TIME.com: The Grass-Fed Revolution -- Jun. 12, 2006 -- Page 1

TIME.com: The Grass-Fed Revolution -- Jun. 12, 2006 -- Page 1: "The Grass-Fed Revolution
Beef raised wholly on pasture, rather than grain-fed in feedlots, may be better for your health--and for the planet
By MARGOT ROOSEVELT/ GRANDVIEW
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Posted Sunday, Jun 11, 2006
Until he saw the light, Jon Taggart--6 ft. 5 in., jeans, white cowboy hat, Texas twang--was a rancher like any other in the southern Great Plains. He crowded his cattle onto pasture sprayed with weed killers and fertilizers. When they were half grown, he shipped them in diesel-fueled trucks to huge feedlots. There they were stuffed with corn and soy--pesticide treated, of course--and implanted with synthetic hormones to make them grow faster. To prevent disease, they were given antibiotics. They were trucked again to slaughterhouses, butchered and shrink-wrapped for far-flung supermarkets. 'It was the chemical solution to everything,' Taggart recalls.

Today his 500 steers stay home on the range. And they're in the forefront of a back-to-the-future movement: 100% grass-fed beef. In the seven years since Taggart began to 'pay attention to Mother Nature,' as he puts it, he has restored his 1,350 acres in Grandview, Texas, to native tallgrass prairie, thus eliminating the need for irrigation and chemicals. He rotates his cattle every few days among different fields to allow the grass to reach its nutritional peak. And when the steers have gained enough weight, he has them slaughtered just down the road. Finally, he and his wife Wendy dry-age and butcher the meat in their store, Burgundy Boucherie. Twice weekly, they deliver it to customers in Fort Worth and Dallas happy to pay a premium for what the Taggarts call 'beef with integrity--straight from pasture to dinner plate.'"