Allen County, Ohio--Welcome to Monsanto Country

Attempting to find locally grown organic foods here where I currently live in Allen County, Ohio has been quite difficult. Being a farming community, I would have assumed that there would be lots of local farmers offering up their organic fresh fruits and vegetables, but no such luck. The one small farmer's market that exists here does not offer organic foods, and the larger farmer's market that used to exist in downtown Lima shut down a few years ago. With pun fully intended, my search for organic produce here was less than fruitful.

Next, I began searching for organic meat. If you go to a grocer here in Allen county and ask for organic raised beef, you are going to be looked at as if you just landed from Mars. Calling local butchers and inquiring about it received extremely rude responses that did not even come with a goodbye. This was even worse than the search for produce, and by the end of it, I truly felt as though I DID fall off of another planet, and was surrounded not by people, but by sheep.

My search ended at Meijer, where I found an organic alternative offered to almost everything in stock, at reasonable prices. I was thrilled! It felt like health heaven as I perused the aisles, gathering up everything from fresh and frozen organic fruits and veggies to organic milk and eggs, breads, cereal, even cottage cheese and coffee creamer. I was saddened by the fact that being in a farming community, nothing organic being sold was locally grown, but at least I found something!

Next, I went to check out the meat. All of the Meijer chicken and pork touted all-natural labels that actually meant it, stating that the chickens were never given growth hormones or steroids, and were fed an all-natural vegetarian diet. I meandered over to the butcher counter, and this is where I found Naturewell beef.

Naturewell beef, while not to be confused as organic, is better than the general beef supply found in your local grocery store. Here are a few facts about Naturewell from their website:

Routinely tested
At Naturewell® we routinely test our beef to ensure our promise of no antibiotics or added hormones. Our certified feeding facilities are regularly monitored and audited by National Beef® representatives and third party auditors, and we require our ranchers to sign affidavits to confirm their compliance with all aspects of the Naturewell program.


USDA Inspected
All Naturewell Natural Beef is processed through our USDA-inspected, state-of-the-art, National Beef processing plants. The tests, quality checks, and comprehensive processes are just part of the demanding list of criteria that make our approach to offering natural beef unique – in fact, no other natural beef is certified in using this procedure.

Frequently Asked Questions

For those of us on specialized diets, what does “minimally processed” and “no artificial ingredients” really mean?

Natural for fresh meat products, as defined by the USDA, refers to “minimally processed and containing no artificial ingredients.” In order to meet this definition, companies may only use traditional processes to make the food edible, preserve it or make it safe. Additionally, any physical processes used cannot fundamentally alter the raw product beyond separating the whole food into component parts or traditional forms. A good example of this is ground beef.
Naturewell® products not only meet these requirements, they exceed them – absolutely no chemicals, “natural additives” or water is added to the meat during processing. Additionally, our cattle are fed a natural diet without added hormones or antibiotics, and the product is tested to ensure it delivers 100% natural beef every time.

What is the diet of the cattle before becoming part of the Naturewell program?

Birth to weaning - cattle will graze on native pasture grasses along with their mother’s milk.

Backgrounding - cattle may be backgrounded after weaning to allow them to develop prior to entering the finishing phase. This diet is traditionally a grass pasture diet or a low-energy, grain based diet supplemented with grass, haylage or silage.

Finishing – usually begins when the cattle reach about 800 lbs. The cattle typically receive a high-energy, corn or grain based diet supplemented with roughage, usually ground grass hay.

Here is where my bubble is burst. A large part of the problem with the food industry is that they feed our livestock supply with the wrong kinds of food, corn being the worst of all. The majority of corn used to feed our cattle is a genetically modified organism (GMO), which is far from natural. While the website doesn't state that the corn is genetically modified, it doesn't state that it isn't either, and any company promoting a natural product would jump on the opportunity to say so if that were the case. Beyond the corn most likely being GMO (which supports Monsanto), the other problem is that COWS DON'T EAT CORN!!

That is right, cows are not made to eat corn, period. Not as a full diet, not as part of a diet, not at all. There are strains of e coli in existence today that would not exist at all if cows weren't fed corn. Cows are designed to eat grasses and flowers found in pastures. While Naturewell is a sufficient alternative at the moment (because there is absolutely no other available to the sheep...er, um people here), it is still not satisfactory. It appears to be somewhat better, because the cattle are not fed corn throughout their entire lives the way that the majority of cattle in the food industry are, but it really isn't. Feeding a cow corn is just that, an unnatural feeding method that alters the waste of the animal, causing the odds of the animal to be exposed to dangerous strains of e coli (and causing us to be exposed to the still unknown effects of genetically modified foods) to significantly increase.

While Meijer has a decent selection, comparison to Walmart proved to be quite interesting. Wally World is attempting to jump on the "all-natural" bandwagon, and is failing miserably. While all of the labeling on their beef and other meats state "all-natural", nowhere on the label does it say that they are antibiotic or hormone free. This leaves one to realize that Walmart's shady definition of "all-natural" means that the product came from a live animal, and that is it. Duh. Thanks, Wally World, but you've been seen through.

One can only hope that I can get to Georgia as quickly as possible, and then and only then will I be able to truly begin my journey to real food, by doing my own gardening and exchanging with a people that knows how people are supposed to eat.

Until next time from Georgia, take care and eat right.

Copyright © 2011 Anita Brown