Having a farm that is managed to protect environmental values provides foods that are better for you, too. This is especially true of animal products (meat, eggs and dairy) that are produced using intensive grazing methods, which protect and improve the fertility of the soil. Grassfed meats are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to provide significant health benefits. For more information on this topic, go to http://www.eatwild.com (Home of the book Why Grassfed is Best by Jo Robinson).

Why is your grassfed product better?

- lower fat
- more omega-3 fatty acids
- higher amounts of CLA (more info can be found here)
- higher carotene

Nutritional analyses can show these differences.

Total fat and calories per serving

Individual fatty acids (click here to find out what the numbers mean):

14:0   myristic
16:0   palmitic
18:0   stearic
18:1   oleic
18:1 11-trans TVA trans-vaccenic acid
18:2   linoleic   omega-6
18:2   CLA   conjugated linoleic acid
18:3   alpha-linolenic   omega-3
18:4   stearidonic   omega-3
20:4   AA   arachidonic   omega-6
20:5   EPA   eicosapentanoic   omega-3
22:6   DHA   docosahexaenoic   omega-6

Method:   The fatty acids are extracted from the sample, chemically modified, and determined by gas chromatography. The result is a fatty acid profile which includes the fatty acids above and lists the amount as a percentage of the total fat.

Vitamins

beta-carotene
retinol
vitamin E

Method: Vitamins are generally determined individually and reported in mass or activity units.

Labs

If you are interested in testing your food products for its fatty acid or vitamin content, the following labs can do this testing for you. We will be updating this list over time, so if you have the contact information on another laboratory (or if you are a lab and want to be listed here), please e-mail us at doug@iere.org.

Please note that we have not verified the quality of the analyses available at these laboratories, so caveat emptor. The analsis of CLA and TVA are not routine for most laboratories. If you have questions about CLA, you can contact Dr. Tilak R. Dhiman, who studies CLA at Utah State University, by e-mail at trdhiman@cc.usu.edu or phone (435) 797-2155.

Covance Labs
Madison, WI
(608)241-7416
E-mail: Bob Pesselman

Food Products Laboratory, Inc.
http://www.fplabs.com/
http://www.fplabs.com/nutritional.htm

Medallion Labs
http://www.medlabs.com/
http://www.medlabs.com/lipid.htm - see "Fatty Acid Profile"
Info@Medlabs.com

Michelson Laboratories, Inc.
http://www.michelsonlab.com/frame.htm

Silliker Laboratories
http://silliker.com/ft_cnslt.htm
info@silliker.com

Woodson-Tenent Laboratories
http://www.wtlabs.com/
sales@wtlabs.com