by guest blogger Marilyn Noble, Communications Director, American Grassfed Association

Grass-fed meats are showing up everywhere—in grocery stores, at farmer’s markets, and on the menus of burger joints and fine dining restaurants. Why? Because, compared to grain-fed, the meat is healthier for people (it has a more nutritious fat profile and more vitamins and minerals), is healthier for the environment, and has a more delicious flavor profile. There’s also the issue of humane treatment: Grass-fed animals living on open pasture almost always enjoy a better life than their grain-fed counterparts who spend the last months of their lives confined to feedlots.

In the old days, you could pay a visit to the meat counter in your locally owned grocery store or butcher shop and ask the butcher anything you wanted to know about the meat you were considering for dinner that night—how to cook it, where the cut originated on the animal, and which of your neighboring farms raised the meat. Those days came to an end with the advent of chain grocery stores, commodity farming, and Styrofoam packaging. But that’s changing, especially in large urban centers. [READ MORE]

On January 3, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) issued a notice that it is accepting proposals for new projects under the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI).  Proposals are due March 19, 2012.

Under the MRBI, NRCS provides financial assistance to farmers in areas covered by MRBI projects who undertake conservation practices specified by a project’s sponsors.  Most of the NRCS funding is provided through NRCS conservation programs.

For the new MRBI projects, NRCS is providing financial assistance to farmers of up to $11.74 million in FY2012 funding under the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) and $25 million in funding from the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP).  The CCPI, in turn, draws its funding from the three major working lands conservation programs – Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Stewardship Program, and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program.

Additional information on the MRBI is available on the NRCS webpage for the Initiative.

[Read more]

McDowell County is now the home of the first community-administered, non-profit meat processing plant in the United States that is also USDA inspected. This new facility should also help small-scale meat growers expand their operations and get their products out to more consumers.

The Foothills Pilot Plant is open for fully-inspected poultry and rabbit processing as of this week. Located at 135 Ag Services Drive off of N.C. 226 South, the plant is a collaboration of state and local governments, small-scale meat producers and grant-making agencies. It is operated under joint authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Aministration to provide “regional growers with the opportunity to market their meat products to a broader consumer base.”  [Read more]