American vs. New Zealand vs. Argentinian Liver Supplements
It can be confusing to separate the marketing from the facts when it comes to bovine and other ruminant liver supplements.
Personally, I have consumed liver supplements manufactured/sourced from the USA, New Zealand, and Argentina. There may be other sources, but these are the three most prevalent. It is important to note that each of these sources have distinct advantages and disadvantages, which we’ll outline here.
The bottom line is that the best supplement for you is likely the one sourced and manufactured as geographically close to you as possible, sourcing from the fewest farms/ranches, with verification for any keywords on the label (especially “regenerative!”).
New Zealand
Perhaps the most popular of liver-based supplements, those sourced from New Zealand have the best marketing strategy and are popular. However, the marketing can be misleading and might even be deceitful.
Most Americans think of New Zealand as a sparkling-clean country with rolling, picturesque green hills full of happy cattle and sheep. This image is the product of successful marketing campaigns by New Zealand’s mammoth-like dairy and sheep industries. However, the reality is markedly different.
I spent about a year in New Zealand working on permaculture farms. I was disillusioned to find a minimum of 60% of New Zealand Rivers to be unsafe for humans (and often dogs and other species) to swim in (1). It is estimated that 90-95% of NZ rivers in pastoral areas are not safe to swim in (2). The danger was due to bacterial growth, a byproduct of excessive uses of fertilizer as well as lack of regulating cattle access to waterways.
Cattle gather around and crowd river and creek fronts in New Zealand, depositing high amounts of manure on the riverbanks (3). They tend to congregate where they have access to water, thus polluting the water and under-fertilizing pastures. This manure would be regenerative if it were deposited evenly through the pastures, but this is not how cattle operate in New Zealand.
Generally speaking, New Zealand is a country with richly-varied terrain and topography. It makes for a stunningly-beautiful country, but is less-than-ideal for clumsy creatures like cows. These soft, domesticated, and unathletic animals prefer easy access to grasses, and repeatedly graze the flatter areas of farms. They move along the extensive hillsides and slopes, leading to erosion of soil and bare batches of Earth where grasses and trees once grew (4). This dislodged soil becomes sediment in the waterways, causing them to get muddy and brown before being lost to ocean currents.
The combination of overgrazing certain areas, concentrated areas of manure deposits, run-off, excessive use of fertilizers/pesticides/herbicides, makes for a dystopian picture of agriculture. The reality is that New Zealand’s beef industry is not nearly as ideal as the marketing has portrayed it (imagine that!). It is as industrial as America’s mainstream beef industry, the only difference being that America feeds grain while New Zealand feeds grass. The reason for this is not due to nutritional or moral reasoning, but is purely economical. On a remote island like New Zealand, it is not economically feasible to ship grain or otherwise grow it off-site for cattle. It makes the most economic sense to graze their cattle on grass.
In the USA, grain farmers are heavily subsidized by the government. This subsidization artificially drives grain prices down, so large farm operations can feed cattle grain (and compensate for the poor health of their animals with excessive antibiotics as well as estrogen-like hormones) at competitive prices.
Are there truly regenerative cattle operations in New Zealand? Yes—however, these are the exceptions and are certainly not the rule—just like here in the states.
So, the reason cattle in New Zealand are grass-fed is not because they are making a stand for integrity or because regenerative principles are the norm. It is out of economic interest and convenience for both the farmer as well as the cow.
Cattle ranching in New Zealand (as a general rule) is far from regenerative, and is contributing to extensive pollution of waterways (from both manure as well as chemical fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide run-off) as well as significant erosion.
How does all this relate to your supplement?
Well, bovine liver supplements from New Zealand are generally sourced from large cattle operations. Even more disappointingly, these cattle are sometimes not even ranched for their beef, but instead come from the dairy industry. This means that many supplements from New Zealand beef liver are actually expired dairy cows. They are not cows being harvested in their prime, or cows that are otherwise even considered culinary grade. I have eaten steak from these cows, and even the muscle meat has such a strong and off-putting flavor that it’s hard to stomach. Don’t believe me? Call your local dairy and ask for some meat. It will likely be 1/4-1/2 the price of a comparably-raised beef cow, and will taste at least 2-4x worse (in my subjective experience).
The bottom line here is that New Zealand bovine liver supplements are generally anti-regenerative (even if they say they are regenerative—just ask for verification), support the degradation of soil and environment, support “big ag” (through chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides), and are sourced from the absolute bottom tier of beef—expired dairy cows that will otherwise go to pet food.
Does that sound like a product you will thrive on? Is that the kind of product you want to put in your body regularly, or even once?
Argentina
Argentinian cattle is almost entirely grass-fed, and unlike New Zealand, is almost entirely raised for beef and meat consumption, not dairy.
Argentinian beef operations are generally on large scale ranches where the cattle are left to their own devices, or moved to fresh grass by gauchos. The land of Argentina is, on the whole, flatter and more navigable for the cattle than New Zealand. Thus, cattle-ranching in Argentina does not directly contribute to erosion the same way it does in NZ.
However, Argentinian ranching comes with its own host of problems. The country has less than 1/3 of the total forest it had 100 years ago (5). Most of this native forest has been burned down, logged, or otherwise removed to make way for monoculture crops (such as soy) and grasslands for cattle. About 40% of both animal and plant species are in immediate danger due to habitat loss of this native forest.
Removing trees comes at a cost, and not just to the local wildlife—these plants are banks for both carbon and water. When the trees are removed or burned, the carbon is released into the atmosphere. This contributes to climate change and reverses the decades-long process of carbon sequestration the trees were facilitating. The removal of significant amounts of forest has significantly increased flooding in the area, as the trees both slow water flow as well as capture it. Now, the seasonal floods go unchecked. The flooding is most intense in areas where the deforestation has been the heaviest, and contributes to erosion, wildlife and native species displacement, and a dysfunctional ecosystem.
