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There are some who will never consider eating meat again based on what they’ve seen and read about conventional farms. I don’t blame them. If that were my only option, I wouldn’t eat meat either. Thankfully, that’s not your only option. Instead, you can get your meat from a local farm who raise their animals humanely, feed them what they were meant to eat, don’t give them any hormones, antibiotics or other junk, and let them freely roam around on pasture.
But not everyone has access to healthy, local, grass-fed meat, so here is where you can order healthy meat. (They’ll safely ship it to you.)
Grass fed is so superior to other meats, that once you know about it, it’s all you’ll want to feed your family. Below you’ll also find links to some very informative pages to explain things you may have wondered about grass fed meat and why it is better for us.
“Of course those sites say grass fed meats are the best, that’s what they sell!”
I knew you were thinking that, because I think that way, too. But you’ve heard me spouting off about the better nutrition found in grass fed meat since I began this blog, and I haven’t gotten around to doing a whole post about it. Well, they’ve done the work for me; they have all sorts of accurate information for you to look over. I know it is accurate because I’ve read all the same things about grass fed beef in the four years we’ve been eating it, they just have it all compiled nicely in one place. (See links below.)
(READ AN UPDATE about our first order and what we thought!)
ALL MEATS ARE NOT THE SAME
Just keep in mind that there are big differences in meats. Kent & I rarely buy from local grocery stores anymore, or even from local meat markets, because each time I’ve asked where their meat comes from, the answer is either “we don’t know“, or it goes something like this:
“Can you tell me where you get your beef?”
“Oh, it comes from a distributor down in Ohio somewhere.”
“Do you know where THEY get their meat?”
“I don’t really know, from all over I guess…”
That’s all it takes to convince me to avoid buying our meat there. I rarely even get past where their meat is from, to ask my other questions about what they’re fed, or whether they’re out on pasture, etc.
QUALITY MEAT
If you have a local source for quality meat, it’s best to support your local farmer, but if not, ordering healthy meat is a great option. I also get things from them that my local farmer doesn’t have, like Beef Tallow Shortening to make healthy french fries! (Just don’t overheat the oil.) I’m also going to try (get this) Braunsweiger…yes, liver AND “head cheese” – sounds icky, I know, but if it actually tastes good (or at least OK), it’s a great way to get more organ meats into our diets. (I’ll let you know how it goes.)
More informative links:
- Read about Grass Fed Advantages (many many many of them)
- What exactly do the animals eat?
- What is the E.coli risk with grass-finished beef?
- Is Grass-fed beef safe from BSE/Mad Cow Disease?
- What is CLA and why do we need it? (You’ve especially got to read this one! More on CLA below, too.)
- More about why their meat is so much healthier than other meats
MORE INFORMATION TO LOOK OVER:
- The Amazing Benefits of Grass-fed Meats from Mother Earth News
- Mother Earth News: “Omega-3 fatty acids are another vital nutrient that’s diminished by a feedlot diet. Calves start losing their stores of omega-3s as soon as they start eating grain. By the time they’re ready for market, very little of this heart-healthy fat remains. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a fat that appears to be a potent cancer fighter. CLA is higher in grazing animals than in feedlot animals. The longer the animals graze, according to a study published by the Journal of Animal Science, the higher the CLA content of their meat.”
- Is Fluoride safe in your toothpaste or in your drinking water?
- Have you visited my Kitchen Kop Shop yet?
- Does Red Meat Cause Colon Cancer?
- Union of Concerned Scientists (This is scary about animal cloning.)
- Check out these healthy hot dogs!!
- Many more topics along the right in the sidebar
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Great blog – thanks for getting the word out about healthy eating!
I don’t know if the markets around me (Detroit area) are available to most, but I have also found that by asking the butcher directly, I can get more info than a casual glance at labels.
I discovered that all beef Whole Foods sells (and some of it is quite reasonably priced) is pasture fed, and ‘grain finished’ (the last month before processing.
A brand Meijer Thrifty Acres carries now, NatureWell, is also pasture fed and grain finished. I’ve found ground beef as low as $2 a lb. (typically it is $5 however.) We also like Laura’s beef which has been available for about 12 or 14 years at Krogers and Farmer Jacks here. Krogers also has their own Organic brand of beef which I believe, is pasture fed.
One question I have is, is pasture fed the same as grass fed? Organic would mean no chemical pesticides or fertilizers are used on the pasture.
As far as economizing, I have found some fabulous prices on organic grass fed beef by checking for the bright orange Manager Special labels that Kroger & Farmer Jacks use on meat that is due to expire. I am comfortable buying it the day or 2 or 3 before and freezing it until I need it, or cooking it same day.
My dh says he can definitely taste the difference in organic pasture fed beef, and we all notice it seems far more tender. (Perhaps I am buying less lean cuts, though.)
HTH : )
Someone has already offered to write a guest post on grass-fed meats for next week (yay!), so I need to ask them to clarify whether grass-fed and grain-finished is close enough to all grass-fed. I’m going to learn a lot from that post!
And yes, as far as I know, pasture-fed and grass-fed are the same.
Kelly
Hi Kelly — did you ever find out what is going on with grass-fed then grain-finished beef? It’s been six weeks since your friend offered to clarify this for you; maybe you can “nudge” her! — Kathy
Hi Kathy,
Yes, she wrote the post a while ago where she talks about that very question, here it is:
http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/02/5-ways-to-achieve-grass-fed-beef-cooking-nirvana-guest-post-from-the-food-renegade.html
Kelly
Well I don’t want to give the secret away. But if you live near Ann Arbor, MI. Arbro Farm’s Market sells local grassfed beef from Lamb Farm, for under $3 a lb!
Stephanie, my sister does live near there, so I just emailed her, thank you!
I love the OXYMORONS “healthy meat”; oh, and “happy animals” (until you kill them) – !
Of course we don’t – “love” anything like that at all – except the irony…….and of course WAR!
puhleeze
Dr. Dal,
I take it you’re a vegetarian, but how many bugs and other critters are killed with an agriculture-based diet?
I encourage you to check out this related post: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2009/11/are-meat-eaters-ruining-the-earth.html, including the links and hopefully even the book that is referenced there.
Kelly