Tuesday, January 25, 2011

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
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3 comments:

  1. LuckyGranolaJanuary 25, 2011 at 8:55 PM

    Hey! Great info - love this :) Just want to add: support local farms! It's a little more challenging than hitting up the neighborhood grocery store, but small farmers almost always have free range animals and often farm organically (even if they're not certified).

    -LindsAy

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  2. BrittanyJanuary 26, 2011 at 8:04 AM

    Thank you for sharing such great information! I am astonished at how many companies are practicing factory farming. That's really sad, especially since all of them are well-known brands. That's unfortunate. It looks like Kroger is the primary place to buy meat if you want choices other than that from factory farms and are not near an organic market?

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  3. Lindsey HornerJanuary 26, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    Lindsay - Definitely! I left those off the list! You and me might have to make some day trips out to some when Spring comes along.

    Brittany - Kroger has a vegetarian and organic food section which is where I found 2 brands. You can also go to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in Nashville which have a ton of "good" food. And like my sister-in-law mentioned, farmers markets are great too! You just have to seek it out if you're serious about it, but it's definitely worth it!

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