As a small farmer that raises grass fed lamb and goat meat and plans to start raising beef soon, I am totally opposed to the USDA regulating the term grass fed.  Eventually, you will have to pay for certification and the small farmer that is truly raising pastured meats will not be able to call their meats grass fed because they won't be able to comply with the costly regulations. The only ones that will remain are the big corporations and they will be able to raise the animals on dirt for half the year, feeding hay instead of corn if they choose to do so, based on the information in the article that you referenced.  Our livestock is on pasture 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.  They do get hay from about January till March, but they are still on pasture and they will eat what still manages to grow. They are not confined to a small area that turns into a muddy mess. They get no antibiotics, hormones or even chemical wormers. We don't use artificial fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides on our land, but the term organic is out of our reach as a small farmer. I'd like to be able to continue to call my animals grass fed without costly government interference.

The term organic is now pretty much meaningless and getting worse by the day.  As a small farmer, it isn't worth the expense and hassle to go through the USDA certification process, so I can't call my produce organic unless I only sell less than $1000 per year.  The organic certification process means small guys lose and big corporations get to take over the market.  The same thing will happen to the term grass fed if the USDA is involved.

Crazy world.....in which more people understand the crucial importance of what we feed animals.....but not it appears, what they consume as a human animal !!
If all animals, including us, only ate what nature designed us to, many health issues would disappear...
...and if we eat animals that have consumed the same kind of bad carbs that compromise our health, then we have the wonderful situation of unhealthy people...eating unhealthy animals. 

I guess us folks that live in a rural area are lucky.  We just drive out and meet the farmer and personally pick out the cow.  He takes it to the butcher and we just go pick up the cow cut, frozen and vacuum packed in just the way we choose.  We get about 1/4 in steaks, 1/4 in roasts, 1/4 in hamburger (one pound packages and/or burger patties) and 1/4 in other things (soup bones with lots of meat on them etc).  We also get two boxes of bones that our neighbors's dogs love.  It works out that we pay $2.50 to $3.00 a pound, depending on the cow--not counting all the bones as a bonus.


No antibiotics or hormones and the meat is very tender and better tasting than any supermarket meet.  Even the tough stew meat cuts are tender.  The cows are butchered when they are only about a year old,  just before they would normally be taken to a feed lot.  I sometimes split a cow with one or two other people if someone doesn't want a whole cow at the time.