Organic Meats

Over the last several weeks I have done a lot of research on organic meats (mainly grass-fed beef). In my search I have discovered many benefits to switching to this instead of grain-fed.
When you feed your family grass-fed beef, you can feel quite confident that you are doing the best you can to dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, many of the health concerns you may have regarding the quality of the beef you consume. Grass-fed beef are not given antibiotics or hormones from start to finish.
I then search for some places that I could purchase these meats in bulk. I found a few places around the area where I live, but in the back of my head I was thinking... how do I know it's really organic? Later that night I was talking to my cousin on the phone and I told her all the things we have been trying to do to be greener and how I really wanted to switch the meats we are currently eating. I was presently surprised when she told me that her husband’s family raised organic meats. So I will be giving them a call as soon as my freezer is empty to stock up on some healthier meats. I never really thought about what goes into animals before getting to the markets, until recently.
E-coli : A study by Cornell University has determined that grass-fed animals have far fewer E. coli (approx. 300 times less) than their grain fed counterparts. Also in the same study, the amount of E. coli they do have is much less likely to survive our first line defense against infection, stomach acid. This is because feeding cattle grain makes their digestive tract abnormally acid, and over time, the 'bad E. coli' has become acid-resistant. So if we ingest them in our food a large number of them can potentially survive our stomach acid and go on to grow in our gut, causing an infection. Since the Cornell study in 1998 many groups have tried to contest the results. A study by the USDA Meat and Animal Research Center in Lincoln Nebraska (2000) has confirmed the Cornell research.