quote:

Originally posted by michaelgemmell

Tiki, what do you think of buying ground chuck from a local small grocer with a meat department that grinds it themselves onsite? All their meats are some of the best in the city, and their ground chuck tastes MUCH better than what you buy at Safeway et al.

Michael:

Taste is irrelevent here. What matters is can you be sure the cows from which the meat came have NEVER been fed with feed containing byproducts or meat from other ruminate animals (like cows) and/or can you be certain NO nervous system tissue found its way into the meat. I’m guessing you are getting Niman Ranch beef or something like it. I don’t know what they feed their cows, do you? But possibly more importantly, sometimes even the best producers do not raise all their cattle themselves–they buy young cattle from sources as far away as Canada, then raise them on their ranch. It thus becomes a question what those cattle were fed before being purchased by the source you trust. And I still say we could all rest a lot easier if every cow was tested before the meat was released for human or animal consumption.