Dining Services offers burgers from greener pastures

Giving new meaning to the idiom, "you are what you eat," Dining Services has begun offering better quality hamburgers in dining halls on Wednesdays.

Made from organic grass-fed beef, the new burgers are the product of cows reared on grass rather than grain. This practice is more environmentally sustainable than traditional feeding standards, said Kathryn Andersen '08, the Greening Princeton liaison for dining halls.

"Cows [should be] in pasture and not the paddock," Andersen said. Grass-fed livestock are "raised more sustainably."

This diet also leads to healthier cows and, consequently, a better cut of meat, she said. Cattle are ruminant animals whose traditional diet is grass. When they are raised on grain they have a tendency to become sick, incubating deadly E. coli bacteria and requiring heavier doses of antibiotics.

"This is just one step to have a more sustainable dining program," Director of Dining Services Stuart Orefice said, adding, "It was important to find not only the product, but also a vendor that was in the tristate area. That was also part of the low carbon initiative."

The burgers in the dining halls are supplied by Natural Acres in Pennsylvania. As well as the shorter distance for delivery, grass-fed beef typically requires less fossil fuel inputs than grain-reared cattle, as grass is available in the pasture and there is no need to produce and ship feed.

Andersen said the idea for grass-fed beef burgers originated from dialogues between Dining Services and Greening Princeton at their bimonthly meetings to discuss more environmentally friendly menu options. Together, they maintain a list of foods that Dining Services would like to purchase if they can find a supplier who meets the University's needs.

If the items are cost neutral, Dining Services tries to switch over as soon as possible. If not, they wait until funding can be allocated from the budget.

Orefice said that this year's budget allows for the new burgers, which "are more expensive, but ... only marginally more expensive," he said.

The push for a more sustainable dining hall includes menu items such as organic greens, cage-free eggs and organic loaf bread. Orefice said he wants to find an affordable organic milk supplier able to produce and package milk for the dining halls.

Though there has been limited advertisement about the new burgers in the dining halls, the new meat seems to be catching on with some students.

Howard Sutphin, a cook behind the grill in the Rockefeller Dining Hall, said he ran out of burgers last Wednesday, the first day the new burgers were offered.

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Rafat Sanni '09, who had not heard that the burgers were now organic and made from grass-fed beef, seemed unenthusiastic about the switch. "I usually just get burgers," he said.

But Sutphin noted a difference. "They're easier to cook, it's quicker and less fatty," he said.

"They taste a bit more like steak," Susan Lyon '09 said.

Andersen said that in addition to creating new food options, Dining Services has been actively pursuing vendors whose proximity to the University make them more environmentally friendly.

"They've made a huge effort to buy more locally," she said. "The one takeaway lesson is that the changes they have made are so huge, but most people don't even realize that changes have been made."