Grassfed beef at Walmart?

asoeung

Has anyone seen the new grass-fed beef they carry at Walmart? I live about 10 miles from the Walmart corporate office, so sometimes my Walmart gets different "pilot" products that others around the area don't get. I think the brand is "Jones Creek" or something like that. I was a little skeptical thinking maybe they were only "grass-finished". but I read the label and it said "grass-fed" and "grass-finished".
I would much rather buy my beef from local farmers, but our farmer's market will be shutting down for the winter here in a few weeks, so it's nice to know that there is another option, along with the convenience factor.

Has anyone else seen this at your store yet?

renkatrun

What is grass finished?

3lilkids

Hope they bring it out elsewhere, haven't seen it yet. Thanks for the heads up! :happy:

mehaugen

I used to buy grass fed and finished ground beef at H-E-B until I tried some direct from farms (a local farm, TX Organics, and US Wellness). I thought the stuff from H-E-B had no taste at all compared to them, so I don't expect the stuff from Walmart to taste very good at all.

Then again, it IS nice to have options when traveling and visiting others. Please let me know what you think of the taste if you can compare it to another brand.

This really surprises me, I thought Walmart was ditching the whole "upcale" thing in favor of their original, low cost mainstream junk model.

mantisladyx

Where is your Walmart? I don't have any near me.....nobody carries meat around here except for some frozen things, but I will have to check next time I go to a Super Walmart

asoeung

My husband made burgers out of the ground beef last night, and they tasted great! However, I do have to note that we made the 50/50 bacon burgers from the Paleo Parents (Eat Like a Dinosaur) - so I could have been tasting all the bacon. I also got a sirloin steak, which I plan to cook in the next few days which should be a better indicator of the quality. My husband did note that the ground beef was very lean when he was trying to make the patties.

My Walmart is in Rogers, Arkansas - just down the road from Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, AR!

asoeung

Oh, and Rinkatrun - I'm not an expert, but I believe "finishing" on a cow means whatever they ate the last few weeks/months before slaughter? So, sometimes cows can eat grains their entire lives and then the farmers "finish" them on grass- so I read where you should watch for beef that ONLY says "grass-finished"- it probably means they ate grains for most of their life. But, this beef I saw said both "Grass-fed" and "grass-finished", so I took that to mean they have only eaten grass their entire life.

monkeydharma

But - knowing WalMart, the grass was probably growing over a toxic waste dump....

Danied13

Grass fed beef doesn't necessarily mean that the animal has only eaten grass all its life...only that it has eaten it at some point. The cow could still be given grains to be fattened before slaughter. On the other hand, grass finished beef means the cow has naturally grown to a point where it will naturally put on fat from a diet of grass.

monkeydharma

I buy my beef from a neighbor who raises the cow and has it slaughtered for me. This is his explanation (which was verified by a store in Napa that sells 'grass fed' beef)...

Most beef that is grass-fed are allowed to graze for most of their life - but during the last 4-6 weeks, they are fed corn for two main reasons: to bring them up to a better selling weight, and because most people have been raised to prefer the taste of corn-fed beef.

This is why you want to see both 'grass fed' and 'grass finished' on the package - if it doesn't say 'grass-finished', it may have been (and probably was) grain-finished before slaughtering.

Now, is this such a bad thing? According to Mark Sisson at marksdailyapple.com, not so bad. While grain-finishing does add fat - and that fat is higher in omega6s, the bottom line is that most of the fat was put on the cow during the grass-fed era. So, while the beef may be slightly higher in omega6, it is a lot closer to a pure grass-fed cow than to its feedlot cousin.

So - if Walmart is selling grass-fed/grass-finished beef, that's a very GOOD thing. Unless they are shipping it in from Argentina, in which case I say 'buy locally' - for a better ecological footprint.

asoeung

The grass-fed beef I found at Walmart was from Jones Creek Farms, which I just looked up their website http://www.jonescreekbeef.com/

They are located in Utah! Not exactly local for me, but they do say their beef is "all grass, all the time" according to their FAQ. While I will still continue to buy from my local guy whenever possible, I'm not going to lie and say that I don't like having this convenient option.

monkeydharma

Utah's better than Argentina! I looked at the website, and it seems spot on.

Personally, I don't do business with Walmart if I possibly can help it, but others may not have that luxury. If the local WM starts carrying it, I may drop in and see how the prices stack up to what my friend charges me. I might be able to use WM to leverage a lower price!

MamaDee2

I have not seen any at our local WM but did notice that have "Heartland" brand chicken and turkey. Package says, hormone free, organic, pasture, cage free. That was good to see!

wellbert

Walmarts steak is frightening for so very many reasons. It's totally the wrong color, it's glued together from other bits of steak, and it's cut way too thin. So I've steered clear of their meat section.

I'll have to peek at the new stuff. I guess.

landofazure

I know it's been a while, but the company that Walmart is using is from Utah and is called Jones Creek Beef 100% grass fed, grass finished.....sounds promising. I am going to check it out and hope they have it. I am also going to check out to see if they carry pastured pork....I am just glad I found this and a few other blogs about it. I live in the middle of no where and finding good produce and meats has become difficult....kinda miss the city now lol