If you are a meat lover/eater or have family and friends who are, then this article is going to be super important for you to read and share with others.

 “The Importance of Eating Organic Meat”

We all know or have friends and family members who are vegans and vegetarians whom we respect greatly. With that being said, it’s important for each of us to evaluate our choices and find the balance that best fits within our health style and makes us feel our best!

Michael Pollan says, “You are what you eat eats!” This is such a huge statement to consider.

It would be wonderful if factory farmed meats had a big giant WARNING LABEL on them, but unfortunately they don’t…

The fact that Dr. Marian and myself are huge animal lovers, it is heart wrenching to know about the practices perpetuated on the animals at “Factory Farms”. Animals grown in factory farms are subject to horrific conditions:

• Factory farmed animals live their lives cramped together, with illness, and subject to injury or death during transportation. Often times they risk of not being properly stunned before being slaughtered for human consumption.

 

• The majority of broiler chickens are raised in sheds, with as many as 100,000 chickens all crammed together.

• The majority of U.S. cattle are raised on grain in order to bulk up faster for earlier slaughter and quicker mass production. They are given hormones and antibiotics to help along this process. This process is riddled with tremendous health and environmental problems. The waste produced from these farms pollutes local waterways, the soil and the air, all leading to health hazards for farming communities.

• Cows that are given hormones experience swelling to their udders, causing them to get so big that they can barely stand on their own anymore.Pigs are given no anesthesia when their tails are cut off.

Those reasons and more are why we recommend obtaining meat directly from local farms or sources you trust where they are transparent about their practices.

Knowing the source of our meat, gives us peace of mind that the animals truly had a “free-range” life and weren’t kept in a crate and pumped with antibiotics like in some Big Ag operation. Ideally, we want all the meat we purchase to come from a healthy, content animal that grazed on an open, green pasture its whole life.

One of the best ways to do this is to connect online with farmer’s markets or use subscription-based Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) to purchase organic and grass-fed meat.

Yes, this could mean that the meat may cost more than what you find in an average supermarket. But rather than judge the value of food in terms of dollars, think of its value in terms of nutrition and your health.

Toxins accumulate in animal tissue = Toxins accumulate in our bodies! 
Therefore we want the meat we eat to be as healthy as possible!

In recent research we found out that farmers are feeding their livestock candy! Yes you are reading this correctly, CANDY!

Junk food such as candy and gummy bears are being sold to farmers in order to give cheap carbs for their livestock. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to eat meat that’s been fed on a diet of Gummy Bears and Skittles

We already know that industrial meat is pumped full of antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, which contain more inflammatory omega-6 fats from corn and much fewer anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats derived from a pastured diet. Now to come to find out that they are also feeding their livestock with a diet that is so unnatural to them (sugar is toxic to animals too- the last thing you want to eat is meat from an inflamed cow) it’s beyond what we should accept and stand for.

Bottom line, we must stop eating factory farmed meat and poultry. Grass-fed, pasture-raised meat is the way to go, not only for our environment but also for our health. not to mention it’s better for our animals. The fact is, if we want to get any of the benefits that meat can actually give us, we must eat the best meat possible. I know that there is a bit of a challenge to find at times, therefore we are here to share the following information in order to make this process easier for you.

When shopping for meat in the supermarket, there are a few labels out there that are meaningful and 3rd party certified which tell you quite a bit about how the livestock was raised. Take some time to remember what these various labels below mean, so that you’ll recognize them whe
n you see them!

These are the labels You Want to look for in order to avoid factory farmed meat:

• Animal Welfare Approved – This 3rd-party certified label ensures that the a
nimals were raised on sustainable pasture-based family farms that treat their animals humanely.
• American Grass-fed Certified – A 3rd party certifying program that ensures meat and dairy comes only from animals that ate nothing but their mother’s milk and grass t
heir whole lives, and that they didn’t come from a feedlot. No hormones or antibiotics are permitted.
• Global Animal Partnership (Only steps 4, 5 and 5+) – A 5-step animal welfare rating program that outlines specifics on how animals are cared for and raised. Steps 4, 5, and 5+ require access to pasture.
• USDA Certified Organic – This will help you avoid the worst factory-farmed meat, with exceptions. Sadly, organic meat may be raised in factory farm conditions and this label does not ensure they were raised much more humanely than conventional animals. Growth promoting drugs, hormones, antibiotics, and GMOs are prohibited from their food, and they are fed only organic food. They also must be given access to the outdoors

Below is a list unverified and unregulated labels which means whatever they’re stuck on could have been (and likely have been) raised on a factory farm and is usually Not the Best Choice:

• Natural – No artificial ingredients or added color and it’s only minimally processed. May still have been given hormones, antibiotics, drugs, and raised on GMOs in a factory farm. This label doesn’t mean what it should and is essentially meaningless.

• Humanely Raised or Raised in a Humane Environment – The term “humane” is not properly regulated and there are no USDA standards. Brands like Simple Truth and Harvestland brands – have been caught raising their chickens on factory farms although they were labeled this way.

• No Added Hormones – No hormones were given during the animal’s lifetime, but they may have still been given antibiotics or other growth promoting drugs. This is a common label on poultry and pork, but it means absolutely nothing because the USDA does not allow hormones to be administered to poultry or pork anyway! This is a shady way to mislead customers.

• Raised Without Antibiotics – No antibiotics were given during the animal’s lifetime. May have still been administered hormones (if not poultry or pork) or other growth-promoting drugs such as ractopamine in turkey, and may have been fed GMOs on a factory farm.

• Vegetarian Fed – Not fed any animal products. May have been fed grains, GMOs, antibiotics, or given growth hormones.

• Free Range – Animals had access to the outdoors, but it is possible that they never stepped outside. May have still been administered hormones, antibiotics, or other growth-promoting drugs su
  ch as at ractopamine, and may have been fed GMOs on a factory farm.

• “Cage Free” on poultry – This label on poultry is misleading because only chickens raised for eggs are typically caged.

• Grass fed – Unless 3rd party certified, this term is not properly regulated and the USDA allows this term to be used on factory farmed meat. May have still been administered hormones, antibiotics, or other growth-promoting drugs such as ractopamine.

You will be more likely to find meat that wasn’t raised on a factory farm in natural food markets like Whole Foods Market, Earth Fare, Sprouts, etc., but you still need to check labels and ask questions.

We also recommend ButcherBox which has 100% grass-fed beef in quantities that are affordable and easy to fit in your freezer, with a flexible delivery schedule.

When dining out, don’t be shy about asking your server where the restaurant purchases its meat, it is more commonly done than you might think. If the answer is something like Smithfield, Tyson or Perdue (instead of a small local farm), that indicates the meat is probably processed to the hilt. That’s why I often opt for the wild fish or vegetarian dishes.
Please share the information here if you’ve found it to be helpful.
Let’s continue keeping Health and Wellness Evolved!