Organic or "regular" meat?

[~Jessie~]

Originally Posted by Lilavati

I find the treatment of pigs at feedlots to be even more upsetting than how they treat cattle. So for me its not so much the "organic" (which tells me nothing about how the animal was treated) but humane raising that motivates me. That and heirloom, pastured pork tastes better.

I definitely agree. I'd like to find a local, pastured source. I found this website and I have to sort through it to see what I can get access to.

http://www.eatwild.com/products/florida.html

ETA: Looks like there is a pastured farm 20 minutes away from me that has pork. They're open on Saturday mornings so I guess I know where I'll be going haha.

[RD]

Honestly, I don't notice much difference between organic meat and "regular" meat. The only time I noticed a difference from the normal grocery store meat was when I had the beef we raised on our cattle ranch or someone brought home a deer or turkey.

I do like organic foods, especially when it comes to fruits, but I don't see a huge difference when it comes to meats.

My big concern when buying meat is the treatment of the animals, which unless I go to a farm myself and buy an animal, I can't really guarantee my own peace of mind each time I take a bite.

[Saeleofu]

I get whatever's on sale. I scored three nice sized steaks for $2.75 yesterday

When it comes to other groceries, the same thing is true. If organic and regular are the same price, I'll go for organic. I also scored a pack of fresh organic mint and a pack of fresh organic chives for 25 cents each yesterday

[Southpaw]

We've never bought organic meat. The meat from the local meat shop (I don't think they're really "butchers") tastes WAY better than anything from the grocery store, but it's not organic.

I only eat chicken though.

[Miakoda]

I bought a cow from my uncle. Her name was Lil' Dumplin. We ate her. There is a definite different taste in "homegrown" grassfed beef that your typical commercial beef cattle IMO.

With that said, I'll buy organic sometimes, but I don't worry about it much. (I do get my milk from a local dairy I used to work for as I know their cattle are treated better than most people on this earth and they are truly hormone and antibiotic free. it costs more, though)

The thing that gets me with organic and "free range" is the false belief that they give. For example, buy free-range eggs, one would think the chickens are living a happy life running around the farm being chickens. Not true. All that needs to be done, legally, to declare one's chickens as "free range" is there needs to be a door/opening in the coop/cage where the chickens are kept so that they could go out if they wanted to. The kicker is that most of those openings are not large enough to allow for the chickens to actually get out. So not sure why this is a 200% price increase kind of difference.

And organic farmers tend to have their farms right smack between "regular" farms. Ever hear of water "run-off"? They are not near as "organic" as some think or would like to believe.

[HayleyMarie]

I "try" to buy mainly organic, but its pretty hard since I am still living at home and I don't have the freezer space for bulk.

Now when Tyler and I move to BC, were planning on buying mainly organic meat, if we can. As well as hunting in the fall.

[katielou]

No meat from the grocery store ever.

I really dislike meat but will eat it now and then, I cook it for my husband.
We buy everything from a little on farm butcher. If he doesn't have what we want we won't die without meat

[MandyPug]

Living where i do, there are a ton of producers around to buy from and many are organic. I have 2 sources for organic beef and a source for organic pork and there's lots of sources for organic chicken and turkey. Even eggs we get from small farmers or even people i know that have some hens but can't eat all the eggs themselves.

ETA: We also have a lot of organic bison available too!

[Red.Apricot]

We're too broke to eat enough meat to make a difference. We eat a chicken every three weeks or so.

My parents used to buy half a pig from their ranchy-type friends every year until Mama Pig died. That was basically the only pork I liked ever.

[Doberluv]

I don't eat that much meat anyhow, a little chicken, mostly wild Alaskan salmon (2-3 times a week) and beans, eggs, stuff like that. Occasionally, some beef and pork. I never put too much stock in organic...figured it was a big racket. The marginal benefits don't justify the cost for me. I believe that article Gemp posted...it makes sense. Taking up at least twice as much land to grow the same amount of food is harmful to the environment. There are all kinds of inconsistencies and nonsense in the cultural fad of organic food. jmo.