only requirement mandated by the USDA is that for the LAST
   90 DAYS before slaughter, producers cannot administer these items to the
   animals.  An animal is slaughtered
   between 12-24 months of age.  Three
   months (90 days) out of 12-24 months allows producers a lot of time to
   implant and medicate their animals. 
   The USDA believes all the effects of Hormones and Antibiotics have
   left the meat tissue after 90 days. 
   These animals can be finished in the feedlot and never have access
   to grass their entire lives and they still qualify as ALL NATURAL.  Give me a
   break; All Natural?  Go figure!  Big lobbies have big money!

2. Pasture Finished—means a
   producer can feed his animals a “grain-based diet” as long as animals have
   access to pasture.  The problem is
   that the USDA is allowing feedlots to open a gate from their feedlots into
   an adjacent “small” pasture to qualify as Pasture Finished.  This is funny and sick at the same
   time.  Feedlots manage thousands of
   head per day on a limited number of acres; i.e., 10-500 acres.  Most ranchers run 1 cow per 5 to 40
   acres to ensure that one animal has adequate grass to graze.  So, a feedlot with 10,000 head would
   need 400,000 acres to adequately provide for those animals.  450,000 acres is half the size of the
   average Texas County.  450,000 acres
   is 30 miles long and 15 miles wide. 
   Unfortunately, cattle are similar to humans.  They prefer sweet foods like grain and
   corn to grass.  They will spend the
   majority of their time at the feed trough and a minority of time eating
   grass…if there is grass to eat. 
   Fortunately, this requirement should provide a better housing and
   health environment for those animals but it will not improve the nutrition
   of their meat.  The original intent,
   of most of us small producers using the term Pasture Finished, was to
   define Pasture Finished to help consumers understand that cattle do not
   eat just grass.  While in a pasture,
   they eat a lot of different green forages: forbs, weeds, tree leaves,
   etc.  But, it needs to be
   “green”.  So, Holy Cow Beef is
   replacing all of its Pasture-Raised/Pasture-Finished language with
   Grass-Raised/Grass-Finished.

3. Grassfed—according to the
   USDA, means an animal must have “access” to grass and pasture during its
   life, and the animals must get the majority of its nutrients from
   grass.  The USDA does not define how
   much time or at what age these animals have this “access” to grass or
   pasture.  Nor will the USDA monitor
   ranches/feedlots 24/7 to verify how much time an animal spends eating
   grass vs. grains from feed troughs. 
   So, once again, big beef industry will open a gate from their
   feedlots to an adjacent pasture to qualify as Grassfed.  Now, even more horrific, the USDA is
   allowing producers to implant animals with Growth Hormones and to doctor
   with Antibiotics and to feed medicated feeds and still qualify as
   Grassfed.  The USDA’s position is
   that the use of hormones and antibiotics has nothing “literally” to do with the “concept” of grassfed. 
   We, little guys, all argued (in person before the head of the
   USDA’s labeling committee) that the average consumer would be EXTREMELY
   CONFUSED by this labeling.  The “SPIRIT” of the Grassfed
   movement is to provide consumers with a healthier choice…who cares what is
   meant by “literally vs. figuratively”. 
   All I can say is that the big-beef industry easily won this
   labeling battle, and American consumers will be very confused by it.

4. Cloning—the USDA recently
   ruled that meat from cloned animals was safe for human consumption.  This means that the beef (all meats) you
   buy from your supermarket will
   not carry a label distinguishing that one cut was produced from a
   cloned animal while another cut was produced naturally.  This means you will never know where and
   how your beef was produced.  I’m
   sorry, but that is just not good enough for me.  I believe in eating only products that
   can reproduce themselves.  Cloned
   animals are infertile and cannot reproduce.  The Bible speaks of eating only foods
   that contain seeds and can reproduce. 
   That’s good enough for my family and me!

Holy Cow will continue to raise and produce the highest
quality grassfed beef possible.  Our beef
has all the nutrition God intended it to have…whatever the heck that is!  My family eats our beef and we thank you for
your support and patronage.

Weldon & Ann Warren

Holy Cow Beef

940-521-0595

[email protected]