This week on the Farm Report host Erin Fairbanks talks with Ken Jaffe of Slope Farms Beef. Located in the hilly landscape of Catskills, Jeff and his wife Linda pasture raise a herd of all grass-fed cattle. Learn about how production in upstate New York has transitioned over the years from dairy production to cattle (there's so much grass!) and why hydrofracking would be in fact quite destructive of the local economy. This important episode is sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

"I would be out of business if fracking gets into our area. . .from a business point of view my wholesale customers aren't going to be buying meat where there is fracking in close proximity."

--Ken Jaffe on The Farm Report

On this week's episode of Straight, No Chaser, Katy Keiffer is talking cattle and beef with Lynne Curry, author of Pure Beef: An Essential Guide to Artisan Meat with Recipes for Every Cut. Hear Katy and Lynne trace beef from pasture to package, and how all of the processes involved with producing beef alter the way it tastes. Learn about the differences between grass-fed and grain-fed beef in terms of taste, texture, and look. Lynne explains the differences between the commodity cattle industry and independent, artisan meat providers, and how independent producers have a lot more control over the diet of their cattle and the taste of their beef. Hear about some of Lynne's educational beef tastings that aim to teach consumers about the different flavors present in varieties of beef. Lynne also discusses ground meat, and why it is not necessarily of low quality! This episode has been brought to you by S. Wallace Edwards & Sons.

"Cows on grass produce muscle very well. They're naturally designed to do that. But muscle becomes meat through human intervention, and all those steps in the production system I've described: from raising, to slaughter, to the processing, to the handling, to the butchering, to the dry-aging (or not dry-aging), to the consumer and how they cook that piece of meat. Every step in that supply chain determines the quality of meat." -- Lynne Curry on Straight, No Chaser

This week on Let's Get Real, Chef Erica Wides helps listeners virtually meet their meat. Hear about how she worked on a grass-fed lamb farm and learned the in and outs of natural animal processing and how much different the pasture raised animals are treated than the typical grain and corn fed industrial stuff. Find out why corn fed meat products don't have the right balance of Omega3 and Omega6 and how things like paste soy and ammoniated beef product find their way into the commodity product. Today's episode was brought to you by Heritage Foods USA's No Goat Left Behind Project.