Let me ask you something…
Do you know what’s inside the meat you buy?
If you’re in the majority, your answer is most likely no.
But really… have you ever had a reason to question it till now?
I bet when you buy meat, you’re expecting it to be full of goodness, right?
You probably envision the delicious flavors and juices with each mouthful.
And it should be that way, but sadly, since the beginning of Factory Farms (a.k.a., CAFOs – Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) the meat offered on grocery shelves is nothing more than a chemical cocktail ready to destroy your health.
Yet millions of shoppers continue to buy meat without knowing the health risks.
And you can’t blame them.
Have you heard your government tell you the meat you’re buying can make you sick?
Factory farms sure aren’t saying anything.
And it’s not in the news either.
But what a slap in the face it is when you realize a factory farm’s sole intent is to maximize profits.
That they could care less about the products they produce.
That they could care less about how many people fall sick and even die from the meat they sell.1
That you’ve been purposefully kept in the dark about what you’re buying. It makes you sick to your stomach.
Why You Should Never Buy Meat From Factory Farms
In order to maximize profits, CAFO farms cram as many animals into a single space as can fit, leaving very little room for the animals to move around.
These tight conditions force animals to live in their own waste, which makes them prone to disease.
To combat disease that comes with unsanitary conditions, animals are pumped with an assortment of antibiotics and other disease-prevention drugs.
On top of that, they are given another variety of antibiotics along with injections of different sex hormones to speed their growth.
To aid in this unnatural growth spurt, they are also fed an ultra-high GMO corn or soy-based diet.
These two things combined (drugs and a high-grain diet) bring the animals to maturity as fast as possible, at which point they’re sold.
Today, over 60 years since CAFOs began, they represent about 5% of U.S. animal operations, but they produce over 50% of all the meat that ends up on Americans’ plates.2
The rampant abuse of antibiotics in this industry has lead to a rapid rise in antibiotic-resistant pathogens that can cause food-borne diseases in humans.
These pathogens cause tens of millions of infections and thousands of deaths each year.2
Why Conventional Wisdom Is Not Enough
When you realize that you shouldn’t consume meat coming from factory farms, you begin to seek alternative sources to buy from.
And the conventional wisdom being passed around as the best alternative to factory farms is to buy organic, and, if possible, buy from local farms.
But as you’re about to discover, this advice falls short in empowering you to locate the most nutritious meat available on the market.
Why Buying Organic Is Not Good Enough
Buying organic is good for ensuring that antibiotics and hormones aren’t given to the animals. And it’s even good for ensuring that GMOs aren’t used in the feed.3
But it does nothing to address the animals’ natural diet.
For example, a cow’s natural diet is fibrous plants like grass. So by allowing the cow to eat its natural diet, you’re guaranteeing the meat will be chock-full of vitally healthy fats like CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) as well as beta-carotene, Vitamin E, and micronutrients like potassium, iron, zinc, phosphorus and sodium.
These nutrients are low or lacking in cows that are fed the standard high-corn-based diet.4
So the next time you’re shopping for a piece of beef, look for a label that tells you this animal was “organic grass fed.”
The same applies to chickens and hogs.
If all it reads is “organic,” you’ll know the animal was fed a standard high-grain diet – albeit non-GMO – which won’t provide that same level of nutrition that an animal fed its natural diet can provide.
Why Buying Local Doesn’t Always Equal Quality
A lot of local farmers sell their food at local farmers markets, and it’s been ingrained in us to equate local with quality.
But local doesn’t always mean you’re getting a better product.
A local farm must meet two conditions in order for you to have any kind of confidence in the meat they’re producing.
If these conditions aren’t met, they are simply a smaller version of a factory farm, and you should consider the meat they produce just as toxic as the meat coming from factory farms.
The 2 Conditions Your Local Farm Must Meet Before You Ever Buy From Them
Condition #1: The Animals Living Conditions
The next time you’re at your local farmers market, ask the farmer if you can visit their farm. Most won’t object to this request at all.
Once you’re there, you want to observe the conditions the animals are raised in.
You’re looking to see if the animals have access to their natural habitat to roam freely, play, and exercise.
For example, it doesn’t make much sense to have chickens roaming freely on a concrete floor with artificial lighting. They need to be in their natural habitat – i.e., roaming outside, under the sun, on land where they can eat grass and insects, etc.
You also want to ensure that the animals’ resting areas are clean and sanitary and that those areas are cleaned daily.
The living conditions the animals are under directly affect their health, which directly affects the quality of meat you’ll be eating.
Condition #2: The Animals Diet
You want to see the diet the animals are fed.
The climate you live in will play a part in the animals’ diets. For example, if you live in an area where you get winter, cattle can’t be out in the pasture grazing on grass all year long.
So you’d want to see that they are being fed a quality “animal feed” like hay in the winter months.
If you see that the farmer is feeding their livestock animal feed, ask them what kind of feed it is.
If it’s a grain-based feed, you want to ensure that it’s non-GMO.
Most of the time, you’ll find that farms do feed their livestock animal feed of some sort, which is perfectly fine just so long as the feed is organic.
But the most important thing to see is that the animals have access to their natural diet at least part of the year.
So in the case of cattle, you’ll want to see the pasture the cattle graze on during summer months.
If all you see is a barn and no pasture, you know the cows don’t get out to graze, which means they don’t have access to their natural diet.
This would be a huge red flag.
If your local farm is breaking these two conditions, look elsewhere for your meat.
Once you find a farm that meets these conditions, you can buy from them without worry, knowing the meat produced will be of the highest nutritional quality.
How You Can Help Bring About Change
It’s unfortunate that we must take these steps to ensure that we aren’t feeding our families a chemical cocktail with each fork full.
It’s a little more work up front than simply going to your local grocery store and buying it off the shelf, but our food industry decided long ago to make profits their #1 priority.
With the lack of any real government oversight, it’s up to us to be diligent with our health.
When you decide to only buy meat originating from an animal that’s been raised and fed right, you are making a loud statement that you will settle for nothing less.
And when enough of us start doing that, the will of the people always brings about change.
Maybe then we can go back to the grocery story without worrying about what we buy.
Until then, you can make a difference by voting with your pocketbook every day.
Sources:
1. http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/beef-industry-zmaz08fmzmcc.aspx
2. http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/legacy/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/cafos-uncovered.pdf
3.http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/ofp/ofp.shtml
4.http://authoritynutrition.com/grass-fed-vs-grain-fed-beef/
