Let’s talk about the best place to buy grass-fed beef. These days there are quite a few options for buying grass-fed beef online, as well as locally.
But not all grass-fed beef is created equal. I’ve been buying grass-fed beef for a few years, and will share what I’ve learned and my picks for the best places to buy it.
Here at Fed by the Farm I’m all about putting as little distance as possible between myself and the farms that grow and raise my food. For this reason, my top choices for the best place to buy grass-fed beef will be local options.
But depending on where you live, it might not be possible to find local grass-fed beef. Fortunately, there are places online to buy the highest quality meats that are grass-fed, even if you don’t live near a farm.
I won’t keep you waiting, let’s dive right into my favorite places to buy grass-fed beef. Then keep reading where I pass on some of things I’ve learned over the past couple years of buying grass-fed beef.
My top choice for the best place to buy grass-fed beef is at the farmers market. I visit a lot of farmers markets up and down the east coast of the USA and Canada, and have probably never attended one that did not have local grass fed beef.
Talk directly to a local farmer. When you buy grass-fed beef at the farmers market you get to actually talk to the farmer who raised the animal. I mean, that’s pretty cool. Don’t be shy about asking the farmer questions about how the animals are raised, fed and slaughtered. They are happy to answer.
Less distance between you and your meat. When you buy grass-fed beef at the farmers market you eliminate the middle men, big trucks, grocery stores and everything else that would otherwise come between you and the food you eat. You hand your hard-earned money directly into the hands that raised the grass-fed beef you’re buying.
Support small, local farms. The reality is, we need these small farms who sell at the farmers market. Without them, our supply of meat would be 100% in the hands of big agriculture and the big companies behind big agriculture. Long-term, as acquisitions happen, our meat supply would be concentrated among just a few companies, if that. It’s important that these small farms stay in business and supporting them ensures they can.
Calvin of CCW & Sons, sells his own grass-fed beef at the farmers market (Best beef I’ve ever had)It doesn’t cost more to buy at the farmers market. In my experience, buying grass-fed beef at the farmers market is about the same price as buying grass-fed beef at the grocery store. For example, I pay $9-$10 for a pound of grass-fed ground beef at the farmers market. That’s also what I pay for a pound of grass-fed ground beef at the grocery store.
Best variety of cuts of meat. Another reason the farmers market is one of the best places to buy grass-fed beef is access to different cuts of high-quality meat. At the grocery store, you might only find grass-fed ground beef and sirloin steak. At the farmers market you can get every cut imaginable.
Convenience. The farmers market is a convenient place to buy grass-fed beef. For one, you aren’t required to buy large quantities like when ordering grass-fed beef online. And, if you already shop at the farmers market for produce, it’s easy to pick up the meats you need for the week.
To find a farmers market near you, visit the National Farmers Market Directory.
Depending on where you live, there might not be a regular farmers market available. In this case, the next best place to buy grass-fed beef is directly from small family farms.
Buying direct from a farm comes with the same benefits as buying from farms at the farmers market:
The fastest way to find a local farm near you that sells grass-fed beef is an online search for “grass-fed beef near me”.
You can also search Facebook for “grass-fed beef near [insert your city here]”.
Not all farms sell directly to consumers, so find that out first. Then do your research to verify that the farm’s values and practices align with what you’re looking for.
The nice thing about buying from a local farm is that even though it takes a little time to find and vet, once you find one you love, you can keep going back.
Your local butcher is a great place to buy high quality meat and one of the best places to buy grass-fed beef. Unlike large grocery store chains who buy from centralized suppliers, your local butcher is much more likely to have a relationship with local farms.
If there are no farmers markets where you live or if you’re unable to make it to them when they are open, a butcher shop can be a more convenient option for buying grass-fed beef.
Find out if they sell grass-feed beef and what farms they source from. Then, just like when buying beef directly from a farm, do your research to be sure you’re getting 100% grass-fed beef and their farming practices are aligned with what matters to you.
These days there is no shortage of online meat delivery services.
You choose the cuts of beef you want, then follow the ordering process and delicious beef gets delivered to your door. There are usually minimum orders or shipping fees due to the complications of keeping fresh meat cold until it reaches your door.
But, if your family eats a lot of beef, and you don’t have access to a local source, buying grass-fed beef online is very convenient.
A few things to keep in mind when buying grass-fed beef online:
Here are the 3 best places to buy grass-fed beef online that I’ve researched and feel comfortable recommending. They all provide home delivery within the contiguous United States.
White Oak Pastures – White Oak Pastures sells beef that is grass-fed, grass-finished and regeneratively raised. They operate their own farm in Georgia where the animals graze outside on pasture, for their entire lives. One of my favorite things about buying their grass-fed beef is that they own the farm. Unlike many of the other options for buying grass-fed beef online, when you buy from White Oak Pastures you are buying direct from the farm that raises and butchers the animals.
I recently used ground beef from White Oak Pastures to make my Shepherd’s Pie with Ground Beef recipe.
Grass Roots Farmers Co Op – Grass Roots is a community of family farmers in rural America that produce grass-fed beef and practice regenerative agriculture. Like White Oak Pastures, Grass Roots Farmers Co Op makes it easy to buy grass-fed beef online. They post their products and pricing clearly, as well as information about their farming practices. Their minimum order for free shipping is only $120. Grass Roots Farmers Co Op is not a subscription service, so you can order what you want, when you want.
