At Ahara Rasa, care is part of our process at every step along the way; we craft our grass-fed ghee in small batches; we package it in glass bottles, never plastic; we cook over open flames, never in a pressure cooker or vacuum evaporator.
Why would the butter we use be any different?
Ethical sourcing is and always will be a priority for our company. It’s part of our commitment to responsible practices in every step of our process. Let’s dive into why respect for the animals, grass-fed sourcing, and pasture-raised cows are the foundation of our sourcing guidelines.
The Good Behind the Ghee
Why Does Animal Welfare Matter?
Ethical animal treatment is the foundation of a sustainable food system, and offers an array of benefits to our entire global society. Animal welfare accounts for livestock’s positive physical and psychological health as well as living conditions that allow freedom of normal behavior without unnecessary stress and discomfort. This improves the quality and taste of both meat and dairy products.
By treating animals ethically and respectfully, dairy cattle are more productive, show improved reproductive outcomes, and result in fewer veterinary expenses for farmers. Not only does animal welfare mean a better bottom line for farmers, reducing overcrowded factory farms naturally reduces contagious diseases, injuries, and the need for mass antimicrobial treatments to keep animals safe.
Most importantly, proper animal care is simply the right thing to do. Showing respect and offering proper care benefits us as well. Sharing compassion with animals boosts our own capacity for offering empathy, strengthening our connection with other living things, our environment, and the planet as a whole.
How Do Cows Impact the Environment?
Grass-fed livestock isn’t just better for the animals, but it’s better for the ecosystem too. This creates safer consumption of meat and dairy products and fosters a better relationship with the animals’ surrounding environments. Raising animals in this way results in fewer pollutants compared to overcrowded factory farms, resulting in a healthier overall ecosystem as well as healthier food.
Respectful animal raising and regenerative agriculture go hand in hand. Farmland regeneration is an increasingly important process that increases soil fertility, biodiversity, and climate change resistance. It is a responsible method that also improves local water quality and preserves sustainable plant and animal production. Farmers who focus on animal welfare and farmland regenerative agriculture are leading the movement towards a more sustainable food system and more resilient local communities.
Supporting Local Small Businesses
Farmers who participate in animal welfare and grass-fed practices are most often small, local, family-owned businesses. These farms play multiple roles in their communities beyond providing a product: environmental stewardship, job creation, cultural heritage preservation, and support for other local businesses and industries. Their success is integral to the entire local economy.
As a small business ourselves, supporting other small businesses is at the core of our ethos. Other small business owners are our neighbors and friends. They are the ones at nearby booths at local farmers markets. They are members of our community, and like any community, it’s important to look after one another.
The Ethical Combination
It can be tricky to navigate both ethical standards of animal treatment as well as grass-fed standards at the same time. Positive animal welfare does not automatically mean grass-fed, nor does grass-fed imply respectfully raising animals, as some grass-fed cows are still confined to small spaces and not allowed to roam freely.
When we source butter for Ahara Rasa ghee, we prioritize choosing butter from pasture-raised cows. Cows allowed to roam and graze on pastures are more likely to be both treated well and raised on a grain-free diet.
Both of these standards are key to our ethics here at Ahara Rasa. Not only do these standards best align with respect for animals, the environment, and our community, butter from like-minded farms results in the best quality and best tasting ghee around.
Grass-Fed’s Nutritional Benefits
Grass-fed butter contains many health benefits that butter from grain fed cows lack. The cow’s diet is one of the most important factors influencing the final quality of dairy products. In particular, what cows are fed impacts the fat content of their milk.
Cows who exclusively eat grass produce milk with more beneficial fatty acids, including up to 500% more conjugated linoleic acid, which has been known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Lower in saturated fat, and containing lots of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, grass-fed butter is considered a more heart-healthy option than grain-fed butter.
Butter from grass-fed cows has a natural yellow color and a smooth texture, thanks to the high content of beta-carotene it contains. Beta-carotene is an important antioxidant shown to reduce the risk of some diseases. Grass-fed butter is also rich in Vitamins A, K, and E, all of which are necessary for a range of cellular functions.
Ghee made from grass-fed butter maintains elevated nutritional profiles. Research suggests grass-fed ghee leads to improved body composition, bone health, cognitive function, and cardiovascular support, in addition to simply tasting amazing.
Best Butter, Best Flavor
Health and environmental benefits aside, grass-fed butter just tastes better. With a superior creamy and spreadable texture, brighter color, and richer flavor, grass-fed butter is generally of a higher quality than butter from grain-fed cows. Grass-fed butter has a more unique flavor profile than butter from grain-fed cows. It exhibits a more intensely-buttery flavor with malty, herbal notes.
These rich flavors are great on their own. When we cook grass-fed butter over an open flame to make Ahara Rasa ghee, the flavors develop even further, resulting in ghee that delivers flavors unlike anything made by mass-producing companies.
Pairings & Possibilities
At Ahara Rasa, we complement already-delicious ghee made from grass-fed butter with high-quality infusions to create an unforgettable final product. Our Lemon & Garlic ghee is tasty and heart-healthy, and only contains three ingredients: grass-fed ghee, organic garlic, and organic lemon. Garlic and lemon bring out the natural herbal flavors of the ghee while adding a slight tang guaranteed to brighten up any meal. The lemon’s brightness helps balance the richness of the ghee, resulting in a smooth flavor profile.
This ghee works well as a base for a zesty salad dressing or spread on a baguette for a quick garlic bread. Use it to sear fish, scallops, or shrimp, or use it to baste the juiciest, most flavorful oven-roasted chicken you’ve ever had.
Ahara Rasa’s Grass-Fed Ghee
Ahara Rasa is a Sanskrit term that translates to “the essence of food” and refers to the subtle energy derived from food rather than the mass itself. Offering the best energy means starting at the very beginning — the energy must be positive all the way from the start to the jar.
There’s a reason we chose “Butter in its Purest Form™” as our tagline. The purity of the source, the process, and the resulting ghee is our highest priority, and we hope you can taste it in every jar of Ahara Rasa ghee.
Butter in its Purest Form ™