UPDATE: In early 2008 we reached our goal of serving only grass-fed pastured beef, and as a result completely stopped serving Brandt beef, which is grain fed. We continue to admire and respect the Brandt family and their passion for doing things a lot better than the commodity beef industry. For us, though, it was time to move to the next level.

Monday morning we got up early (early for us, anyway) and drove out to Brawley, California, home of Brandt Beef. With us were Jonathan Sachs and Sandra Ouellette from Hamilton Meats, and Greg Koch of Stone Brewing and Stone World Bistro and Gardens. (Side note: Stone Bistro is doing an incredible job of finding and presenting high-quality, ethical ingredients for their menu, and they’re doing so at a very impressive scale. Check ‘em out.) Mark Brandt from Brandt Farms led our tour, along with their (I think) feedlot manager Scott. And we met Mr. Brandt, as well, who was very informative.A few months ago, Michael and I visited the Brandt processing facility in Pico Rivera (near L.A.), which of course you can read about on the blog. With this visit to the Brandt feedlot, we would now have seen and learned about this cattle farm from the time the beeves arrive at Brandt when they are about 3 months old, to the time they arrive at the table at the Linkery. We accomplished that; the visit was highly educational and thought provoking. And fun.

This story ends, however, with the damndest sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Changed my whole thinking about sandwiches, actually. But first, Brandt Farms.

We’ve been using Brandt beef since they opened. We were intially attracted to their beef because it tastes super, it’s natural, raised with no hormones at all, and with no antibiotics in the last year of feeding (the animals will be given antibiotics if they’re sick when young, and then they’re monitored to see if they become fully healthy). Of course, we also liked that Brandt is local, and as we’ve gotten to know the Brandt family and the folks who work at their company, we’ve become big fans of all of them. As we’ve come to really understand how Brandt works, too, we’ve been able to find the best cuts for us to serve at the Linkery, which have really good flavor and fit into our menu well.

In the Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan explored at length the two principle poles of American agriculture, the factory/industrial food complex (operations like Tyson, Smithfield and Cargill) and the pastoral independent farm (represented in the book by Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farms, and also including places we work with such as Cane Creek Farm and Old Creek Ranch). The principal “Third Way” option he discussed was what’s come to be called “Big Organic”, large-scale factory farming meeting specific environmental goals. In the book, Big Organic comes off as better than the big industrial players, but without much focus on the larger goals of sustainable and ethical agriculture.

Brandt Farms is another kind of “Third Way” operation, one I would describe as “thoughtful and independent industrial”. They work within the basic structure of industrial beef farming, but they do so with a strong commitment to accountability, sustainability and land stewardship.

A little background: the predominant model of industrial beef production in America, as I understand it, is to buy “proven” breeds of beef cattle at a young age, stick as many of them as possible in small pens, fatten them as quickly as possible with hormones and corn, keep sickness at bay with antibiotics, with the goal of harvesting them as young as possible to save on feed and to clear space for the next generation. The beeve is harvested principally for the mass-market cuts such as New York Strip, Ribeye, and Filet Mignon, with the rest of the animal being sold for little money for ground beef or animal feed. Since the vast majority of steak in the US is considered a commodity — the only distinction is the USDA grade of Select, Choice or Prime — the relative profitablility of the average beef producer is dependent solely on how quickly (and inexpensively) he can turn his inputs of corn and cattle into outputs of mass-market steaks.

Just from describing this kind of operation, it’s obvious the amount of waste is staggering. Both bovine waste and the waste of the unused meat, plus the harm to the environment of concentrated excrement and hormones, and the introduction of antibiotics and excess hormones into the food chain. Additionally, since mass-market meat is a commodity the farmers have no interest in improving the subtle flavor characteristics of their meat beyond marbling (which is the basis for USDA grading). In particular, if the regular doses of antibiotics and hormones changes the flavor and texture of the meat (as it is said to), there’s no penatly to the individual producer, which means increasingly bad food, too.

Brandt farms takes a different tack. One thing that strikes me is that they put their name on their product, and they can trace each cow all the way to its birthday and what dairy it came from. This is true even when a restaurant receives a package of steaks — the steak has a bar code which contains a link to all the information about that particular animal. This culture of accountability can only be a good thing, and in my experience the flavor of their beef reflects that.

The basic structure of Brandt’s farm also speaks to their thoughtfulness in terms of conservation and sustainability. Brandt farms male Holstein cattle born to dairy farmers. These animals, being useless to a dairy farm, would generally be destroyed, since Holstein were known as being terrible beef cattle. Brandt got these animals for free, and put together a diet for them that would result in their becoming good eating. This diet included rolled corn, alfalfa and sudan grass (the latter two which grow quite a bit in the Imperial Valley, while the corn comes from Iowa and Nebraska). Interesting, Mark said that they will occasionally pasture some of their cattle, but only mixed breed — Holsteins on pasture make for really tough, undesirable meat.

