Maybe I've been deluding myself, but I have this image of free-roaming buffalo in my head whenever I pick up ground bison or sirloin steaks... Judging from their website, they're just like any other factory-farmed meat (?).
Feel free to burst my bubble. I can get locally raised meat around here, and see no need to support just another big meat factory.
Don't know anything about that particular source, but just because meat is grain-finished doesn't mean it's factory farmed.
I thought I'd read somewhere that bison/buffalo will die if kept in close contact with each other...they "must" roam? and are less likely to be eating feed that includes corn and parts of other animals (yeeech...blech! I feel nauseous every time I hear that!) Okay...I read that bison eat grass, not corn. So, that leads me to believe that they must therefore keep moving to graze. Well, but cows eat grass, too; if they're penned up in a feed lot, though, I guess they eat whatever they are fed. Heh, well no matter how you look at it, it's probably better for everyone to just eat less red meat whether it's beef, pork, lamb or bison!
This answers (or provides more questions) concerning how Bison are raised: http://www.chow.com/stories/11016?page=2 (found it in the "Get to Know Bison" link under Stories/Blogs) :)
Thanks...on the rare (sorry for the pun) occasion that I DO want a hamburger, I've been buying bison...I will now need to make sure it's been grass-fed all the way. I'll need to investigate this even more. I just watched the Larry King show talking about "Should we eat meat?"...so many commercial interruptions made me turn the darn thing off but it was interesting discussion, though why in the world he had Tony Bourdain on as a guest was beyond me. He's a chef and I do like him, but come on...you're putting him with nutritionists? Seemed ridiculous!
"great range bison?" is that a brand? just get it from a farm that's up to your specs.
one other thing about free-range bison, is that they are much easier on the turf than cattle. whereas cattle will pull up grass and other forage by the roots, which can contribute to erosion and habitat destruction, bison bite off grasses, leaving the root systems intact-- so they are a very good sustainable graze animal (when free range). gosh, i hope that's vaguely on topic-- sorry if i'm way off.
no, soupkitten, that was quite enlightening. seriously :-)
great range is the name of a brand, available as ground bison and sirloin steaks at wegmans . i try to buy free-range / humanely raised meat as often as possible, so had been getting bison for burgers instead of beef.
i just wanted to make sure i'm not falling for 'teh organic hoax', and finally googled the company. while the bison are grass-fed, they are finished with grains, presumably in some type of a feedlot. the company's website isn't forthcoming about details -- which, if it were all happy bison grazing about green pastures, would be a selling point.
i guess i am going to assume that it's better to buy meat from a local farm than from a company that isn't bragging about how their cattle (or rather herd, in this case?) is raised and kept.
I have done a lot of research and just so you know, a lot of companies that sell bison finish their herd with grains and they still put grain free on the label because they are totally unscrupulous. Great Range Bison isn’t like that though and when I asked why they said the owner insists on total transparency.
That being said finishing bison with grains is in no way the same as a traditional cattle feedlot. It actually has a lot to do with time of the year (i.e. winter when grass isn’t really available). Bison absolutely can not survive a feed lot type of situation. It’s like I said to Val, they end up getting diseases and dying. I know it may sound a little hoakey but maybe Native Americans were on to something when they revered buffalo. It’s almost like nature refuses to allow us to treat bison the same way we treat cattle, chicken and other feedlot animals.
Buying local from people or farmers you trust is definitely a good option, but from everything I found out, Great Range Bison is still a good company to trust too. I mean if you think about it, they could have slapped the “grain free” label on their package just like their competitors do, but they won’t ever do that because of their integrity (even though it leads people to ask these kinds of questions)? That’s pretty unheard of these days. They were also super helpful when I called and answered all my questions.
I've been buying Bison from Costco for a long time. But recently it tasted like organ meat.
That's disgusting to me . And from what I'm reading it's because they are leaving too much blood in it to up the weight.
But normally bison is wonderful meat.
Great Range Bison should rethink their greedy ways!!!!
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