Factory Farms - Not for everyone

Here we have another truly horrifying look at the big business factory farm model in the United States.  

How I wish that awareness of the inhumane and unhealthy ways we produce meat would truly hit the mainstream.  The only thing truly likely to change big business practices is backlash from the consumer and a hit to the bottom line.  As long as mainstream America views humane food procedures as the domain of the "flakes", "granolas", and  "hippies" the big business model will always look to profit over health and safety.  Legislation would help but again big business tends to find work-arounds.

Here's how I've begun to deal with this issue in my life.  How I, trying to be The Practical Omnivore shop for meat.  I've started researching the brands I buy to see if their claims match up with production.  While I don't live in an area where it is easy to find free range anything, I look for companies that promise their animals are grain fed without antibiotics and that that have free access to food and water at any time.  This means I buy chicken that isn't free range but the chickens do not spend their lives crammed in little cages, percolating in their own feces.  I've started eating buffalo from time to time because I trust the production company.  Very occasionally, I buy mainstream meat when I need a certain cut that I cannot buy within my own list of "approved" brands.  I do that with great reservation.

All of this means that I'm also making a choice to spend a little more on most of the meat that comes into my house.  It also means that I have to shop at more than one store for the brands I desire.  Having a small deep freeze helps in this as I can stock up when I'm in the stores and lessen my number of trips and the amount of gas I use.  For me, it's been well worth it.  I find the quality of meat generally higher and I feel much better knowing that my dinner was treated ethically before it came to my plate.


When I watched Food Inc. the "Steak and Taters Guy" was very concerned.  I remember him walking through the room and saying, "I hope this doesn't mess up my hamburgers", one of his favorite meals.  Well, it hasn't.  I've just become much more aware of where my food comes from and learned more about what things I'm willing to sacrifice to feel good about what I eat.  It's a journey I'm still on, balancing cost with what seems right but it's been well worth it.