Organic/Free Range Meat, Poultry and Eggs - Thoughts?

[SadieKate]

Some of it is that buying local AND buying free range/organic means that there is less fossil fuel used in the production and transportation of not only the food itself, but all the pesticides and herbicides, etc. used to produce the food.

[ccbloom]

Some of it is that buying local AND buying free range/organic means that there is less fossil fuel used in the production and transportation of not only the food itself, but all the pesticides and herbicides, etc. used to produce the food.

Very true!

I think I'm afraid to buy a full chicken. I've bought them from the market before, but I just don't love handling them, and again, we just don't eat the other meat. I suppose we could try it in different dishes, though.

[Eden]

Though I don't purchase much meat in the first place, after having watched Food Inc I will never buy chicken or turkey (or beef or pork for that matter) that isn't free range again...

No animals, not even chickens deserve to live and die in conditions as bad as those...
(and when I do purchase turkey I have found a brand that at very least claims to humanely slaughter the animals) Buying local rather than from a large scale producer, organic/free range though they might be, hopefully also means the animals were not processed in one of those huge nasty slaughterhouses.

[ccbloom]

Eden, I still need to see Food Inc. The whole way chickens are slaughtered in the large slaughterhouses when they hang upside down is just a terrible practice and totally sickens me. I don't know why I thought organic/free range chickens were processed any differently.

[Eden]

You're totally right - just because something is organic or live stock is free range doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't produced on a large scale "factory farm". As buying organic becomes more the norm I'm sure that to keep costs down and supplies up more large scale organic farming will appear and yes I am skeptical of whether or not you can keep up good farm practices while attempting to produce vast quantities. Some of the bigger companies do use cooperatives made of smaller farms to get enough product (I think Stonyfield farms does this with its organic dairy products) I would though be willing to bet small producers are more likely to do their own slaughtering and dressing or have a local butcher do it than to rely on a large processing plant.

I feel quite fortunate to have great access around here to local food - there is a farm market in some section of town pretty much every day of the week, many of them running year round. For the 4 or 5 times a year that I purchase beef or lamb and the once or twice a month I get turkey I'm happy to seek out good local stuff.