Is Organic Woth it? Comparing Meat Quality

Posted on March 13, 2009 by goblazers

Title:

The Performance and meat quality of Bonsmara steers raised in a feedlot, on conventional pastures or on organic pastures. (2008.)

Summary:

In their 2008 edition, The South African Journal of Animal Sciences published a study by J. Esterhuizen, I.B. Groenewald, P.E. Strydom and A. Hugo documenting the effects of raising steers in feedlots under conventional methods verses using organic practices to raise the animals.

Topic: Sustainable Agriculture

Category: Academic Research

What is it? This is an article out of the South African Journal of Animal Science

Publication Information:

The Performance and meat quality of Bonsmara steers raised in a feedlot, on conventional pastures or on organic pastures. 2008, 38(4)

Published in 2008 by SASAS

Abstract : http://www.sabinet.co.za/abstracts/sajas/sajas_v38_n4_a5.htmlAuthors:

J. Esterhuizen, I.B. Groenewald, P.E. Strydom and A. Hugo

Location:

http://www.ajol.info/viewarticle.php?jid=21&id=36244&layout=abstract

Support:

Quality of organic animal products. Livest. Prod. Sci. 80, 33-40.

Kouba, M., 2003. : Scientist

National Beef Tenderness Survey. J. Anim. Sci. 69, 3274-3283.

Morgan, J.B., Savell, J.W., Hale, D.S., Miller, R.K., Griffin, D.B., Cross, H.R. & Shackelford, S.D., : Agriculture Scientists

Effects of production system intensity on performance, carcass compositionand meat quality of beef cattle.Livest. Prod. Sci. 56, 203-214

Keane, M.G. & Allen, P., 1998. : Agriculture Scientists

J. Esterhuizen, I.B. Groenewald, P.E. Strydom and A. Hugo : Bio-Chemists

These sources collaborated to conduct a comprehensive experiment, comparing the effects of different living conditions and feeding routines on Bonsmara steers. Kuaba’s article about organic animal food helped the researchers choose what kind of organic food to feed the steers. Morgan and Keane’s articles about beef tenderness informed the researchers of what the normal meat tenderness levels, pre and and post death, are in healthy and unhealthy animals.

Audiences and Agenda:

The South African Journal of Animal Sciences is a scholarly, peer reviewed journal that was founded in 1961. This journal is an association of animal scientists who” practice and report on animal agriculture and sciences.”(sasas) The SASAS puts on work shops and seminars to inform and educate local farmers about animal health and safety. Due to obscurity of this publication, i was unable to find the exact number of readership or hits on their website.

Usefulness:

This article was created to draw a clearer picture to how exactly organic practices effect livestock value and meat quality. This source was made to be read by farmers and agricultural scientists interested in how to estimate the value of incorporating sustainable and organic practices to their farms and ranches. The researchers make the conclusion that organically raised animals(steers) have no more value than conventionally grown livestock. The organically grown animals were sold for more, not because they were bigger and better tasting, but only because he consumer would only eat organic meat. If the consumer would not have known that the animals were raised organically, they would not have purchased the livestock. The appeal of “organic” was the only thing that added value to the animal. What this article left out was the environmental advantages to raising an animal sustainably. They focused only on the animal and not how the surrounding ecosystem benefitted from the organic practices. Many of the conclusions made by these researchers fell in direct opposition to stances taken in the agricultural film The Meatrix (2006).

Works Cited:

Farmland Information Center (FIC)