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Hot dogs have long been the guilty pleasure of America’s fast food purveyors: even mutant chicken wings seemed more natural than the mystery meat encased in the pink tubes sold at ballparks. But in 2005, Larry Bain and Sue Moore tried to change that by opening Let’s Be Frank, an SF hot dog company which sold only shame-free grass-fed beef.

It seemed to work; by offering a fast food alternative to foods made with “industrial” corn-fed meat --the kind villified in books by Michael Pollan and later documentaries --they were able to open hot dog stands in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a restaurant in the Marina District and to distribute their sausages to specialty stores around Northern and Southern California.

Why then, has Let’s Be Frank started selling partially corn-fed dogs?

The reasons for the shift point to a problem for consumers as well as restaurants: food labels and certifications frequently obscure rather than clarify ethical food decision-making.

When they launched their company, Bain and Moore purchased all their beef from Hearst Ranch, which raises its cows on vast Central California ranchlands. But over the course of several years of drought, Bain heard that Hearst was using irrigation for its grass and was starting to send some of its cattle to feedlots rather than rely solely on wild pasture.

They looked at a few other grass-fed beef companies, and found that most sourced from outside of California, as far away as South America, such as the popular Estancia Beef brand from Uruguay. Then they came across Five-Dot Ranch, which is owned by sixth-generation ranchers Loretta and Todd Swickard and based in Susanville (Lassen County). Its cattle are primarily grass-fed, but their feed gets supplemented with grain during seasonal changes.

“There is usually a period of time where the grass doesn’t have enough nutrients to keep animals stable in weight,” said Bain, who visited the ranch Monday with his staff.

Bain said Five-Dot estimates the animals are fed on grain for six weeks of their roughly 2-year life span, and all with feed grown by the ranch. The ranch boasts Food Alliance certification, which sets standards for environmental, labor and animal welfare practices.

Let’s Be Frank won’t have to change labeling since the meat is still legally considered grass-fed at a diet the ranch estimates is 96 percent grass and hay. In the end Bain thinks it’s better overall than sourcing 100-percent grass-fed beef from outside of California – such as from Uruguay’s Estancia, which Bain said would have been cheaper.

And these dogs are not cheap, at up to $8 per package at local stores. Grass-fed beef comes at a price, and it looks like consumers who want it will have to ask more questions about whether the product they are buying is as environmental as they think.