Some of you may remember that I avoid conventionally raise pork products. I cannot support raising pigs, animals with the intelligence on par with a dog or 3 year old child, in farrowing crates that don't let the mothers move around. All they can do is stand or lay down; they cannot even turn around. (Having recently been a mother cooped up with a new born, I know that you need your own space!) Also, adults are raised on concrete and therefore cannot wallow in the dirt like their instincts tell them to. So, I've been buying my pork at the farmers' market from Peach Creek Farms. Love their ground pork, chops, and stew meat, but not so much their bacon.
Happily, Pederson's Natural Farms Bacon is Certified Humane by the Humane Farm Animal Care Program. (Its nitrate free, too. And from Hamilton, Texas. That's local to me.) I can buy it at Sprouts, and their eggs are humanely raised, too. Our hens are old and the days are getting shorter, and we're getting about one egg per week. After caring for chickens, I don't want to ever buy eggs from places that put 1000 chickens in a space the size of your guest bathroom, stacked in crates, crammed in on top of each other. My eggs and bacon come from the farmers' market or Sprouts.
Now Anthony wants to know why I don't apply these rules universally to beef, lamb, and poultry raised for meat. Well, a girl has to have her priorities. I prefer grass-fed beef, but its not always practical. I do buy it intermittently from the farmers' market. Also, we eat a lot of Morningstar Farms meat substitute products instead of beef (ie taco meat, chili meat, burgers, etc). We don't buy a lot of lamb, and about half the time I buy it grass fed at the market from Loncito's. Free range chicken and turkey is not very available either, and unheard of at restaurants. And chickens raised for meat don't live (suffer) as long as egg-laying hens.
Many feel we Americans should be eating less meat anyway, certainly not three times a day. We frequently go meatless for dinner at our house: tofu, tacos, pasta, egg-based dinners, etc.
Also, these animals (cattle, lamb, and poultry) are not on the same intelligence level as pigs. I feel that the pigs do suffer more. So I am happy to bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan!
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6 comments:
Mmm...bacon.
So what are you going to do with your aging hens?
I did not know that pigs' intelligence was on par with a three-year-old. That puts a whole new spin on things. I wish that there were more options for locally-based or cruelty-free foods where I am...it's just not that available here in my tiny little town. :-\
I've long been a lover of the Pederson's Bacon (also available at CMarket) because of its nitrite-freeness. Now I have another good reason. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
(also of note at CM is nitrite free lunch meat from Debecca. They have a very good pastrami. and they are also in Texas, relatively local.)
and now. I'm hungry.
Emily: the aging hens get to live out their lives in our yard. I am too weak to butcher them, and they are likely too tough to eat.
Lula: ok, pigs are as smart as a 3 year old, depending on how you measure intelligence. Obviously they don't speak! Also, a farmers' market is always a good place to start looking for humanely raised meat (and produce!)
Krispy: maybe you need to make some of your deviled eggs with bacon. Now cruelty-free!
We have really cut down on the amount of pork we eat, mostly due to the difficulty of finding humanely-raised and local pork. We have TONS of grass-fed beef available locally (like in my freezer!), not nearly as much pork. We do get local lamb, which is delish.
Also, I just realized that one of our favorite smoked salmon products (honey smoked salmon , purchased at Costco) is produced near Denver. So yippee!
I feel pretty lucky in that I am supplied with all the venison we need, thanks to my dad's hunting (he and his wife just cannot use all the meat). So I use ground venison wherever anyone would use ground beef. Venison italian sausages and venison jerky are my other two faves (don't care for the steaks much). Free range, very lean, and I don't think I've bought actual beef in over three years. I do buy chicken and very occasionally pork, but now you've got me rethinking the pork... I wish there was venison bacon!
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