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Some reasons why we should consider only eating Free Range animal products:
1./ Moral reasons
It is only right that we show respect for all life forms, especially those which provide us with nutrition. Animals unwillingly give their lives for us, and this is the argument most often used for being a vegetarian. Many of the animals we kill are also sentient intelligent beings. While animal liberationists will argue that we should re-invent ourselves, I don't believe it is right to force an omnivorous animal to become exclusively vegetarian. We can however at least show the decency to let our prey roam pastures and live something close to their natural lives, under our protection. Animals raised inside and in cages live miserable sick disease prone lives, as highlighted by animal liberationists over the past few decades. Whether it is a dog, cow or fish incarcerating an animal is needlessly cruel!
2./ For Our Health
Healthy animals make healthy food. Only pasture fed cows and sheep can be healthy, as they are living off the food they are designed/eveolved to live off. Feeding herbivores a diet of just grain, is like feeding humans a diet of just bread. Chickens are healthiest when they roam pastures feeding off insects and grass shoots. So too are pigs healthier when they can exercise and scavange for real roughage found only in the outside environment. Like humans, they also require sunlight to produce Vitamin D. Grain Fed Battery animals require huge doses of anti-biotics and sometimes even hormones to survive in cramped environments. The effect on us the consumer has never been properly tested.
Healthy animals produce healthier food for us, with higher levels of Omega 3 and Vitamins in their body fats. Animals are made of what they eat, and if they are only eat grain, then the products we get from them will be no more nourishing than the grain we fed them. We might as well have just eaten the grain ourselves!
Pasture fed animals on the other-hand supply us nutrients that only they could absorb.
3./ For our environment
During times of drought and colder months we will have to feed some grain to our animals to keep them alive, but we must bear in mind that it is extremely wasteful producing food from plants then feeding them to animals. Growing grain uses water and fertilizers and fossil fuels, and raising animals uses even more. While producing meat is never as efficient as producing grain in terms of calories per input, grazing paddocks can make use of land that is unsuited to cultivation, and can also be a great means of returning nutrients to the land between cropping.
Pasturing animals will overall result in the most efficient means of producing animal products, and while expensive in terms of resources, is not as destructive on the land as continual cropping with grain crops. When it comes to environmental damage, nothing is worse than Australian rice! which causes huge salinity problems from irrigation.
Support the Free-range meat industry by only buying organic and free range eggs and pork. Consume beef and lamb which is certified pasture raised, which should be always the case for New Zealand and Australian products. |
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2 Comments
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Comment By: Graeme Reilly |
1:04PM 12/12/2006 |
Hi Goodfat.
Can you point me in the right direction for obtaining bulk organic meats,apart from the Common sense organics.
Cheers. (love the website) |
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Comment By: Gordon Rouse |
10:46AM 13/12/2006 |
Tricky!
Lamb and beef is usually free range in New Zealand and Australia, so I myself don't pay extra for organic red meat, however by doing so I am still risking exposure to possible growth hormones etc.
When it comes to pork and chicken, organic, I feel is essential!
I enjoy this luxury rarely, sourcing this from Huckleberries. (Royal Oak Auckland) There are some organic butchers around, but the only one I knew of has shut down.
If you can, buy eggs and milk directly from the farmer.
see http://www.realmilk.co.nz/ for how to get fresh milk.
For you poor drought stricken Aussies, I highly suggest Roo meat, as the beef and lamb quality will undoubtedly be affected by the shortage of grass this summer. Roo meat is very lean, so it should be marinated and cooked in olive oil or lard to make it more palatable.
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Current Poll Results
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The milk I consume most is: |
Naturalea 4% unhomogenised (
12 %)
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Farmhouse (4%) unhomogenised (
4 %)
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Standard (3.3%) homogenised (
9 %)
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Low Fat Milk Homogenised (
31 %)
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Real Farm Milk - non pasteurised (
43 %)
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