From 1993-2011, herbicide use in Argentina has increased by more than a factor of ten (5). Pesticides and insecticides have followed similar curves, as have rates of cancer in the regions that chemical use has increased the most (5).
Even the less-than-perfect grass-fed cattle operations in Argentina are being increasingly replaced with industrial feedlots like those we see in the states (6).
Thus, Argentinian beef is becoming increasingly industrialized, and is far from regenerative as it is destroying native forests, habitat, and negatively impacting native flora and fauna.
United States
On the whole, the beef industry in the US is not particularly admirable. The combination of grain subsidies, industrialized factory farming and mega-farms, monoculture corn and soy fields (used to feed most cattle), and influence from Big Pharma (producing hormones, antibiotics, estrogen and other substances facilitating weight/fat gain for cattle) makes for an almost nightmarish scenario. Cattle in concentrated animal feedlot operations (CAFOs) live a fairly hellish existence rife with suffering, and unable to express almost any of their natural instincts. These animals are essentially kept on life support through chemical means due to their unhealthy diet and lifestyles.
However, there is a movement in the opposing direction. Many ranchers are taking an opposing approach—instead of imposing an industrial model on living systems, they are instead catering their business to the natural rhythms of these living systems. These ranchers don’t actually feed their cattle anything, but instead cultivate varying species of native grasses and plants that are well-suited to the local climate. The cattle and other ruminant species pick from these grass buffets, eating the grasses that they and their ancestors have adapted to. These animals are guided by their instinct, eating whatever plants likely contain the vitamins and minerals they most need at that time.
These animals are rotated around pasture, ensuring that pastures are not over-grazed or otherwise beaten to bare batches of Earth. The animals fertilize the pastures as they move around, and actually sequester more carbon than they release in their lifetimes. These animals actually improve land over time, hence why such practices are called “regenerative.” This kind of ranching can literally reverse the damage done by CAFOs and other industrial methods of producing food.
This kind of ranching improves productivity of grassland over time and sequesters carbon, which in turn can hold more moisture in the soil. This means regenerative outfits require less irrigation and water than more traditional farms/ranches. The animals on regenerative ranches live happy lives, fully able to express their instinctual urges. The meat from these animals is incredibly nutrient-dense, as well as lacking the antibiotics and hormones which can bioaccumulate in fat. These ranches are better for the animals, better for the land, and better for the consumers. They also improve supply chain resilience, as regenerative ranches cannot operate on the same industrial scale of traditional operations. They reduce dependence on fossil fuels and other energy sources, as they use less total energy for both production as well as transportation.
Some regenerative ranches even have their practices checked by ecologists. For example, our Grass-Fed Bison Liver and Organ Complex is sourced from a single ranch that verifies its regenerative status through Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV). EOV utilizes metrics that can actually quantify exactly how regenerative a ranch is, how much carbon is being sequestered, what is happening to the soil microbiota, etc. Without measuring these things, the label “regenerative” is more or less meaningless. Most ranches do not lie about this kind of label, but supplement companies certainly seem to!
Never feel shy about asking questions like “how do I know your ranch/product is truly regenerative?” Whoever you are asking should be enthusiastic in their response, and certainly not offended. They should be more than willing to explain to you exactly what kind of principles make up “Regenerative” ranching practices, and exactly how they implement them on their ranch. Ask if they verify their regenerative status through anything like Land to Market verification or EOV.
On the whole, the US has a long way to go in terms of sustainability and regenerative agricultural practices. However, there are also many stateside ranches that are paving the way for an ideal agricultural model, and really do everything above and beyond. We go out of our way to source from these ranches!
Conclusion
Shopping for supplements can be difficult territory to navigate. Supplement companies and ranches will use every keyword to their advantage, but the marketing does not always directly align with the reality of the situation on the ground.
In the US, we are conditioned when we hear “grass-fed” to immediately assume that the animals in question must be happy and otherwise living the way nature intended. However, that is sadly often not the case!
It is always best to buy as locally as possible in my opinion, as the rancher up the road from you will generally be far more transparent than one across the world. Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions and details about the animals you intend to consume! Ranchers with integrity generally enjoy their job and will be EAGER to answer all your questions—they are usually flattered and glad that someone is actually interested in what they’re doing.
Key takeaways
Each national source of ruminant liver has distinct advantages and disadvantages
Words like “Regenerative” are currently unregulated. Beef and other meat from CAFO could legally label their product as “regenerative”—ask for verification like Land to Market or Ecological Outcome Verification to know if your supplement is truly regenerative
You are voting with your dollar— in some cases you are voting for great things, in other cases for bad things, and still in others both good and bad
For the absolute highest quality supplements, source from the USA (single-source is the best!), preferably from ranches that have verification for their regenerative status
Grass-Fed Bison Organ Complex is designed to be the absolute highest quality organ supplement on the market. If you have ideas on how it might be improved, we would LOVE to hear your ideas!
Sources
(1) https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/300175824/more-than-60-per-cent-of-new-zealand-rivers-unswimmable-in-poor-condition
(2) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-16/new-zealand-rivers-pollution-100-per-cent-pure/13236174
(3) http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/publications/beef-cattle-water-requirements-and-source-management#:~:text=Cattle%20congregate%20around%20water%20sources,damage%2C%20and%20mudholes%20can%20follow.
(4) https://beeflambnz.com/compliance/environment/holding-soil
(5) https://www.motherjones.com/food/2013/10/argentina-cancer-cluster-pesticide/
(6) https://grist.org/sustainable-food/in-argentina-factory-farms-replacing-grass-fed-beef/