WHEN Will Buckley and his wife Sarah-Jane Fairey announced a new restaurant in Southampton serving grass-fed burgers, the obvious question was: ‘don’t all cows eat grass?’

Until now, I thought all cattle happily chomped away on undulating green pastures before they met their fate and ended up on our forks.

It took just minutes of meeting Will to realise my ignorance wasn’t unusual – and exactly the reason why this Hampshire farmer has gone to such lengths to educate the public.

In a first for Southampton, which is fast becoming a burger lovers mecca with the arrival of 7Bone Burger Co that appeared on BBC show The Restaurant Man and now Chalk Valley Burgers, Will is determined to make the public think about what ends up on their plates.

His restaurant boasts sustainable, free range, humanely raised, gluten, GM, antibiotic and hormone free meat.

He’ll juggle pulling on his wellies and tending to his herds of North Devon cattle on the rolling fields of his 1,100 acre Bossington Estate, near Stockbridge with ensuring his labour of love has paid off when his meat is served at the diner in bustling London Road in the city centre.

 

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"It’s not realistic to expect the city to come to the estate and we can’t exactly bring our farm in its entirety to London Road,” says Will.

“But we hope Chalk Valley Burgers will be a place where we can get more people talking.”

The words Will wants on people’s lips are ‘grass-fed’ –a more humane and healthier alternative to grain finished beef.

Historically all farm animals were pasture-raised but since the 1950s farming practices have changed.

Will, explains: “On any rational grounds, pasture-fed beef ought to be the norm in countries like Britain that has the climate to grow good grass but the reality is very different.

“Today, intensive factory-farming methods of production dominate more than 95 per cent of UK beef production, as supermarkets demand quicker and cheaper fattening of animals destined for slaughter, which are housed in large scale, closelyconfined finishing units where the animals often get sick.

“Cattle are fed an intensive grainbased diet that is formulated to increase their weight gain as quickly as possible, ignoring the impact that intensive farming has on the environment, on animal health and welfare and on human health.”

The grain is often mixed with medication including the routine use of antibiotics, to prevent respiratory conditions, Will explains.

However the consequence has been the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria or superbugs.

“All of these factors are creating the perfect storm. The next food scare will be antibiotic resistant bacteria that will kill thousands,” he grimly predicts.

“It is time that consumers start asking and understanding how their food is produced.”

The grass-fed movement, which allows animals to have a natural diet and express natural behaviour, has already swept the states with dozens of restaurants selling pasture-fed meat on their menus everywhere from New York to Chicago.

And Will, who has visited farms and restaurants in America, explains the “grass-fed” meat has caught the eye of nutritionists and scientists.

When animals are 100 per cent grassfed the meat is not only lower in saturated fats and leaner but also slightly higher in vitamins A and E, two antioxidants thought to boost resistance to disease and omega-3 fatty acids, the healthy fats found in salmon, which studies indicate may help prevent heart disease and bolster the immune system.

Beef from grass-finished cattle also has more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a powerful cancer fighter.

And with more consumers questioning how their food is grown, Will, a member of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) and Hampshire Fare, hopes the movement will be as popular in Hampshire.

“Our beef travels no more than 16 miles from the farm to the plate.

“I can stand there in the fields surrounded by cattle knowing they are healthy and happy and have had the best possible start and I feel immensely proud that we can show people there is such a thing as healthy fast food. It is meat with integrity.”

However the dad-of-one has no illusions that his new venture will be easy.

“In most situations if a restaurant needs to place an order for meat, the chef just has to pick up the phone to his butcher to get a delivery the next morning.

“We have to think about all aspects of the supply chain.

“We need to think in not just days, weeks or months but years ahead so we know we can either produce enough ourselves or source from other local farmers who employ the same husbandry.

“There certainly aren’t many farmers who run restaurants but we want to get people to think about where their food comes from and how it is produced and how sustainable that is.

"People need to keep their farmers closer to them.

“Once you have tried the tenderness of grass-fed meat, it’s a taste you will never forget and for me knowing the cow has lived a happy and healthy life makes it taste all the better.”