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A Conversation with Del Holzer of Meyer Natural Angus

When I sat down at Maxwell & Dunne’s to interview executive chef Chris Palmer about steaks, all he wanted to talk about was his recent trip to a cattle ranch in Montana. Located in the Blackfoot Valley of western Montana, the Meyer Ranch sits on 43,000 acres of western beauty, and was where the company’s start in raising Angus cattle began. The protocol owner Robert Meyer started—and continues today, with more than 200 cattle ranchers—is now the standard for raising all-natural beef. After eating a porterhouse of Meyer’s Angus with chef Chris at Maxwell & Dunne’s, I had to find out why this meat made for some of the tastiest steak I have ever had. I called Meyer’s to ask some questions and encountered Del Holzer, upon his return from the ranch:

Del, why are your steaks better than the rest?

We originally set out to consistently provide the best-tasting beef. A simple statement that is complicated by the word “consistently.” Many beef programs produced in a traditional commodity beef environment search for high-quality beef and therefore it is a byproduct of the process and not the driving direction. They will, on occasion, provide a very good eating experience. In the foodservice business, “occasionally” is not preferred. Chefs have been asking for years, “Why can’t I get the same steak every time and why can’t it be a great eating experience?” We heard the chef and have been working to address that need.

What do you do differently on the ranch, then?

We use a much different approach than our huge contemporaries use to provide high quality beef. We do not hope to find quality in the beef plant. We bring the quality in the door. We are convinced that the only way to consistently deliver incredible beef is to invest and manage before the processing plant. We must control what happens to the animal from birth to plate to be certain the quality and consistency the chef demands will always be there. That is clearly the only way to do it.

What kind of cattle do you raise?

Only Angus cattle—real Angus cattle. Our competitors determine Angus simply if the animal’s hide is 51% black. We must have documentation of the Angus breed. This is a huge difference!

What should the canvas reader look for when they go steak shopping?

No hormones, no antibiotics at anytime. The added water weight (which runs out when cooked) and scientifically documented impact on tenderness (all suppliers of the products clearly state that tougher beef will be a result of using growth stimulants) are clearly not going to provide a better eating experience and, quite frankly, are not needed. They should also look for cattle fed on a vegetarian diet. That means no animal-based feeds are allowed at any time. It just makes sense.

What about labeling? How can you tell the animals are treated conscientiously?

You want meat that is Certified Humane. We are the only natural angus company you will find that has the commitment to be involved with a 3rd party to provide transparency to our process (unheard of), guidelines to follow, and ongoing audits to our execution of the plan. We have already proven since being Certified Humane since 2002 that our commitment to humane treatment of the animals has a big impact on consistency and overall quality. It just makes good business sense and is good ol’ common sense at the same time.

• Learn more about the humane process at certifiedhumane.org
• Learn more about Meyers at meyernaturalangus.com
• Eat their steaks at Maxwell & Dunne’s, mdsteakhouse.com

—Chris O’Hara, canvas Tasting Notes columnist

We have all heard of solar thermal water heaters by now, I hope. The system whereby liquid is heated inside black boxes on your roof and pumped into a heat exchanger and used to heat hot water in a tank. These solar thermal systems can also be used to heat radiant floors.

But how many people know that this kind of system can also power an HVAC system as well? Incredibly, they do, as evacuated tube solar thermal panels can be coupled with absorption chiller technology to heat and cool your house.

A company called SolarPanelsPlus has taken the two tried and tested technologies of solar thermal and absorption chiller and combined them to make an affordable, efficient, no-fossil-fuel burning HVAC.

One drawback is this type of solar thermal system will not work at night even with battery backup, so you will probably keep your other HVAC unit as a backup. But the energy savings are huge, and even on cloudy winter days this system can take enough sunlight and make heating and cooling power out of it.

This is definitely something to consider if you want to retrofit a new HVAC that will let you almost completely stop using your other fuel-burning system and begin using the free power from the sun.

Evacuated solar tube powered HVAC units by SolarPanelsPlus run on little electrical energy, and as with other appliances that run on electric, this can be offset by incorporating some solar PV.

This system does not use ozone-depleting refrigerants, and uses Lithium Bromide. This innovative HVAC option can also be set up to desalinate or distill drinking water.

—Paul McGinniss, canvas Healthy Home columnist

While you feel like you are getting fleeced every time you fill your car’s tank, you could console yourself with the fact that gasoline is still one of the cheapest liquids you can buy. The average price for a gallon of regular in the U.S. last month was $4.34. You will pay more for a gallon of spring water (over $6). Other common liquids that are more expensive include milk, beer, and the cheapest wine. Though, of course, you can’t drink gasoline.

You may also take solace in the fact that gasoline is more than twice as expensive in Europe. In Germany, which is home to such non-fuel-efficient cars as Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW, a gallon of gas now costs an average of $9.27. It tops $10 a gallon in the Netherlands, home of Shell oil. On the other hand, it costs less than a quarter in Venezuela and only 33 cents a gallon in Iran. In Saudi Arabia, gasoline is now up to 45 cents a gallon (from 39 cents last year). (See eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gas1.html and money.cnn.com/2007/05/04/news/economy/gas_demand/index.htm)

Bio fuel (alcohol) alternatives such as ethanol made from corn are no longer so intoxicating, as the price of corn has tripled due to increased demand, resulting in higher food prices. What a relative few are saving at the pump, we are all making up for at the supermarket checkout. And ethanol is still a 90% gasoline cocktail.

