Would you fork over an extra $2.35 for a grass-fed beef hamburger at Home Plate? Ninety out of 92 students saidthey would in a meat taste-test held earlier this month. But Dartmouth Dining Services is wary of raising the Home Plate grill hamburger price from $4.50 to $6.85.
"I hesitate when I have to put something on the menu that is that expensive," Home Plate manager Beth Rosenberger said. "A lot of students on campus just think that we are ripping them off."
DDS initially sought out Hardwick Beef in an effort to buy more local produce. Hardwick uses many local farmers to raise cattle that roam on pastures, eat grass rather than the conventional corn-based grain and animal byproduct.
Considering the positive taste-test response, students seem to prefer the taste of Hardwick ground beef to the current Home Plate hamburger option.
"One student even insisted that the Home Plate grill reserve her one of our burgers for dinner because she liked it so much," Hardwick Beef Chief Executive Officer Michael Gourlay '76 said.
Since grass-fed beef companies revert to the methods of the meat industry from 50 years ago, these methods are often more expensive and take time to refine.
Hardwick works with the Bakewell Reproductive Center, which breeds the types of cattle that quickly grow up and get fat on a grass diet without hormones. According to Bakewell manager Ridge Shinn, Bakewell and Hardwick are also working with local cattle farmers to optimize their grass by measuring its nutrient density.
"Our mission is to revive the rural economy," Gourlay said. "People laugh at us when we say that, but that's the core business mission for both of our companies."
Hardwick beef does not use hormones of any kind and demands that animals are handled according to the humane standards of the Animal Welfare Institute, a non-profit organization founded to protect animal rights.
Using buffalo grazing methods as a model, Hardwick's farmers rotate cattle among several pastures to avoid negatively impacting the land.
"By doing this kind of agriculture, you can actually build organic agriculture rather than erode it," Shinn said.
Conventional practices, Shinn said, use antibiotics to counteract diseases in corn fed to cattle. Doing something so artificial, he said, is not healthy.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based non-profit organization, grass-fed beef contains many health benefits compared to conventional grain-fed beef because it contains lower total fat amounts, more Omega-3 fatty acids, which can reduce the risk of heart disease, and other nutritional benefits that may reduce cancer risks.
"You wouldn't want to know the horrors of the ground meat processing industry that contribute to the final grocery market product," Gourlay said.
"Unlike processed meat companies, our ground beef is really ground steak -- nothing else is added."
Home Plate's popular buffalo burger will remain unaffected by these potential changes.
