Why should we care if grass-fed beef is grown in America, anyway?

Why does buying from a local, American family farm matter? 

To be honest, I think about this question, and write about it, all the time. 

Usually, though, I’m focused on the small family farm part of it. But recently, I’ve been thinking more about why it matters that it’s local American farms, too. 

This has been caused by two recent events: the controversial import of 600+ million pounds of ground beef from overseas (which will be labeled “Product of the USA”), and a Butcher Box ad that I stumbled across a few days ago. 

The Butcher Box ad features the owner of the company conducting a pseudo-interview, where he addresses criticisms from the “haters” of the company. 

I’m not a “hater”, although I do have qualms with the company. But I was surprised by the criticism he chose to address - the fact that they don’t source any of the grass-fed and grass-finished beef in their boxes from the United States. 

To his credit, he admitted that was true. But here’s where it took a turn. He said he’d love to source pasture-raised, grass-fed and grass-finished beef from the United States - but it simply doesn’t exist. 

Those were his exact words: It just doesn't exist. 

Not I’d love to source it, but it’s usually grown on small farms. Not I’d love to source it, but they can’t meet the scale we’re selling at. Just: It simply doesn’t exist. 

I looked up from the ad, straight out my window, to the grass-fed and grass-finished cows that were grazing directly in front of our house. 

I was very irritated by that comment, not just because I was staring at the exact opposite. I was irritated not just because it’s a false - or at the very best, a hugely misleading - statement. 

No, I’m irritated because I think it’s a deeply harmful statement for everyone, farmers and people like you who try to source meat that’s more responsibly raised. 

In another ad, the Butcher Box founder tries to provide more context for why they source overseas. Once again, he speaks in generalizations: Animals in this country are treated terribly. Meat from overseas is better because it’s held to higher standards. 

I would question: what are those standards? Why can’t they, or why aren’t they, replicated in this country? 

And: is it truly that they aren’t replicated in this country? Or that you just can’t source beef that’s been raised this way at the price you’re looking for? 

He’s right in that many instances, in many industrial systems, animals are treated terribly. And the result is meat that has less nutrition and lower quality than you deserve. 

But the problem is that if we throw our hands up and say, Well, we can’t do it right in this country. Let’s just get it from another country! We actually make the problem worse. 

As I’ve written about before, growing food on a farm should never only be about the food itself. It should be about caring for the land, preserving wildlife and native species, and supporting the local community. The food that comes from that work is the gift, the reward for doing these things right. 

When we focus on growing food only, it no longer matters where it comes from. And if it can come from somewhere else, and we can say that it’s better anyway, then what’s the point of even farming here anymore? 

Why would a local economy matter? Why preserve farmland or rural spaces at all? Let’s just develop it, come up with more buildings and pave over everything. The wildlife and trees? They can worry about that somewhere else. Probably the country where they’re growing our food. 

Buying from a local American farm matters because it says: it matters how we grow food right here. It matters how we preserve land right here. It matters that we take care of our country while also feeding ourselves. 

Telling yourself - and others - it doesn’t exist is simply spreading a lie that makes you feel better about not investing in the work of making American farms, food, and land better. 

Our bottom line is never going to look like Butcher Box’s - and I don’t want it to, either. But we’ll have done the work of treating the land right, treating the animals, and proving that there’s a different way to farm and source food in this country. To me, that’s worth it.