FROM THE FARM TO YOUR PERFORMANCE: WHY WHERE YOUR MEAT COMES FROM MATTERS
A visit to my butcher looks a little different to most.
I want to tell you about where I buy my meat. By no means am I telling you to do exactly what I do or I have any direct relationship with the farm. It's because I genuinely believe that one of the most under-rated conversations in nutrition is not what we eat, but where it comes from. And for me, that conversation starts with Knepp. Knepp Estate in West Sussex is one of the most extraordinary places in Britain. It was once a conventional farm and by the early 2000's, was struggling to be economically viable on overworked, compacted soil. In 2001, owners Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree made the decision to stop fighting the land and start listening to it. They removed the fences, introduced free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs and deer, and let nature lead.
Two decades later, Knepp has more than doubled its soil carbon, soil organic matter and microbial biomass. It has more than tripled its soil mycorrhizae, the beautiful fungal networks underneath our feet where plants communicate in all aspects of their lives, from protecting those that need help, to alerting threats, to driving nutrient cycling. It is now one of the most bio-diverse lowland sites in England, with populations of rare species that have returned without intervention. And from that land, they produce meat. Wild range beef from Old English Longhorn cattle, rare breed pork from free-roaming pigs, venison from wild deer that graze and forage freely, eat a naturally varied diet, and live entirely as nature intended. I visited and camped at Knepp in 2021. I walked the land and watched the animals roam freely. They have not only an ancient quality, but a frequency of ease and stillness that comes from knowing they are exactly where they should be, within a vast ecosystem that has come back to life around them. I felt the energy of that place deeply. Since then, I have never looked back and every piece of meat I buy comes from Knepp.A visit to my butcher looks a little different to most. Let me explain.
Why it matters nutritionally
Values matter deeply to me, but this isn't solely a values story. There is a growing body of peer-reviewed research showing that regeneratively farmed, grass-fed meat is nutritionally different from conventionally produced meat and the differences are meaningful for anyone who is active and paying attention to what goes into their body. Grass-fed beef contains two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional grain-fed beef. It contains three to five times more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a fatty acid with well-documented anti-inflammatory properties and associations with improved body composition. A 2025 study found that beef from bio-diverse regenerative pastures was more nutritionally complex than even standard grass-fed examples, with higher levels of CLA, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA's) , and phytochemical-derived metabolites that are not present in grain-fed animals. The connection runs through the soil. Healthy, living soil grows more diverse, nutritious pasture. More diverse pasture produces more nutritionally complex animals. More nutritionally complex animals produce more nutritionally valuable meat. The chain from ground to plate is not just philosophical, it is bio-chemical. Omega-3 fatty acids reduce exercise-induced inflammation and support recovery, the kind of deep, cellular recovery that lets you train consistently rather than constantly managing niggles. CLA is associated with lean muscle mass preservation, which matters not just for performance, but for long-term metabolic health. And the micronutrient profile of pasture-raised meat - zinc, iron, B12, and fat-soluble vitamins, is consistently richer than conventionally raised equivalents.
These are not marginal differences. But they are the kind of differences that compound. Just like progressive training, consistent sleep, the small daily habits I talk about constantly with my clients. It's the quality of what you put into your body adds up over time, every meal is either working for you or it isn't. Meat from an animal that lived well, ate well, and moved freely is doing more for your body than the same cut from a system that optimised for yield over nourishment. In my opinion, these are marginal gains through food are one of the most under-rated performance tools there is.
The bigger picture
I am a nutritional therapist, and I spend a lot of time thinking about what my clients eat. But increasingly, I find myself thinking about the system that produces that food. Because here is something I think about with my clients, some of them are doing everything right, hitting their macros, taking their supplements, training consistently, and yet something still feels off. Energy not quite where it should be, recovery slower than expected and a nagging sense that the body is not quite responding the way it should. I find myself asking: what is the quality of the food underneath all of that effort? If the meat on their plate came from an animal raised in depleted soil and nourishment, what is that doing over time? What are we missing when we reduce food to its macronutrients and ignore everything else about how it was produced? To be brutally honest, I cannot fully answer that question right now. But for me, Knepp is a counterpoint to all of it. It is proof that farming differently, working with nature rather than against it, produces land that is healthier, animals that are healthier, and food that is more nourishing. The fact that it is also better for the environment, for bio-diversity, and for the long-term viability of British farming only makes the story more compelling.
I am not naive enough to think everyone can buy from Knepp every week. Good food costs more, and that is a real and important conversation. But I do think that understanding where your food comes from, and moving towards better where you can, is one of the most powerful things we can do for our long-term health. And that can start as simply as finding your local farmer or visiting your nearest farmers market.
Where to start
If you are curious about Knepp, you can order directly from their website at www.knepp.co.uk. Their wild range meat is available to order online and delivered across the UK. If regeneratively farmed meat is outside your budget right now, the principles still apply, look for pasture-fed, organic where possible, and British-raised as a starting point. The Pasture for Life certification is a reliable mark of quality. And if you want to understand more about the science of soil, food quality, and what it means for your health, Isabella Tree's book Wilding is one of the most important books I have read. It changed how I think about food entirely. We are what we eat - but I would encourage the reframe - we are also what our food ate, where it lived, and how it was raised. That is functional nutrition in its fullest sense.
References:
Soil and pasture health and beef nutrient density — PMC 2025 (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0312290).
Knepp Estate rewilding data — www.knepp.co.uk
Rewilding Britain project profile — www.rewildingbritain.org.uk
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