Haynes.tv

Update 8/12/06
Stop and Shop carries ground buffalo for $4.29 a pound

Beef has increasingly become a less than ideal choice these days with worries of mad cow disease and fears stemming from added hormones and chemical in cattle feed. Bison meat however carries none of these concerns: because one Bison have little need for extra protein in their diet:

There have been no known cases of mad cow disease in bison, and the animals’ natural characteristics make it useless for ranchers to give them extra protein from animal byproducts

said Martin Marchello, an animal sciences professor at North Dakota State University.

The animal just doesn’t do well with a real high-protein feed, so there’s less tendency to even want to move in the direction of supplementing feed,

In addition to the peace of mind this brings the animals can be traced much more easily, with the bison industry being so small if a problem does happen to spring up they could easily pinpoint the source. Not to mention Bison has all the delicious flavor of beef yet 70% less fat and 43% fewer calories than regular ground beef! Bison is higher in Iron than beef, has no problems with E-Coli in and even has less cholesterol than chicken or fish.
The meat is bright brick red and, as one wit said,

the he-man hunk of beast flesh is so obviously a carnivore’s delight, it can stun a vegetarian at 20 paces.

However, on the downside it is hard to find and usually expensive when you do. I have never seen it in any supermarkets and believe it is pretty much only available online. Although I do know of one national chain restaurant that offer Bison, that being Ruby Tuesday. In addition I have seen Beefalo on the menu in a steak house in New York. A Beefalo can have up to 3/8 Bison genetics with the other 5/8 of the genetics coming from virtually any of the domestic breeds of cattle (Angus, Limousin, Hereford, etc.) or from any of the newer composite breeds (Beefmaster, Santa Gertrudis, etc.). Beefalo meat also offers many of the same benefits as Bison.