Organic or "regular" meat?

[J. Morrison]

When I was broke and living check to check, I'd buy whatever I could afford. Now that I'm on my feet again, I try and buy organic if I have the option. After watching a few documentaries about the food industry, I cringe every time I think of cows standing knee high in their own poop. :-X

[*blackrose]

I'm like Sparks. My major consideration is what's on sale, and the rest of the time I buy regular. I'm not a fan of organic. Knowing people on the production side of the industry, I know what's involved in growing organic. I think most people would be surprised at the relatively little difference between the two. Honestly, I think organic farming has as much negatives as regular, except that producers and suppliers can charge more because it's trendy

^ This. I'm in the College of Agriculture at Purdue (so I am surrounded by farmers LOL) and took a Physiology and Development of Meat Animals course last semester, and now I'm taking a Meat Science course. I would not go out of my way to purchase organic.

I think our beef comes from a local farmer (that does free range) as we buy it by the half cow, but I don't know for sure. Our other meats (chicken and pork) we buy from the store.

[Kat09Tails]

Just in case you wanted to know what the USDA Organic seal means as it's applied within the industry

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text...05_main_02.tpl

[Jules]

We don't buy meat in the grocery store

We buy our beef, chicken, lamb (and eggs) from a local farmer. I am not sure if they are certified organic, but all cows are grass fed and free range (as are the lambs and chickens). I like the farmer and his family a lot. It's a win win win!

Eta: I didn't vote since I am not sure if they are organic, and I don't really care about that. I care that the cows are grain fed and lead a good life until they are humanely slaughtered. Same with all other animals and animal products I eat

[JustaLilBitaLuck]

The whole organic vs regular thing doesn't really matter to me, as I don't eat much meat (and when I do, I'm not the one buying it). However...

Originally Posted by Miakoda

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.

I deal with this all the time at work. People want an "organic dog food" or one that's made with "free range ingredients" with no clue as to what those terms actually mean. It's frustrating.

I wrote a humongously long post about it here: http://www.chazhound.com/forums/show...58&post1868458

[Miakoda]

Originally Posted by J. Morrison

When I was broke and living check to check, I'd buy whatever I could afford. Now that I'm on my feet again, I try and buy organic if I have the option. After watching a few documentaries about the food industry, I cringe every time I think of cows standing knee high in their own poop. :-X

I've seen a whole heckuva lot of beef cattle ranches, and none of them had cattle just stuck standing in their own urine and feces.

I've also been to three separate slaughter houses in Texas, and the conditions of all three were quite clean. Cattle were in clean pens with hay and water. They weren't crammed side to side. And there were at least a thousand head at each facility. To be honest, I was impressed with the conditions (one of them was the one I used to slaughter and prepare our cow).

Oh, I know the bad and disgusting exist. But the overall slaughter industry isn't what PETA portrays it to be. And while one can have a big/chichen/turkey/etc. farm as clean and humane as possible, the fact d jets that we dint have the space nor the money to raise such animals/fowl over thousands of acres of land. And the current need for such far outweighs the amount that would be available if such breeding/raising farms were outlawed. Which is exactly what PETA wants.....for no person to eat meat of any kind.

This isn't 1880 anymore where most people and there families exist off the produce grown on and animals raised on their own land.

[*blackrose]

Originally Posted by Miakoda

I've seen a whole heckuva lot of beef cattle ranches, and none of them had cattle just stuck standing in their own urine and feces.

I've also been to three separate slaughter houses in Texas, and the conditions of all three were quite clean. Cattle were in clean pens with hay and water. They weren't crammed side to side. And there were at least a thousand head at each facility. To be honest, I was impressed with the conditions (one of them was the one I used to slaughter and prepare our cow).

Oh, I know the bad and disgusting exist. But the overall slaughter industry isn't what PETA portrays it to be. And while one can have a big/chichen/turkey/etc. farm as clean and humane as possible, the fact d jets that we dint have the space nor the money to raise such animals/fowl over thousands of acres of land. And the current need for such far outweighs the amount that would be available if such breeding/raising farms were outlawed. Which is exactly what PETA wants.....for no person to eat meat of any kind.

This isn't 1880 anymore where most people and there families exist off the produce grown on and animals raised on their own land.

*likes*

[Beanie]

I buy big bags of frozen chicken tenderloins/breasts. Because it's really cheap. I buy them on sale for like $7 and I make meals with it for about a month.
Not organic, it's probably really gross, but when you don't have much money, you do whatever you can. And if it makes me die faster, all the better. Less time I have to worry about making ends meet.

[Greenmagick]

I dont really care about organic (though I prefer that if buying grocery store meat to non) but I do look for local, pastured, meat when possible...HUGE difference nutritionally there.

Veggies, yes, organic or local/sustainable....the organic label itself isnt my issue, but the farming practices that are involved.

[Xandra]

From what I've seen in pics, broilers need a bit more space and some loose dirt to roll in. Hens need to be kept loose, not in cages. But I don't think they all need to be raised on acres of grass (I think you can have 50 chickens on a acre if you want them to get their nutrition from the land). My hens are truly free range (no fence) and if they have a bucket of food they don't really do much. I know that animals that have all their food brought to them "take up" acres to grow the grain they eat, but I imagine it's still less than what they'd take up if they were eating low-calorie grass.