By starting with unwanted animals, feeding them a diet composed partly of local crops, taking care to maximize the natural health and minimize the stress level of their animals, and composting their waste, Brandt grows better-tasting beef in a more sustainable manner than corporate factory operations. Of course, this costs them quite a bit more (though not to the same degree that grass-fed beef is priced out of so many markets). Brandt does charge quite a bit more for their beef than commodity beef, though they also are able to pay their increased costs by using every part of the animal — another step toward sustainability. When we toured Brandt’s processing plant, we came to understand that, because of the care they put into raising their cattle, Brandt is able to sell many cuts of meat — such as the coulotte steak — into quality-conscious markets, that factory beef producers couldn’t sell at all.

To me, the biggest contribution Brandt makes to our food goals — and the goals of thoughtful agriculture and eating — is that they start with the premise that their food is *not* a commodity, and they carry that idea through everything they do. They hold themselves accountable for their product, they put their name on it, and their operations are totally transparent (I think we’ve seen every physical aspect of it now, from 3-month old animals to the harvest floor to the steaks waiting for delivery trucks). Our community may not yet be ready to plunk down 35 bucks for a small grass-fed steak at our weekly casual joint; it’s still hard to reconcile the price of industrial food with the cost of industrial farming. A great start, I think, is to highlight food which is thoughtfully raised by independent people, and consider both its flavor and the effects of its production. Brandt definitely offers all of us a superb chance to do that.

Some photos, before we get to the sandwich:

The animals live 160 to a pen. Particularly when they’re young (here they’re about 3 months old), they aren’t really that packed in, as you can see here.

The ear tags, along with RFID, are part of the system Brandt uses to track each animal from birth. Presumably this guy has a mark on his permanent file that he’s a sloppy eater.

Brandt grows a lot of their own alfalfa and sudan grass. To help control pests while reducing pesticide use, they built “owl condos” to attract owls to the field. Mark said it’s very effective. I tried to get a photo of an owl but they were all too quick for me.

We learned that the Imperial Valley is home to the country’s largest purely-gravity-driven system of irrigation canals.

Brandt rolls its own corn in this mill.

Here it is…the infamous “Number Two Corn”, made world famous by Mr. Pollan.

This is a pile of corn rolled into flakes to be made a part of the cattle feed.

Rolled No. 2 Corn tasted like breakfast cereal, even including a little sweetness. Michael’s a big breakfast eater, he was down with it. I was hoping for a large cartoon tiger to tell me it was great, but that didn’t happen.

Hay. It’s not just for horses any more.

The Brandts keep track of their cattle pens with this whiteboard system. I have no doubt it’s much more reliable than computers.

The animals’ waste is composted at the Brandt facility. About 3% of Brandt’s feed cost is recovered through sale of compost! The compost fields smelled nutty and were surprisingly pleasant. The feedlot itself varied in aroma depending on winds and our position, but was never overwhelming. Michael pointed out that, while it did often smell of cow dung, it didn’t have that acidic burn you get when driving by some places.

Here the animals are getting ready for “selection” into the Brandt beef program (the best looking animals are identified as Brandt beef, the rest go into the commodity market). By the time the beeves are fully grown adults, as they are here, things are a little tighter in the pen, though to my eye not terribly so. After a year of being around people, the animals were very friendly and would come crowding up to us as we approached. The Brandts are very careful to keep the animals’ stress level down, since that affects the quality of the meat. Since the Brandt name is on the meat, they are very concerned with maintaining its quality.

***

For lunch, Mark called in orders for all of us down to the Stockman’s Club of Brawley. He recommended that we get New York Steak Sandwiches, which are made from USDA choice Brandt Beef, medium rare. We arrived, and the Stockman’s Club was wonderful, with a wall with the brands of all 100 or so families that farm cattle in the area. Sadly, the club didn’t carry Stone (or any Southern California) beer, but Greg didn’t seem bothered when Michael and I ordered Fat Tires.

We nibbled on salad and fixins, enjoying great conversation, when our sandwiches arrived. The plates comprised a couple delicious onion rings, a little stack of lettuce, tomato and onion slices, and a beautiful, large New York Strip Steak, perfectly crisp on the outside. That’s it.

There was a moment of confusion but none of us could wait to start digging in, which we did. After a few minutes of silent eating, finally Michael asked, “I thought we were all getting sandwiches — was that just joking around?” Mark explained that this was the sandwich. It used to come with a piece of bread, but some years ago everyone figured the bread wasn’t really necessary. I pondered for a while the idea that this amazing piece of meat, itself, was a sandwich, purely because it had at one time been conceived that way. Sandwich, it turns out, is just a state of mind.

Oh, and it was the best steak I’ve ever had.

PS I want to specifically thank Mark, Scott, and all the rest of our hosts at Brandt at Hamilton. I also need to say a big word of thanks to Greg Koch of Stone, who was prisoner in my car all the way to and from Brawley, and nicely consented to let Michael and I interrogate him about how Stone came to be, and how the brewery and bistro operations work, compared to the scale we’re used to. It was fun and educational, and we really appreciate it. I urge everyone to drink a Stone beer in sympathy to his having to put up with us!

UPDATE: You can see Greg’s vBlog about this here.