DETROIT – A small herd of cattle from Michigan State University was recently slaughtered with two goals: boosting the amount of locally produced food on campus and creating a system of tracking beef from the farm to the plate.
Animal scientists at the East Lansing-based school are working on the state-funded projects starting with 10 steer and barcode tags on the beef that comes from them.
The small-scale effort has large aims, according to one of the project leaders. Associate Professor Dan Buskirk said in addition to verifying whether the beef came from a local source, shoppers eventually could use a smart phone or kiosk to find out if it came from grass-fed, grain-fed or hormone-free cattle.
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