Health-Promoting Phytonutrients Are Higher in Grassfed Meat and Milk

Many people these days are concerned about the effects on human health of consuming red meat. However, the impacts on consumer health of how livestock are raised and finished are generally ignored. A review study published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems demonstrates the importance of method in raising livestock.

Meat and milk, irrespective of rearing practices, provide many essential nutrients, including bioavailable protein, zinc, iron, selenium, calcium and/or B₁₂. Emerging data indicate that when livestock are eating a diverse array of plants on pasture, additional health-promoting phytonutrients — terpenoids, phenols, carotenoids and antioxidants — become concentrated in their meat and milk. Several phytochemicals found in grassfed meat and milk are in quantities comparable to those found in plant foods known to have anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and cardioprotective effects. 

As meat and milk are often not considered sources of phytochemicals, their presence has remained largely underappreciated in discussions of nutritional differences between feedlot-fed (grain-fed) and pasture-finished (grassfed) meat and dairy, which have predominantly centered around the omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid. Grazing livestock on plant-species-diverse pastures concentrates a wider variety and higher amounts of phytochemicals in meat and milk compared to grazing monoculture pastures, while phytochemicals are further reduced or absent in meat and milk of grain-fed animals. 

Plants and crops are more productive when grazed in accordance with agroecological principles. The increased phytochemical richness of productive vegetation has potential to improve the health of animals and upscale these nutrients to also benefit human health. Several studies have found increased antioxidant activity in meat and milk of grassfed vs. grain-fed animals. Only a handful of studies have investigated the effects of grassfed meat and dairy consumption on human health and show potential for anti-inflammatory effects and improved lipoprotein profiles. While current knowledge does not allow for direct linking of livestock production practices to human health, future research should systematically assess linkages between the phytochemical richness of livestock diets, the nutrient density of animal foods and the subsequent effects on human metabolic health. 

University Researchers Use Science of Light to Reduce Pesticide Used

Experts at two British universities are starting a new project to develop a photonic “nose” to monitor crops for pest infestations and plant disease.  

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, up to 40 percent of global crop production is lost to pests annually. Each year, plant diseases cost the global economy over $220 billion and invasive insects at least $70 billion.

The research will be using strawberries to test the new technology. The fruit is vulnerable to potato aphid, which has the potential to wipe out an annual harvest. 

One method of pest control is integrated pest management (IPM), in which monitor plants for build-up of insects and diseases rather than spraying plants with chemicals; so far, though, IPM has been largely unreliable and expensive.  

The new project uses recent developments in photonics technology that can analyze low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by plants, which indicate their health. This is coupled with machine learning hardware that makes it practical to use artificial intelligence in commercial settings.

Professor David Webb of Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT) says that “most electronic noses use electrochemical sensors, which suffer from sensitivity issues, sensor drift/aging effects and lack specificity…. We intend to address this by building on the fast-moving technology of photonics — the science of light — whilst collaborating with scientists in other disciplines.”

The 12-month project is to receive £200,000 from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council. The grant is the maximum amount given from their molecules-to-landscapes project, which funds interdisciplinary solutions to real world challenges.

Dr. Joe Roberts of Harper Adams University says, “We intend to establish an interdisciplinary community of agricultural science, optical sensing and machine learning experts to develop novel plant-health monitoring platforms that enhance agricultural production through localized pest and disease monitoring to detect hotspots.”

Microbial Community Shifts Correspond with Suppression of Decomposition 25 Years after Liming of Acidic Forest Soils

Microbial community structure and function regularly covary with soil pH, yet the effects of these interactions on soil carbon are rarely tested experimentally within natural ecosystems. A study recently published in Global Change Biology investigated the enduring (25-year) impacts of liming on microbial community structure and decomposition at an acidic northern hardwood forest.

