Sustainable Meat

In light of the Taco Bell lawsuit (see link below), I figured I would add a list of brands that you can purchase that practice sustainable farming - meaning that the animals are humanely raised, they are free-range, either pasture or vegetarian fed, no antibiotics/hormones, and the animals are allowed to socialize and interact with other animals. You'd be surprised how much an animal's stress (i.e. horrible living conditions, horrible diet, abuse) can affect the meat they provide.

Here are brands you should not buy because they come from factory farms where all of the above is not practiced:

• Hormel
• Tyson
• Foster Farms
• Jimmy Dean
• Smithfield
• Oscar Meyer
• Louis Rich
• Farmland
• Eckrich
• Premium Standard
• Butterball
• Banquet
• Libby's 
• Healthy Choice
• Hebrew National
• Armour
• Slim Jim
• Perdue
• Farmer John
• Jennie-O
• Staag 
• SPAM
• Hillshire Farm
• Ball Park
• Valley Fresh

Here is a list of brands that practice sustainable farming:

• Shelton's 
• MBA Brand
• Coleman
• Niman Ranch
• Diestel
• Applegate Farms (found at Trader Joe's and Kroger so far)
• Five Dot Ranch
• Eel River
• Organic Prarie (found at Kroger)

As you can see, there are a ton of really popular brands that practice factory farming. It's because it's cheap and allows for the most amount of meat to get out the quickest. I'm not trying to change anyone's diet, but I wanted to provide you with the information in case you decide to change any aspect of what you eat. 

Link for Taco Bell article:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2011/01/taco_bell_meat_not_actually_me.html

On a Lighter Note...

Okay, I hope I didn't worry anyone with my last post. I got a lot of really sweet (and worrisome) responses from some of you. For that, I'm sorry. I was trying to vent while also conveying some humor, but I guess it was a little too serious for humor to show through. Whoops! Anyway, this one will be a lot more positive - I promise!

I wanted to let all of you know about how my newfound diet is working. I call it my diet because my eating habits really have changed completely! Two Sundays ago, I went with my brother Christian and his wife Lindsay to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's in Nashville. Funds are a little tight this month, so I mainly went to observe and see what these stores had to offer. Whole Foods offers a TON of organic products and also offers meat from sustainable farms (i.e. no antibiotics, no hormones, completely organic, and humanely raised animals). This place was amazing!! A sign was posted stating that they offered close to 200 different organic items. They also had a seafood place, a butcher, and a deli all offering meat I could eat! It was heaven! : ) Okay, not really, but it was so awesome to see all the products you could purchase. They even offered environmentally-friendly household products and organic lotions, soaps, and shampoos. They are a little on the pricey side, but it is a place I could definitely purchase meat at.

Then we went to Trader Joe's. TJ's as most people call it is known for the cheap version of "Whole Paycheck" as Christian called Whole Foods. At TJ's I was able to find deli meat from a company named Applegate Farms. Before going on this shopping trip, I found a list of all brands that offer meat and who of them uses and doesn't use factory farming. Applegate Farms was one that doesn't. So, I was able to pick up some turkey and ham for $3.50 a package - just a little bit more than what I would normally pay for deli meat. I was ecstatic!!

Then, today I went to Kroger and found in the organic and vegetarian aisle frozen products by Applegate Farms and Organic Prarie (another company I can buy meat from). They were a little more expensive than I'm sure Trader Joe's would charge, but it's at Kroger right down the street from me and not 40 minutes away in Nashville, so I think it evens the price out. : ) I could purchase beef patties, sausage, turkey burgers, chicken filets...

So, to lay it all out, I now have 3 different places I can purchase meat from. I'm so happy to know that I can keep this "lifestyle" going! I was worrying about having to join an organic co-op group or having to ship meat to myself from far away companies. However, I now have means to buy meat I will feel good about eating. I also can't wait until Spring because I plan on going to many farmers markets to purchase veggies and fruits.

One last thing - I really have felt some benefits from my new way of eating now that I've been doing this for 2 1/2 weeks. Here they are:
1) I've lost weight. Seriously, 3 pounds so far!
2) Now after eating a meal, I feel refreshed and not overly full. I feel like I just nourished my body instead of pissing it off. : )
3) Finally, before all of this, I had been experiencing stomach issues. I didn't know where they were coming from, but I was really sick there for awhile. Ever since I began this diet, I haven't had a single issue yet.

Kinda crazy what giving your body what it needs can do, huh?

Someone Should Have Warned Me

If you are in a great, chipper mood today, be warned: you might not want to read this! Inside this blog, you will find a lot of "Debby Downer" (with slight humor however) because I need to vent.

I had a really good childhood. Well, my parents split up when I was 8, but because of that, I now have 2 amazing step-families, so I can't complain there. Anyways, my childhood was so perfect and innocent that I actually believed everything ended with a "happily ever after." Boy, was I wrong! No one told me that the real world was this awful. Now that Spring semester has started and the students are back in town, I find myself envying these kids. Going to work at the same place five days a week for the same amount of time each day has me feeling like a robot. I have become a monotonous, routine follower. After work, I come home to an empty apartment and try to find things to fill my day. Lately, it's been this little quest of not eating products from factory farms. However, it hit me that no matter what I do...even if I quit eating animals all together (which I have a feeling this will lead to)...nothing will stop the big corporations from doing what they do. It doesn't mean I'm not going to continue what I started, but the food industry won't end with a "happily ever after." How disheartening is that?!?

I know people will say, "Well, when you get into a job you love, you won't mind going to work every day." I'm sure that's true, but I'm a looooonnnnggg way from that day. Looking for a job right now is a job in itself, so where's my "happily ever after" with that? And don't even get my started on relationships. When I was growing up, I believed that relationships (even friendships) end with a "happily ever after." Give me a freakin' break!

Someone should have taken off my rose-colored glasses and sat me down when I was younger and told me the truth. It has taken me 26 years to realize exactly what it is: The real world sucks. Your life will not turn out how you dreamed it would. Being married and having children by 23 years old is impossible. Oh, and, the beloved pet you had as a child will eventually die and you'll miss her every day of your life.

Now, if I had heard that as a child...I probably would have been traumatized. Haha! I'm not going to lie. But at least I wouldn't have been disappointed when things didn't turn out how I expected them to. I'm not looking for advice or answers or thoughts of encouragement. I really just want any parents or future parents or people who eventually will have kids to know that you need to let your children know how the real world works when they're old enough. Growing up and believing that bad things don't happen to good people is just...well, stupid. I know I should be thankful for what I have - a great family, a roof over my head, a job with a decent income - and I am! I really am. But man, I'm just down in the dumps right now because I didn't expect things to be this hard. I'm sure every recent graduate has gone through these thoughts of doubt. I just needed to write about them instead of bottling them up inside.

*Sigh* I feel a little better now. I hope I didn't sound like a spoiled little brat. I know there are people out there who would kill to have my life. It's just one of those days I guess, and thankfully I can express myself on here and hope that none of you judge me for what I write. Anyways, thanks for reading, and I promise my next post will be a lot happier!

We are the Champions, my friend! And we'll keep on fighting till the end...

We are the Champions! We are the Champions!
No time for losers cause we are the Champions...of the (college football) WORLD!

Queen is stuck in my head right now after Auburn's win in the BCS National Championship Monday night! I can't believe my hometown gets to bring home the title this year. Wow!!! Getting to see shots of Toomer's and downtown Auburn before the game really tugged at my heartstrings. I always told everyone I couldn't wait to leave Auburn. Now, more than ever, I find myself missing it. I was definitely homesick watching the Auburn/Oregon commercial, getting to see all the Auburn people in their excitement for how this football season has turned out. I've always been a huge football fan, but this year, I found myself glued to the TV every time Auburn played or was even mentioned on ESPN. I was blown away with the talent we had this year, but every game I kept expecting us to lose. As an Auburn fan, you kind of become accustomed to things not going your way. Needless to say, it was an exciting (and nervous) football season!

The Championship game was, in my opinion, a little boring. It wasn't anything near the high scoring game everyone predicted or I expected. You could really tell both defenses had done their homework. Mike Dyer out shown Cam Newton - something no one expected, and Nick Fairley did his thing. To those questioning Fairley's style: you have to understand the kind of player he is. Fairley plays dirty and nasty and mean. It's something Auburn fans are not accustomed to. We're used to seeing that kind of style from LSU or Georgia. However, he plays with heart, so I can't bash him. Yes, some of the things he has done this season I do not agree with, but he lives and breathes football. I heard he spent 20 days looking at footage from Oregon's games, and it paid off! Despite everything, I'm sad to see him go.

It wasn't the most entertaining game, and besides Dyer's stop-and-go run to get us in field goal range with seconds to spare, it wasn't near the most entertaining Championship game. However, I shed some tears of joy when we won. I got to read posts from friends that were able to attend the game. One of my friends actually got engaged at the game to her longtime boyfriend! As an Auburn fan, it was surreal to get to witness history 53 years in the making! News will come Saturday on whether Cam will choose to stay or not...fingers crossed!

Something I have noticed is how classless and mean some people have been about our win. I've seen numerous posts on Facebook from various fans from other teams in the SEC who are saying nothing but negative things about Cam Newton, our team, and the town of Auburn. Some people really just perplex me with their attitude towards us. Oh well...all I can say is War Eagle and War Damn National Championship! : )

New Year's Resolution 2011

Some of you may have seen "animal rights activist" at the top of my blog and thought "Huh?" Well, let me explain that. Activist may be a little strong for right now...non-factory farm eater is more accurate, but there's no cool word for that. My New Year's resolution besides to lose weight, save money, and drink less - all the cliche resolutions put aside - was to stop eating food from factory farms. For those that do not know, factory farming is a term used for large production of raising livestock in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory. The main product of this industry is meat, milk, and eggs. (I hate milk and rarely buy eggs, so my main focus is on the meat from these farms.) Confinement at high stocking density requires antibiotics and pesticides to mitigate the spread of disease and pestilence exacerbated by these crowded living conditions. In addition, antibiotics are used to stimulate livestock growth by killing intestinal bacteria.

Now that you have that, let me start from the beginning. This past summer, I saw the movie Food Inc. It is an incredible movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Everyone should see this movie just so that they can have the real facts about what they are putting into their body when they eat. Food Inc. focuses on how your food gets from Point A to Point B, what's put in it, what it is made of, etc. The U.S. agriculture business is discussed. Factory farms are discussed and shown. Pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones that are put into our food are discussed. And companies that are monopolizing the food business are discussed. Needless to say, after seeing this movie, I had to do more research on this subject. What I found was horrific. We, as a society, have grown up doing what we've been taught. Eating food is something we need to do to survive. However, it never crossed my mind what I was actually putting in my body until I was 25 years old. Now why is that? The reason is - no one knows because the information is not given to us in plain sight! It is not in newspapers what goes into your food or the procedures that are used to raise and kill an animal. If it was, I can promise it would raise a lot of eyebrows. 

You must seek out this information for yourself if you want to know the truth. That's exactly what I did. I did research on everything to do with this subject. Because of what I found, I decided to make my New Year's resolution to not eat food from factory farms. I'm not going to talk about what goes on in factory farms. I'm not going to show pictures of the animals or the farms themselves. It is a sore subject with me, and one of the main reasons I have not eaten meat from a factory farm as of 1/1/11 12:01 a.m. As an animal lover, it is absolutely atrocious what goes on in these hell houses. I made the mistake of reading too many articles and watching too many undercover videos that the Humane Society conducted about factory farms for me to ever think about going back on this resolution. If you are interested, all you have to do is google "factory farming" and you will see a ton of information on what I've been talking about.

Animal rights is just one aspect of why I've decided to change my eating habits. Another major one is the  chemicals that are put into our food. Pesticides are put on plants to keep them from ripening too quickly, growth hormones are fed to animals in their food (mostly chickens) to accelerate their growth so that more meat can come from one animal, and antibiotics are given to the animals to prevent the spread of disease since there are so many in one space. And this is what we are eating...

Hopefully, I haven't upset too many of you by speaking my mind on this. This subject was a main reason for me starting a blog. It is something I have become extremely passionate about, and I feel I need to spread the knowledge I've learned so that you may know the facts and make your own decisions. I'm only on Day 8 of this, and I'm not going to lie - it is hard. I can't eat out anymore. I can't shop at normal grocery stores for meat. If I want to buy meat, it is going to be more expensive because it has to come from an actual local farm where the animals are free-range, pasture-fed, and raised humanely. I know I have a tough road ahead of me, but I feel proud of myself for doing this. I know that me doing this won't end what goes on in the food business, but at least I can not support it. Hope all of you have a great weekend, thanks for reading, and WAR EAGLE!!!!

First post - it better be good!

Hello readers! This is my first attempt at diving into the blog world, so bear with me. I have pondered the thought of creating a blog for about a year now. It started with my adventures attending concerts on a regular basis. When you attend as many shows as I do, they all tend to run together. I wanted a way to remember everything I could about that particular show and also to be able to share it with others. Well, that was a great idea, but along came my last semester as a college student. For those that do not know, I had the WORST semester I could have imagined for the last semester of college. I wrote 23 papers from September-December (3 months people!) and suffered from an extreme case of senioritis. It wasn't fun or easy, but I'm proud to say I came out with all B's and graduated December 18, 2010. Yay me!

Back to my point - now that I'm a college graduate, working part-time, looking for a real job full-time, I have more time on my hands now. Enter in - BLOG! In this day-and-age, there is so much that distracts us from keeping our relationships open with people. Social networking sites may seem like a good substitute, but in my opinion, they fall flat of seeing who a person really is and what's on their mind. Even text messages have become a normal means of communication between friends and family. This is my solution to that problem. Through this means of communication, I hope that I can express to you who I really am and also provide myself an avenue to dispose of the constant ramblings going on in my head.

I have a lot to say about a lot of topics, but I promise I will never push my views on anyone. Instead, I will try to provide information so that you can form your own opinions. Cheers to all of you reading this and for taking an interest in what I have to say!