Are there any differences between organic and non-organic beef production?
There are significant differences between organic and non-organic meat production. To begin with, there is an absolute ban on the feeding of mammalian and poultry slaughter by-products to organic mammals and poultry. This contrasts with non-organic regulations, which still allow the feeding of cattle and other slaughter by-products to cattle and other livestock. The FDA banned the feeding of cattle brain and spinal tissue to cattle in 1997, but they still allow the following materials to be fed to non-organic cattle: • Blood and blood products (from cattle and other species); • Gelatin (rendered from the hooves of cattle and other species; • Fats, oils, grease, and tallow (from cattle and other species); • Poultry and poultry by-products; • Rendered pork protein; • Rendered horse protein; • Poultry manure (which may include spilled feed containing rendered animal products); and • Human food wastes* (which may contain beef scraps). None of the items listed above may be fed to organic ca
