Why we do it

Sometimes you come across a person who asks why we do this?  I guess it is a straight forward question the person is asking hoping to hear a passionate answer of how we love the land and we want to get away from factory farming and give back to society instead of taking away from it.  Sometimes I wonder if the person has done their research and knows that a lot of people are now doing the same thing hoping to cash in on the market trend of locally grown and wants to hear it is just for the money like a lot of other folks.  Let's be honest, everyone needs to make a living or no one would be doing this.  We have bills too, but our focus really does run deeper and a little more personal.  A few years ago, I was working what seemed like days and nights with the cattle making sure they had everything they needed and their health was in tip-top shape and it occurred to me that I didn't really look after my own health as well as these guys.  So I scheduled a physical with my doctor and everything was going fine until he called me back a week or two later with the results of my blood work and told me my triglycerides were really high.  Being at the ripe old age of 30, I asked what is a triglyceride?  My doctor then preceeded to tell me that it was likely caused by eating to many fatty foods and that I looked in great health but this could cause a major problem when I got into my 40's.  I thought to myself of how I always have tried to eat healthy but I had let my diet slip in the past year or two with slipping into the comfortable zone of just going and grabbing a chili dog or two and going back to work and that this wasn't that big of deal.  No problem easy fix.  I then asked doc the million dollar question of where my levels should be.  "At your age you should be at 120" he said.  "Well, where am I on the chart" I countered wondering why there was a pause in his statement.  "Well, you are at 600".  Hold the horses those chili dogs did a whooper!!!  I don't know a lot about this but already I realize that 600 isn't close to 120.  Doc then starts into how he can prescribe some meds and bring it down and so on and so on.  "Whoa, let's first try a few things like most importantly changing my diet and adding some more exercise and let's retest in a few months to see if anything has changed then I will do the meds if it hasn't" I begged.  "Plus I'm pretty sure I had a chili dog right before I came in to take the blood work so that might have spiked the results." I don't know about you but I really don't like medicine especially the ones that looks like you will be on forever so I will do just about anything to get away from that.  Anyway, after some diet changes and a little exercise my levels were back to normal but it got me thinking.  Here I am trying to stay healthy and this happened to me, imagine what all the other people that eat out everyday are going through.  This grass-fed beef didn't just start as a way to make money but it came about as a mission to help people.  That's what we want to do, provide a great product that helps you at your basic self.  If God came down tomorrow and took away everything in your life, you would first be looking for food and water.  As a people we can do without a lot of things but we can't get away from the basics of life.  We can't help you with the water or the shelter but we are trying to help you with your food.  

by Lanis Adams