By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist

Some Hawai'i ranchers recently announced that they have arranged to sell 2,700 head of cattle this year to an organization called Oregon Country Beef, which sells a beef product that has not been exposed to hormones or antibiotics.

The product is called Country Natural Beef. The Hawai'i ranchers, members of the Hawai'i Cattle Producers Cooperative Association, say they hope to be able to market a similar product in the Islands sometime soon.

People in Hawai'i who want to buy local beef now have quite a few options. The meat is sold in major supermarkets, but mostly in smaller stores or directly from the ranchers. Some of it is purely grass-fed beef, and some has been fed a finishing menu in local feedlots.

But either way, this is beef from cattle raised on Hawaiian grass and that has not been treated with hormones or antibiotics. This list includes some of them, but you might ask around for others.

On Kaua'i, locally produced grass-fed beef — raised on various ranches — is available from the Princeville Chevron convenience store, Wailua Country Store, Kojima's and Ishihara Market.

On O'ahu, veterinarian Cal Lum sells grass-fed beef from his North Shore Cattle Co. at farmer's markets and through the Internet site, www.beefhawaii.com. The cattle are fed no animal byproducts — the source of mad cow disease — and receive no hormones or antibiotics. Too, at Kokua Market on King Street, you can pick up grass-fed beef from the Big Island.

A seven-ranch partnership on Maui, the Maui Cattle Co., uses a feedlot that finishes cattle on a blend of pineapple bran, sugar cane products and some barley, said manager Alex Franco. It is available at Longs Drug Stores and 50 other markets around the island.

Franco said the group's goal is to keep all the cattle on those seven ranches on Maui, so none has to be shipped to Mainland feedlots.

Big Island meat eaters can pick up local grass-fed beef processed by Kulana Foods at KTA stores and lots of other locations. On the Hamakua Coast, JJ Andrade's Meat Processing Plant also supplies customers with the local product.

Some supermarkets sell only imported beef, and some sell both imported feedlot beef and local beef. The product should be labeled so you can tell which is which.

If you have questions about the beef you're buying, ask the market for information about the ranch it came from and give the rancher a call.

Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i Bureau Chief and its science and environment writer. Reach him at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.