The one true success story thus far is Brazil, which is using sugar cane to make ethanol instead of rum. Because more than 90% of their cars are flex-fuel, Brazil has now achieved independence from imported oil, and is anticipating exporting up to 3 billion liters of ethanol to the U.S. by next year.

Congress can help us save even more by lowering the current 54 cents a gallon tariff it imposes. Of course, we are still relying on imports, because our own domestic supply of sugar cane is being reduced dramatically. Florida is paying $1.75 billion dollars for 187,000 acres of sugar cane to restore it to swamp land as part of the revitalization of the Everglades. This will put the nation’s largest possible producer of sugar cane out of business.

We can produce more oil at home by opening up our reserves, but that is not the solution either. If the current United States proven oil reserve of 15 billion barrels had to supply our entire demand of 21 million barrels per day without resorting to foreign imports, it would last only three years. Saudi Arabia, however, has proven reserves of over 260 billion barrels and Russia may have even more, so oil and gas will continue to dominate as the world’s main sources of energy for decades, as long as we can afford to pay for it.

We need start now to convert our domestic fleet to a combination of hybrid, electric, and hydrogen-powered vehicles to reduce our need for foreign oil. We also have to increase generating electricity with solar and wind (until those fusion reactors that burn water become a reality) so we are not simply trading oil for coal. While coal has the advantage of being plentiful and domestic, it is even more costly to our environment. We need to save both our wallets and the planet before the price gets too high.

—Bryan Canniff, canvas Green Machines columnist

“USDA REPORT INDICATES THAT ORGANIC LABELING FRAUD IS INCREASING”

This is the headline I received in an email today from the Organic Consumers Association.

All that went through my mind when I read it was…”No @#$% Sherlock!”

The article’s first paragraph says “15 of the 30 accredited organic certifiers they recently inspected failed the USDA audit”

I’ve posted about it before and many better than me, including one of our writers, have written about greenwashing. Now it’s organic labeling fraud.

I’m not surprised - Nor should anyone else be.

In the spirit of making a buck what’s a little fraud among friends.

My business partner, Matt, and I have talked numerous times about this label and how we look forward to the day we don’t need it anymore.

Why don’t we need it? Well essentially it’s a label to say this food is free of crap, right?

I know I don’t what to eat crap and I’m sure no one else does, so if we just eliminate the crap in our food we wouldn’t need the label anymore.

It’s funny a few months back we were in a conversation with a Wine Distributor who told us when he was in Argentina on business he asked one of the Vintners about if they had “certified organic” wines.

He said the gentleman not only got insulted, but went of for hours about the love and care that goes into making his wine. Exclaiming why would he need this label, when he knows what he does and does not use in his vineyard.

I guess he hasn’t met the others who are not in his vain. Wouldn’t it be great if we all got a multi hour lecture whenever we asked someone about the quality of their product.

It would make the FDA’s job a lot easier. It would simplify the labeling of products. Just think labels would actually have information we can all easily read.

If you’d like to learn more about the fraudulent labeling click here

Tom Pellicane - Publisher, canvas Magazine

This headline…

“Uprising Against the Ethanol Mandate”

…in today’s New York Times grabbed my attention while I waited at Faz’s Tex Mex here in Huntington to pick up my lunch. It said rising food prices due to crops grown going toward the production of Ethanol prompted the Gov. of Texas asking that Federal Ethanol Mandates be changed to ease this problem.

Of course there are arguments being made pro and con. I don’t know his true motivation since accusations have already been made about his reasons for wanting this. I must say after reading a few articles in the past I’m on the pro change side.

I also can’t figure out how we continually get to this point.

Let’s see, in Algebra I learned X + Y = Z.

So follow my simple corn math equation

If we have X (Land in Acres) + Y (Crop Yield per Acre) = Z (Total Crops Yielded) then what is so hard to figure out?

If Z (Total Crops Yielded) was going to market as a food source and now some of it is going to Ethanol Production there has to be an increase in either X (Land In Acres) or Y (Crop Yield per Acre) to keep food prices constant.

Isn’t that what I learned in Economics - Supply & Demand?

That said, supply to the food market is now down, food market demand is constant or up – so guess what, that usually equals higher prices.

Since I’m new to Ethanol Production and Farming game, maybe I’m missing something. Or maybe those who fought for the mandates, while I’m sure well intentioned, forgot to do this math equation before fighting for it.

As a society it might be helpful to go back to basics; using simple Math, Language and Reasoning skills as a way to develop our strategies.

Here are a few easy ones for us to try out…
Treat people fairly – good reasoning
Tell the truth – good reasoning
Total dependence on one finite energy source – bad reasoning
Taking food from someone’s mouth to fill a gas tank – bad reasoning

I think our Politicos can use our help, so feel free to send you elected officials some reasoning exercises you thing would be helpful for them work on.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine