maiforpeace wrote:tattuchu wrote:I eat much less meat than I used to. When I do get meat, I try my damndest to get organic, grass-fed, etc. Often the organic beef and lamb I find are imported from Australia ans New Zealand. But whether from down below or more local,they're like entirely different animals! The taste and texture are completely different, and so much better. For taste alone, I can never go back to factory farmed. Even the organic eggs I get (common enough around here now that they're even very reasonably priced) are far superior in flavor and even appearance.
OK, for those of you who don't care or think there is any suffering going on with these animals, what about these reasons:
Factory farmed meat vs pastured raised meat
As old Hugh Glass, the one-bite cannibal once said, "Meat's meat." Cows are made by man for man, but if you want to pay a premium price for grass-fed organic beef, be my guest...or my customer (until I sold the ranch) and enjoy. If you want cheap food however, don't worry too much because they are just dumb beasts, and I do mean dumb. Cows don't care where they are as long as they get fed regularly.
TASTEWISE - it's like processed American cheese vs a 10 year old aged cheddar.
I seriously doubt you can actually tell the difference between "factory" beef (meaning it was started on grass somewhere, then sent to a feedlot where it was finished on grain or corn before being slaughtered) and free-range organic beef in a double blind taste-test, but it might be interesting to try one. The flavor and texture of beef is mostly dependent on what the animal ate in the last six months of life and on how much exercise it's had. The more exercise, the tougher the meat. That's why Kobe cows are kept standing in stalls and are massaged and fed beer...and are genetically bred for high fat content marbling.
NUTRITIONALLY - it's like white bread vs whole grain bread.
Not really. It's all protein and your body can't tell the difference between Kobe beef, feedlot beef and free-range grass-fed beef. Meat's meat.
For someone who believes in science, you're particularly gullible when it comes to unsupported nutritional claims about supposedly "organic" or "natural" foods, most of which are indistinguishable scientifically from "ordinary" food and produce. About the only measurable difference is a reduction in pesticide contamination and antibiotic/steroid residue in meat.
THE ENVIRONMENT:
THE LAND: it's like everything going into a a landfill vs recycling
Oh hogwash! Non-organic and organic produce are grown on virtually the same ground, and it's all "recyclable." Literally the only difference between "organic" meat and "factory farmed" meat is lower yields from "organic" beef because the ranchers don't use steroids or antibiotics, which means their cows don't fatten up as quickly and are more prone to disease. Yes, organic beef has fewer (though usually not zero) antibiotics and steroids in it, which is not a bad thing, but most people don't care as long as their hamburger is cheap.
And the fact is that if every rancher had to produce "organic" beef by law, your hamburger would cost you $50 a shot because the economies of scale and the markets don't support the added expense of organic farming except on a small, specialized customer scale. There simply isn't enough "grass" out there to feed every cow, pig or chicken we eat ever year "naturally" and "organically."
Feedlot farming exists because of the demand for meat which grossly outstrips the capacity of organic operations to meet the demand.
And add to that the burdens that the government puts on ranchers to begin with, including new regulations that will cost ranchers tens of thousands of dollars to track each and every animal they raise from birth to the packing plant using microchips. Most "organic" ranchers are small operations with a few hundred or thousand cows at most and they operate on a very, very slim margin. That beef you get for four bucks a pound paid the rancher about 75 cents a pound or so, before expenses.
THE AIR: driving a prius vs a hummer
Cows fart. Factory (feedlot) cows fart just as much as grass-fed cows do. And when they make a hybrid electric vehicle that has the same capabilities, range and capacity as a Hummer, I'll damned sure buy one. Nothing in sight yet, so I'll continue driving the one I already have.
THE WATER TABLE: fracking vs no fracking
There's legitimate concerns about water pollution from concentrated feedlot operations, but both the states and the feds have strict regulations about discharges into waterways. And free-range grass-fed operations are not currently subject to any regulations regarding runoff, although the feds are toying with them...which will put many small organic operations (like mine) out of business entirely.
And fracking takes place thousands of feet below the water tables, and there has been exactly ONE EPA confirmed case of fracking fluid in a water well, in Wyoming. So long as the well casing is properly cemented and sealed, which is required to keep the gas in the pipe anyway, fracking fluid does not contaminate any water tables. What does occasionally cause pollution are fracking fluid pits where local laws allow drillers to pump the waste fluid into an open pit, which they then cover up and abandon. In the past this lead to leaching of fracking fluid into shallow water supplies and adjacent water users were rightfully outraged at this.
This is becoming quite rare however, and recent laws in most states require pit liners to prevent leaching during drilling and fracking and require that not only is the fluid pumped into trucks and disposed of at an authorized disposal site, but that the liners and contaminated soil are removed and properly disposed of and the pits filled in. One of my good friends is in the business of removing and hauling away pit liners and remediating contaminated soil, so I know this to be true.
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