It's official - you are what you eat, and a cow grazing a plant-rich pasture tastes better when it gets to the plate. That's the findings of a study led by Henry Buller from Exeter University. The idea for his research came from France, where farmers look after the biodiversity (number of species) in their grasslands specifically to protect the quality of the food they produce from it.

Buller says we should be making more of what we've got here in the UK - and many would agree. But it can be far from easy, particularly where the kind of 'unimproved' grassland he's talking about is fragmented into little pockets still holding on here and there. We have our own small example - our culm grassland

nature reserve needs light traditional grazing with cows. It has to be cows - they eat the right way (ripping mouthfuls, rather than nibbling as sheep do) and have the weight needed to break down the tussocky grass. But ours is a 7 acre site and it would be uneconomical to raise cows here just to graze the grass. Yet without them this precious bit of Devon, designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest for it's wildlife, wouldn't survive.

We manage by 'borrowing' cows from our neighbours at Higher Punchardon Farm half a mile up the road. They come in the early summer and graze our big field, then when we need them in the nature reserve they go in for a couple of weeks at a time, or whatever it takes. The Devon Wildlife Trust's grazing links scheme helped us set this up. But even with their help it only works because we are so close. Neither we nor Higher Punchardon (also a small business) have transport to move cows. Thankfully, we can drive them up the lane under their own steam, and anyone who follows this blog may have spotted their comings and goings.

Even this arrangement doesn't always work perfectly. This year the ground was too wet when we needed the cows most, and the grass was too poor by the time it had dried out and they had gone home for their Blue Tongue jab and come back again (no crush to do it here). Hopefully next year will fare better.

In Buller's study, trained meat-tasters reported that animals raised on pasture where there are lots of flowering plants and different kinds of grasses was 'more 'tender and flavoursome' than those raised intensively and were fed on silage or commercial feeds for much of the year.

There were health benefits too - some meat reared on unimproved grassland had higher vitamin content, more of those omega 3 fatty acids we're all supposed to be eating and even a chemical that helps prevent cancer (conjugated linoleic acid).

That's in addition to the 'feel good factor' that you get when buying locally-produced meat that has been raised with the environment in mind.

Buller thinks marketing initiatives might help raise profit margins on this kind of agriculture. An article, in Planet Earth Online, says:

"a step towards this could be to expand place-based labelling schemes, like France's Appellation d'Origine Controlée system or more recently the European Union's Protected Food Names legislation, which applies to famous regional foods like Stilton cheese or Parma ham. ... For example, farmers in a particular upland area could band together and create a local label that would raise awareness of their produce and its unique qualities as well as giving them more bargaining power in negotiating with buyers.

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Interesting idea, and I know others, including the Devon Wildlife Trust, want to help farmers get rewarded for good environmental practice and management that helps wildlife. But I think it will take a while to really get going.

So what will you be ordering? Biosphere burgers? A red steak from Ruby Country?

Meanwhile, if you stay here your visit is already helping wildlife conservation, because it's our guests that make managing the farm for wildlife financially viable (thank you to you all). And if you're a meat eater and order beef from Fiona's farm shop at Higher Punchardon, there's a good chance you'll be eating cows that helped us keep this corner of Devon special.