Vegetarians, vegans, and pescatarians have the day off. But those of us who love eating meat from time to time are invited to Buy Meat that is Raised Using Sustainable Farming Methods: and boost your score by 50 points! (Vegetarians already have 200 points! And weekday vegetarians have 100 points! See dozens of Food actions here.) Leading up to Superbowl Sunday, we’re looking forward to buffalo wing platters, chili bowls, and an alternative boeuf bourgignon along with everyone. Today’s action encourages you to be picky about the meat in those tasty recipes: Buy Meat Raised Using Sustainable Farming Methods.
By the way, Practically Green’s actions are written by our editorial director Alexandra Zissu, the author of The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat (among other books), so rest assured this is prime tenderloin info.
The word sustainable is widely used
in natural food circles. Unlike USDA organic, it isn’t government
defined or third party certified. It signifies a lot: healthy farming
practices that don’t harm the environment, humane animal treatment,
support of farming communities, fair wages and treatment for laborers.
But in order to know what is truly meant by sustainable, and if you can
trust it, you need to know your producers. Since sustainable meat is
local meat, it’s pretty easy to ask questions of your farmer. Good
subjects to raise include farming practices (i.e. if they’re using
pesticides and fertilizers for the animal’s feed), drug use (i.e. are
they administering hormones and non-therapeutic antibiotics to their
animals), and general questions about how the animals spend their days.
Just because something is local doesn’t mean it is automatically
sustainable.
There are many benefits to meat from sustainably raised local
animals: it’s usually safer and better for you and the environment, and
its transportation footprint can be considerably less than its
factory-farmed and mass distributed counterparts.
Smart
shortcut: buy Applegate Farms meat products... totally know where each
product came from (as in what farm, what town)... and enter their recipe
contests on Facebook!
The biggest challenge related to buying sustainably raised meat is finding the good stuff. The process of figuring out what is truly sustainable and where you can buy it can take some time. But it’s very worthwhile. And well-raised meat is becoming increasingly available as consumer demand grows—in butcher shops, farmers’ markets, CSA-style meat shares directly from farms, natural food stores, and even in some supermarkets.
Browse the recommended links to locate farms near you that are producing sustainably raised meat.
When
we have family and friends for a big festive tailgate, we like to
consult The Family Dinner: go-to cookbook for fun events at home.
Pictured: Greek Meatballs
- Bookmark This Site: EatWild.com
- Grist: USDA Inspector General–Meat Supply Routinely Tainted With Harmful Residues
- Sustainable Table: Serving Up Healthy Food Choices
- Practically Green Book Pick: The Butcher’s Guide To Well Raised Meat
- Bookmark This Site: Farm Fresh Directory
- PracticallyGreen.com: Meat Advice To Live By–Alexandra Zissu Introduces Her New Book, “The Butcher’s Guide To Well-Raised Meat”
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