During one of my daily strolls through NPR, I found an article about new potential FDA regulations on brewers selling or giving their leftover/spent grain to farmers to use as cheap feed for cattle. The FDA has proposed that in order to limit contamination, the breweries will need to be subject to new regulations.
Apparently, for many, many years, the breweries and farmers have had a kind of mutually beneficial relationship with regards to the leftover grain that comes from brewing beer. Farmers would take the grain for free or at a very reduced rate, and the breweries wouldn’t have to arrange for disposal. It was win-win…kind of.
The problem was that the animals eat the feed that had very little regulation, and then we eat the animals…and, well, you get the picture. The breweries were up in arms about the whole thing, stating that bringing the grains up to regulations would cost them a fortune, and therefore not be worth it. They felt it would be more cost effective to just throw the grain away. The farmers were upset that they might be losing their access to cheap feed.
The FDA has since softened its regulation requirements on the breweries, but I still wanted to know, how do you, as the consumer of beef, feel? Do you want all feed to be strictly regulated, or are you happy with the brewery/farmer arrangement as it is? I certainly don’t want the cows to eat something potentially contaminated, and I also don’t really want to see all of that grain go to waste. So, I guess I am torn.
~Mavis
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Christie says
Good Grief! Wouldn’t all the nutrition be gone from grain after the fermenting process ?
cptacek says
No, not at all. The carbohydrates are gone, but the protein is high. Farmers mix it with ground straw (very economical) or other “trash” hay that cows won’t eat on their own, and it is highly nutritious.
lynne says
I think the gov’t needs to stay out of it…we are WAY too overregulated in EVERYTHING. I think I can decide for myself if I want to drink raw milk or not, for example. this is a good thing all around, benefits everyone involved. Stay. Out. Big. Gov’t.
Sarah says
I think considering that they have no evidence that there has ever been a problem with contamination, this shouldn’t ever have been an issue. Ideally cattle wouldn’t be eating grain from any source, but grass instead. But if they’re going to eat grain I like they are reducing waste this way.
kelliinkc says
My thoughts precisely!
Mike Ryder says
The spent grain is pre-fermentation and hop addition. It is basically just malted barley/rye etc that has been in 160 degree water for an hour or so…this activates enzymes that convert the starches to sugar creating the “wort” (sugar water) that then goes on to boiling stage and hop addition stage.
There is ZERO reason the govt should be involved in this dual beneficial relationship…are they going to regulate the grass fields that the cows eat in every pasture next??? This is ridiculous!!!
cptacek says
Yes, they want to. Not hyperbole.
cptacek says
Stupid stupid decision and not necessary to regulate. Highly nutritious and no reports of an epidemic of sick cows from this.
Mother Hen says
Just another example of a bunch of people who have no idea about the situation at hand trying to regulate it based on nothing. My great uncle raised beef for years, and ALWAYS finished them with spent grain. Best tasting beef ever.
Beckybeq says
Ugh, gov’t needs to stop micromanaging everything! Have there been any problems at all with the way things are currently done? Also, I would think that, since the grain is being turned into a human consumable at the brewery, it has already been inspected and passed for human consumption.
Elise says
I am a very liberal democrat, with love for big government and I crave a cradle-to-grave nanny state such as in scandanavia.
That being said, I don’t see the need nor use for this regulation. The FDA has a principle of GRAS – Generally Regarded as Safe. Aspirin wouldn’t get through today’s regulations because it works on so many different body systems in ways that aren’t completely understood. But because it’s been in use for so long, and is safe, it was grandfathered when the FDA started as “generally regarded as safe”. Spent grain sounds like it’s GRAS too.
Casey says
I don’t think there has ever been a problem with any beef consumers have bought due to the use of the spent grain from breweries. I want to keep government out of all things, as much as possible. Every time government gets involved, things go bad, just look at social security, postal service and medicare and any other gov’t program. How in the world did we become the greatest nation on the planet when we lived without all this gov’t regulation??? That’s right, we did it because gov’t wasn’t involved. Now we’re over-regulated and suffering. It’s time to get back to personal responsibility and take care of ourselves.
Caroline says
I’d rather see them eat this than the GMO corn most of the cows we eat are being fed. And I agree 100% with Casey.
Gina D. says
No, don’t regulate it. The system has been working well, without interference from the Government for a long time. Why do they feel they need to get their hands in it now?
Madam Chow says
There has never been a case of contamination. Ever. There is no need for this regulation.
Noah says
So what this was all about was a proposal by the FDA about regulation that they were contemplating. They do this all the time by sending out these proposals to see what the industries comments would be. Working in the brewing industry myself, this is extremely helpful, because we can have our input. What happened here is that a few people took it and ran with it exclaiming dramatic price increases etc. This was never a regulation. Just a proposal to be talked about. And from my standpoint this will never become regulation.
Carol says
The way most beef is fattened on feedlots is cruel, environmentally unsound and unsustainable. For that reason, I don’t eat much of it–only a couple of times a year, if that, and only from my local producers. So, this issue doesn’t affect me much, as my sources don’t use this kind of feed.
Junquejules says
This is rediculois. My brother is a partner and brewmaster at a small brewery, Unruly, in Muskegon, MI. I don’t know what the regulations are/would be, but I know he gives spent grain to cow and pig farmers in return for meat and also to a local baker on return for bread. He is highly conscious of the ingredients going into his beer as well as the bread and mets he will be consuming later, but I can bet the regulations would have rediculois hoops and hurdles that would have little to do with keeping our food supply safe. How about if the FDA concentrates on banning the toxic food dyes like red #40, that already require a warning label in the EU?
Brian says
That sounds like a wonderful setup! I wish I could trade out spent grain for meat and baked goods!
Karen at A Glimpse Into My Reveries says
What the government tries to put its finger into always amazes me. What they were probably trying to figure out a way to tax it!
Won’t do anything about feeding our school children pink slime beef yet they put their noses into this?
Andria says
Food regulation is important, however I think we should be more interested in all the animal drugs going into cattle, pork, and chickens, rather then brewers spent grain. Go on, take a look at the drugs they use, all for the sake of cheap meat.
Elizabeth says
If the grain was good enough to make beer out of for human consumption I see no reason why livestock can’t eat it. The government is making far too many rules in the wrong areas of food production. How the animals are kept, slaughtered and processed could use more oversight. This relationship between breweries and farmers has been going on since people started making beer. Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Spanky says
OMG! How eva’ will we survive without the gov’t to protect us. Lordy, lordy, we are all doomed!