"organic Carni"

(KM) #1

I was reading about Frankobear’s dinner party and it got me wondering about animal farming. This isn’t meant to be judgy or about ethics or spiritual concerns.

Eating organic, grass-fed, free range, wild catch, humane, etc etc etc to satiety is bank busting expensive, and often very hard to come by. It also requires a lot of leg work, as slapping a label on things is so popular. Free range meaning there’s a 4x4 dirt patch a chicken can walk into if it pleases and so on. What I’m wondering is whether anyone here is specifically targeting natural/wild/rotation farming (ala Joel Salatin) for their ZC diet, and if you are, do you find that it has made a physical / testable difference? I keep reading about the poor feeding practices for farmed animals, and how that has skewed the Omega profiles along with other nutrient differences.

#2

for me I am a farmer. I kept 400 chickens for egg production sales and 125 hogs and cattle and I had all the pasture meats and more.
I tell you for me personally…I do fine on store bought and feed lot meats etc. I have no issues at all finding ‘cheaper meat’ sales and I never buy grass fed organic no antibotic and all that, unless it is on a super markdown cause no one else is buying that higher priced stuff, then I grab it :slight_smile:

for me on taste I prefer grain finished beef. I just like it better. I finished my own cattle on it too and I am not a fan of some of the ‘grass fed no antiboitic’ tastes of other’s cattle out there.

Eggs I have to say mine were better. Fresher right out of the chicken that minute LOL but I now buy store bought eggs since we closed the farm down and retired and while I know there is a diff in taste etc. I don’t find it in any way a deterrent for me.

now most times it is just a factor of omega 3 and 6 diff. in grass fed vs. bigger farm lots etc and there truly is not that much ‘real nutritional valule’ differences to make the higher cost more acceptable in my eating life, but also many do put that ‘farming husbandry’ and support local farm biz as a priority. Also one thing in local farms that are not bigger grass fed companies is their meat handling practices. So bigger companies are under bigger guidelines and rules when the farmer ‘has rules’ that must be handled thru govt guidelines to sell, you sometimes can’t count on them ‘doing the right’ thing all the time. We had some local farms poison up some people on their beef sales around my area but that is of course a ‘farm by farm’ basis on their handling practices too so…but hey it can nail big companies on recalls etc. too so…

basic zero carb…eat what ya love, what you can afford…done deal

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #3

I’ve become interested in regenerative agriculture, especially the grazing practices recommended by Salatin, Alan Savory, Richard Teague, and others. One of the points that graziers in the movement make is how the nutrient profile of their meat changes as the soil improves. So yes, there is a testable difference in the meat. How or if that translates into a testable difference in our bodies, on the other hand, is not something I’ve heard much about.

A point also made by people in this movement is that “organic” certification does not mean pesticide-free; it simply dictates which pesticides may and may not be used. The result is that meat produced by regenerative methods may not be certified as organic, even though it was produced by methods that allowed the farmer to eliminate pesticides and synthetic fertilisers from their inputs. Greg Judy also claims that his meat tastes better than much other “grass-fed” meat not raised using regenerative methods, because his cattle are eating a much more diverse and abundant forage. (It’s long been well-known by farmers that the grass the animal eats affects the taste of the meat and milk produced.)

I agree with Karen. Eat what works best for you, both in terms of taste and in terms of budget.