Experimental liming of the forest 25 years ago increased the pH one unit and, surprisingly, doubled the organic carbon stocks of the forest floor. This increase in carbon storage corresponded with restructuring of the bacterial and fungal communities that drive decomposition. In the Oe horizon, liming reduced the activities of five extracellular enzymes that mediate decomposition, while the Oa horizon showed an especially large (64 percent) reduction in the activity of a sixth, peroxidase, which is an oxidative enzyme central to lignocellulose degradation. Decreased enzyme activities corresponded with loss of microbial taxa important for lignocellulose decay. 

These results demonstrate the importance of pH as a dominant regulator of microbial community structure and illustrate how changes to this structure can produce large, otherwise-unexpected increases in carbon storage in forest soils.

Changing Timing of Grazing Helps Control Invasive Cheatgrass

Cheatgrass, an invasive annual grass, is responsible for much of the increasing wildfire danger in the Intermountain West. However, scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno have discovered that fire danger can be reduced — and the spread of invasive species slowed down — through the application of targeted cattle grazing in the dormant growing season by attracting cattle with stations containing protein feed supplements.

“Our work establishes that protein feed supplements in the fall and early winter can attract cattle to locations dominated by cheatgrass, significantly reducing the standing fine-fuel biomass by more than 50 percent while making room for native grasses to grow,” Barry Perryman, professor of rangeland sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno said. “This research builds and affirms other studies that show dormant-season grazing helps control the dominance of cheatgrass,”

One of the greatest ecological threats to ecosystems of the Intermountain West has been and will continue to be invasive annual grasses. The non-native cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) is the most problematic invasive annual grass at regional spatial scales. It is estimated that cheatgrass covers 11,000 square miles of the Great Basin, and it is the ecologically dominant species on more than 20 percent of the sagebrush steppe.

Strategic supplementation provides a valuable tool to target cattle grazing at specific locations within cheatgrass-invaded systems to reduce fine-fuel buildup during the dormant season, according to the study published in Rangeland Ecology and Management.

“It is difficult to concentrate animals in one place during spring for long enough periods of time to be of any use,” Perryman said. “However, cattle can be concentrated on cheatgrass during the fall using supplementation as a tool.”

Perryman and a team of scientists used liquid protein supplements in October and November from 2014 to 2017 at a production-scale working ranch with a herd that ranged from 650 to 1,200 head of cattle. The study pasture was a mixture of rangeland and abandoned farmland heavily invaded by cheatgrass after farming ended there in the late 1970s. Vegetation on the site was dominated by cheatgrass, with some areas also having a combination of cheatgrass and greasewood.

Where the cattle grazed along the transect line of the supplemental feeding stations, consumption of cheatgrass averaged 48 to 81 percent, with no differences detected between the closest and farthest supplement stations from water.

“While more research is needed to fully understand the extent of how far protein supplements can successfully attract cattle away from water in large pastures, our research indicates this distance can be up to two and a half miles on relatively flat cheatgrass-invaded areas during fall and early winter in northern Nevada,” Perryman said.

Under a scenario of near monocultures of cheatgrass, fall cattle grazing is a logistically viable tool to reduce the amount of carryover fine fuels in large pastures.

“With strategic placement of supplements, we can direct this grazing to effectively create a linear fuel break,” Perryman said. “Cheatgrass can provide an important forage resource for cattle in much of the Great Basin and Intermountain West during the dormant season, and this can help during the fire season.”

Flexible grazing management options will facilitate the use of targeted grazing fuel reduction projects at strategic times, such as fall or winter, on rangelands of the Intermountain West and provide more opportunities to better match livestock production and vegetation management objectives in a “win-win” situation within annual grass−invaded systems, the authors conclude.

OMRI Celebrates 25 Years of Support to Organic Farmers

The Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) is celebrating its 25th anniversary. 

Formed in 1997, OMRI “supports organic integrity by developing clear information and guidance about materials, so that producers know which products are appropriate for organic operations.”

OMRI is an independent organization and seeks to provide transparent verification of input materials, to include fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, feed and other materials used in organic production.

Fundamentally, organic has become a much faster-moving industry than 25 years ago,” said Bill Wolf, former board president of the Organic Foods Production Association of North America. “So, capacity to move labels and decisions through the system is really critical for OMRI.”