Alderspring Ranch – If you prefer certified organic grass-fed beef, Alderspring Ranch has their organic certification and you can buy directly from their farm online. Alderspring is a real ranch and the cattle live there year round…so you are ordering direct from the farm. They also have very high standards for animal welfare which I recommend reading about on their website. And wait til you see how their grass-fed cattle spend summer!
The grocery store also makes this list of best places to buy grass-fed beef simply because it’s accessible to everyone, and convenient.
It’s not one of my favorite places to buy grass-fed beef, because it puts so much distance between the food I eat and the farm that raised it. But I do sometimes buy here.
You won’t find a large variety of grass-fed cuts of meat at the grocery store though. In my experience it’s a good place to find individual cuts of grass-fed ground beef or a sirloin steak if you’re lucky.
Something I like about buying grass-fed ground beef at the grocery store is that I can usually find lean ground beef, which isn’t always available at the farmers market.
In my experience, it’s easier to find quality grass-fed beef at healthy grocery stores versus generic supermarkets. I see a greater variety of grass-fed beef at grocery stores like Earth Fare, Sprouts and Whole Foods.
Be sure to read the packaging carefully. Grass-fed beef isn’t always grass-finished or pasture-raised.
Keep reading if you’re wondering what I mean by “grass-finished” and “pasture-raised”.
I’ve been buying grass-fed beef for almost three years and have learned a lot during that time.
I thought this would be a good place to share some helpful tips about buying grass-fed beef and some of the things I’ve learned.
When I first started buying grass-fed beef I assumed the animals were pasture-raised and getting most of their grass through natural forage.
But this is not always the case.
With the increasing popularity of grass-fed beef, the conventional meat industry has made factory farmed grass-fed beef possible. It’s as simple as ensuring the cows are only fed grasses, even if they never set foot outside a day in their life.
That means there are CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) that produce grass-fed beef. To avoid meat products from CAFOs, I’m careful to only buy pasture-raised meat.
If you’re shopping for the best places to buy grass-fed beef, you may also be wondering if organic certification is important and what it means when it comes to meat.
The short answer is that organic beef is:
There is a lot more to the organic certification of beef than this list, and you can read ALL the requirements over here.
Organic beef is not necessarily pasture-raised or grass-fed. This is why it’s so important to do your research into the farming practices of the farm you’re buying from, regardless of how the meat is labeled.
If you’re buying grass-fed beef online or at the grocery store, be aware that even though a package of beef may say “Acme Farms”, Acme Farms might be a company and not a real farm.
These companies have relationships with multiple independent farms who they buy grass-fed beef from. The company then packages and sells the beef under their name.
And this isn’t a bad thing, these companies are making grass-fed beef more accessible to more people who may not live near farms or farmers markets.
Ever hear of Butcher Box? They are one of the more well-known meat delivery services that sells 100% grass-fed beef. Butcher Box runs off this model of partnering with independent farms.
Buying your food through a subscription service like this does put distance between you and the farms raising the grass-fed meat. So never go into it blindly trusting, always do research into their farming practices to ensure they align with your values.
All cows, even those that wind up at a factory feed lot, are grass-fed for part of their life. It’s what they are fed during the final few months before slaughter that determines how they are “finished”.
Grass-finished beef (aka 100% grass-fed beef) is from cows that were only ever fed grass. This is what you probably want if you’re buying grass-fed beef.
Grain-finished means the cows were grain-fed during the final few months of their life. This is a common practice to fatten them up quickly for slaughter and create more marbling in the meat.
When you buy beef from grass-fed cows, be sure to ask the farmer (or read the packaging) to verify whether you are buying grass-finished beef or grain-finished beef.
The American Grassfed Association runs a certification program for grass-fed meat and dairy producers. If you buy grass-fed beef at the grocery store or online, theirs is a certification you can look for. All American Grassfed certified beef must be:
That said, these certifications are costly for the farms to maintain. Not all 100% grass-fed beef will be certified.
I hope you found this information and list of best places to buy grass-fed beef helpful!
I’m on a mission to share this knowledge so we can all be more connected to the food we eat and where it comes from.
Please post a comment below if you have any unanswered questions about this topic.
This is the most affordable way to purchase our premium pasture raised, grass-fed, and grass finished beef.
With your live animal purchase, we arrange the slaughter or harvest of the animal on our Trabuco Ranch, transportation to a local family butcher for processing, and communicate with the butcher on your behalf. Your meat will be hung and dry-aged for 25-28 days to allow natural enzymes to tenderize and enhance the flavor. Our local butcher will then call you and provide you with options for meat cuts (quantity of steaks, hamburger etc.). Your meat will then be custom cut and wrapped to your order. Once your meat is chilled, it is ready for you to pick up in Chino, CA. We can't ship whole/half cow orders as they are live animal purchases and not USDA processed.
The purchase dates we provide are an estimate and the actual time you will receive your meat may vary by a month or more. We process our animals when they have gained adequate weight and are fat enough. Weight gain and fat gain can be affected by climate and the amount of green grass available. During longer hot seasons, the cattle do not eat as much and gain less. This can extend the amount of time to get your whole/half cow ready. We never supplement with any grains to speed up this process and instead rely only on nature. Should you have any questions about the date you will receive your whole/half cow, we are always available to provide you with updates.