"Grass-Fed" Means Fed With Grass, Not Raised on Pasture

The term "grass-fed" has been defined, and as of Nov. 15 shoppers will know what it means when they purchase meat with that label.

"Grass-fed" can be put on any meat that comes from an animal raised exclusively on grass and hay after being weaned, as long as the animal has access to pasture during the growing season.

The term does not, however, mean the animal was raised exclusively in unconfined pasture -- which many who sell pasture-raised animals had wanted, according to the New York Times. Nor does it mean that the animal has been raised without the use of antibiotics and hormones.

Grass-fed meat tends to have distinctive flavor, based on the types of grasses eaten, and ethical eaters prefer it because it is a more natural diet.

The naturalness of the animal's experience prior to slaughter, as far as the "grass-fed" term goes, stops at the diet. Advocates had hoped for more, having come to see the term "grass-fed" as a definition of an overall more natural way of raising animals.

As meat production has become industrialized, cattle have been typically fed grains that evolution didn't prepare them for, but which -- along with hormones -- makes them grow faster and bigger. They have been kept in confined spaces to increase the meat output per acre and given antibiotics to ward of diseases that would otherwise run rampant in the unnaturally confined conditions.

The definition of the label came about after five years of discussion, and represents the first time the term has any legal definition, according to the Times. Until Nov. 15, when the rule goes into effect, anyone can label meat with that term, using their own definitions.

The American Grassfed Association, which advocated for a more holistic definition of "grass-fed," has vowed to establish its own labeling system, according to the Times.

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