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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4697 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: We're Eating Less Meat. Why? - NYTimes.com
Conventional meat is always going to be more tender due to the lack of movement. There's a reason that the japanese cows are massaged and fed beer and just basically lay around... they don't flex there muscles as often as free range grass fed cows. The tenderness of the beef has less to do with what it's fed than how it lives.

The most tender parts of the cow are often what are referred to as "reactionary" muscles. These are the parts of the animal that aren't used all the time and are therefore more tender. A great example of this is the "hanging tender", which is a muscle that's just kind of... there. It serves no function and because of this, damn does it make for some good eats. http://www.smartkitchen.com/resources/hanging-tender

So, the trade off is that cows that are treated like shit all there lives will likely be more tender because they've rarely been allowed to move.