What do a hot dog and food activist Michael Pollan have in common?

Both can be advocates for sustainable meat. On July 4, Franktuary, a Downtown lunch spot that serves gussied-up hot dogs and more, introduced the Locavore, a hot dog made from organic, local, grass-finished beef.

This meat may look similar to the regular stuff, but in many ways it's a whole different animal. And while it's still a rare sight, it's getting a little easier to find in grocery stores, farmers markets, by mail order and even at restaurants.

While grass-fed is often used interchangeably with grass-finished, the latter is more correct. Most beef cattle eat grass and hay at some point in their lives, but when it's time to fatten them up for the slaughter, they're brought to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and their diet is switched to grain, usually corn, which adds weight much more quickly and efficiently than their natural diet.

Grass-finished beef has environmental and nutritional benefits for humans as well as health benefits for the cows. CAFOs, the feedlots where conventionally fed beef cattle are managed until slaughter, pose significant health and environmental risks to the public, according to a 2008 report from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.

Just one of many concerns raised was that corn-based feed, along with the antibiotics and other additives it often contains, increase the risk of creating antibiotic-resistance in bacteria, because cows (ruminants) digest grain so differently than the grass-like foods they are supposed to eat.

Preliminary research suggests that grass-finished beef may be more healthful than grain-finished beef. It's leaner and lower in calories. It also contains higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and conjugated linoleic acid, which health professionals believe may have cancer-fighting properties.

But many people think the best reason to eat grass-finished beef is the taste. In "The Pleasures of Cooking for One," due out this fall, Judith Jones (best known for editing Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking") speaks passionately about its beefier flavor, encouraging her readers to spend a little more and work to make less meat go further.

Marilyn Anthony, south east regional director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, hopes that many more people will have the opportunity to taste grass-finished beef and see for themselves.

"We feel that there are benefits to the animal, there are benefits to the environment, there are benefits to the consumer, but it also just tastes fantastic," said Ms. Anthony.

The association is holding its second annual grass-finished beef tasting at the Glasbern Inn in Fogelsville, Lehigh County, on Aug. 2. There farmers who meet the association's strict standards for grass-finishing will compete to see who has the best-tasting beef. The public gets a chance to learn about the farms and to taste grass-finished beef burgers and stew.

While the tasting -- about 275 miles from Pittsburgh -- is a little far to go, there are other ways to try grass-finished beef. At least seven farms in the Pittsburgh area are raising it, and many specialty grocery stores in the area stock it. New farms are starting to switch from grain-finishing to grass-finishing. J.L. Kennedy Meat Stand at the East Liberty Farmers Market Cooperative just brought its first grass-finished beef to market. They'll have more in the future, especially if demand grows.

At Mirabelle Restaurant in Oakmont, chef John Muth offers grass-finished beef from Horizon View Farms in the form of sirloin steak, beef carpaccio and a burger.

But sometimes customers, even those who care about sustainable food issues, prefer the taste or texture of grain-finished beef. Grass-finished beef is more chewy.

At Legume Bistro in Regent Square, chef Trevett Hooper offered a side-by-side tasting of local grass-finished beef and corn-finished beef from Niman Ranch.

"While a lot of people appreciated the flavor of the grass-fed beef, most people preferred the overall experience of the Niman steak," he reported in an e-mail. "The Achilles' heel of grass-fed beef -- or at least the grass-fed beef we've been getting -- is in the texture."

For now he keeps grass-finished rib steaks in the freezer -- not ideal, but the only way to have them available -- and looks forward to trying again with braises and stews this winter, dishes where texture won't play as significant a role.

Another place texture doesn't seem to matter? When grass-finished beef is made into a hot dog.

Franktuary is selling "tons" of Locavores, said Franktuary employee Derek Zanetti. "We had one customer call it 'the filet mignon of hot dogs.' "