Organic or "regular" meat?

for ourselves, we buy organic. that means i've DRASTICALLY cut down the amount of meat we eat. Ry is getting to love this semi-vegetarian thing though. he is in love with black bean burgers, black bean burritos, meatless nuggets and chili.

unfortunately, i cannot afford, at the moment, to only buy organic for Rock.
i buy him cheap steak cuts, pork, and veal.

i'm hunting for a good butcher though.


ETA: got ahead of myself. i typed organic, and it is, but i meant to clarify. we buy from a store we know gets meats that are humanely raised and treated, including feeding. i had to search a database to find them, but the end result is better tasting meat that i feel better about eating. the health part doesn't come in for the fact that we eat that meat, but what we're replacing the bulk of our meat intake with. my cooking overall has become healthier.

that's a pretty good take on the whole thing. i'd have to say I agree.

Just a note on the antibiotics used in ag. I think I saw somewhere that 80% of our antibiotic usage is in the ag industry and that isn't just to get a sick cow well or prevent illness long enough to slaughter them, but it is used to get them to gain weight, which means they can make more. Nice use of a formerly potent life saver that is becoming less and less effective everyday.

You cannot beat actual free-range, farm-fresh eggs. They are just amazing.

PETA would like us to believe that all farms are industrial nightmares. That is, of course, not true. The industrial farms, would like us to believe that they are all small farmers who sincerely care about the welfare of the animals. That is also not true.

Farms range from factory farm nightmare to humane family farm, and by and large, other than checking it out yourself or by reputation, there's no way to know where that plastic wrapped package with a happy cow on it that costs three times normal price came from. And that's without taking "organic" into account, which really has very little to do with the welfare of the animals. At the margin, "organic" farms probably take slightly better care of their animals, because they have to to not use all the antibiotics and such . . . on the other hand, many small farms can't use the organic label, because it costs too much to get the certification.

Mike and I are increasingly buying from Virginia small farmers and buying grass or pasture fed. It tastes better, and we can be fairly certain about how the animals were treated (something no label in a grocery will tell you for certain). We don't care too much about organic, though I get organic milk at the grocery to avoid BGH (and milk from farms just isn't feasible . . .if we can't freeze it, then we have to go to the store). But, of course, the sort of places we generally buy from basically are organic. And I don't care if they dose a sick cow with antibiotics so he or she gets well (which organic farms can't do . . no antibiotics, period, not just no preventive use). We have also switched to vegetarian 2-4 days each week so that we can afford the difference in price (and its better for us anyway).

If more people made the same choices: eat less, higher quality meat from more humane operations, we could still feed everyone, and probably without much, if any, increase in land use. Its the demand for cheap meat in vast quantities that, at least in part, drives an industry that treats animals . . .in a way I wouldn't treat them, although its not as bad as PETA wants you to think, nor is it all the same. But if I wouldn't treat an animal like that . . .why should I buy from people who do? I am genuinely fond of cattle and chickens. I like them. I rather like goats too, and my aunt's sheep are pleasant creatures. I don't particularly like pigs, but I nod to their intelligence. However, I also think all these critters are extremely tasty . . . but I want to know that they lived well and died humanely.