But he says the focus should not be on competition between sectors within the beef industry, but rather promoting the health benefits of red meat to the wider community.

“I do have a bias towards grainfed, because our data keeps saying the same thing, that if you eat a constant fat level that grainfed gives you a better health profile, but grassfed isn’t bad for you either,” he said.

Dr. Smith is a regents professor of meat science at the Texas A&M University in the US, and is visiting Australia to address several events hosted by Marcus Oldham University.

He told a business luncheon in Melbourne last week about the benefits of beef with high oleic acid, of which grainfed beef has higher levels.

“One of the reasons I started doing this research is you have a beef cattle industry that is under attack anyway — by vegans, by PETA — and here they are fighting in amongst themselves saying grassfed is better than grainfed,” he said.

“I try to temper what I say with grassfed isn’t bad for you either, and grainfed isn’t bad for you, the industry shouldn’t be fighting themselves when the enemy is at the gates.”

Dr Smith said while grassfed may be aiming for a bigger market share, down the road it would mean the industry as a whole would lose.

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via source The Weekly Times, Australia  |  Grainfed v grassfed: End the beef biffo, says prof

For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Tucker at maggie.tucker@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.