Healthier Recipes with Laura’s Lean Beef

Laura Freeman, the creator of Laura’s Lean Beef, was among the pioneers among food producers to return to a natural, antibiotic and hormone-free approach to raising cattle.  Today, Laura’s Lean Beef is “the only naturally-raised, lean beef brand available nationally.”  We spoke with company representative Mike Freeman about the company and its products.

Could you tell us about Laura’s Lean Beef products?

Laura’s Lean Beef stands for the principle that beef can be great-tasting and good for you at the same time.

We offer a complete line of naturally-raised, lean beef products: from steaks and roasts to ground beef, ground chuck and ground sirloin. All of our beef comes from cattle raised on family farms, on a diet of natural grasses and grains, without the uses of antibiotics or growth hormones. We also raise leaner breeds of cattle such as Limousin and Charolais that are naturally lower in fat.

Our approach to producing beef, which is the way nature intended, results in healthier food and a healthier environment.

How did the company come about?

It all started 25 years ago when our founder, Laura Freeman, wanted to lose weight.

She was running the family cattle operation, Mt. Folly Farm in Winchester, Kentucky, in the early 1980s, but was having trouble finding the lean beef she wanted in stores. So she decided to take the bull by the horns, as they say.

In those days, a lot of people were giving up red meat because of concerns about fat and cholesterol. But Laura began researching cattle breeds and feeding methods, believing that people wanted to keep beef in their diet if it could just be made lean and low-fat.

She experimented with leaner cattle breeds like Limousin and Charolais. She fed them an all-vegetarian diet of grains and grasses, without antibiotics or growth hormones. She believed that sustainable framing practices such as humane treatment of the cattle and natural grazing would produce healthier food.

In 1984, Laura began selling beef off the farm. She incorporated Laura’s Lean Beef in 1985 and made all of $10,000 in her first year of operation. Times were lean indeed – so lean that the company’s offices were located in a log cabin on the farm.

Over time, however, grocery retailers started buying in to Laura’s “all-natural” approach and the “lean and light” beef it produced.

Today, Laura’s Lean Beef is the only naturally-raised, lean beef brand available nationally. Several hundred family farmers have signed onto the Company’s strict requirements for raising cattle. And they provide quality products to hundreds of thousands of shoppers each year.

Where can one find your products?

We’re available at fresh meat counters in over 7,000 grocery stores in 47 states. You can find the location closest to you that carries Laura’s Lean Beef by going to our website and entering your zip code.

What kind of responses have you received from your customers?

Our customers tend to be true enthusiasts. Many of them seek us out because of the low fat and cholesterol, of course. They’re beef lovers, and they love Laura’s because it allows them to integrate beef back into their diets.

More and more consumers these days are also passionate about sustainable products.  They gravitate to Laura’s because of our approach to farming and ranching which revolves around the responsible stewardship of land and humane treatment of animals. It means a lot to them that we don’t use “advanced techniques” such as hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and herbicides.

As a company, we have strong opinions about how beef should be produced and its health attributes. So do our customers.

In your opinion, where does Laura’s Lean Beef stand in the fight for a healthier, more sustainable agriculture?

Bottom line, we believe it’s best to farm the way nature intended. It leads to healthier food and a healthier environment. Laura Freeman was ahead of her time in this area . . . raising Laura’s Lean Beef cattle in pastures, on grasses and grains, without hormones or antibiotics. It’s one of our core values.

For more information, visit Laura's Lean Beef