Learn which terms and labels on beef are meaningful—and which ones aren't.

If this is what you think of when you hear "grass-fed beef," make sure it's what you're getting.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Last December's year-end revelation that a company in South Dakota had been injecting its beef with ammonia to kill bacteria may have turned you off beef. The practice, it seems, is legal and was being used to kill foodborne bacteria, although tests from The New York Times revealed that the ammonia wasn't doing a very good job, and that Salmonella and E. coli still lingered after the cleansing dip.

One way to avoid the scary practices of commercial meat processors is to switch to organic meat, which has seen a surge in sales over the past few years. According to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, sales of organic beef rose steadily until the recession reached its peak in 2008. But
sales have since rebounded, and in mid-2009, hit levels 14 percent higher than they were two years ago. However, health scares don't seem to be behind the upswing, nor does a desire for "elite" gourmet food seem to be the motivating factor. Shannon Hayes, a partner at Sap Bush Hollow Farm in upstate New York and the founder of GrassFedCooking.com noticed that most of the people who bought her farm's grass-fed beef weren't the wealthiest residents in her area. Hayes heard similar anecdotes from other farmers, so she conducted a survey of about 20 families nationwide to find out why they were buying grass-fed beef. "Most were not in the elite bracket but in the middle and lower classes," she said in an interview with Rodale.com. Of the 20 families she interviewed, most made around 200 percent of poverty-level income. They were buying beef because "they had chosen a life of social responsibility," she said. "For a while, we thought that the health reasons would draw people in, but it was more the social issues, putting money into their own community. If they were going to eat meat, they wanted it to be ecologically responsible."

Grass-fed beef is definitely more environmentally friendly than conventionally produced beef, with its energy-intensive production of grain to feed cattle that then produce more of the greenhouse gas methane because their bodies can't handle the grain. If you're looking for a way to cut your carbon footprint this year, as well as avoid exposure to ammonia or whatever else might be used in mainstream beef production, give grass-fed beef a try.

Following is a rundown of some common terms used on grass-fed beef packages and what they all mean.