Eco Friendly Meat
Understanding eco friendly meat is not that hard once you look at the variations in it’s understanding. eco friendly meat is what you can buy from a shop that has been produced in a way that little impact has been felt on the environment. A lot of the mean you buy each day can pass the requirements. eco friendly meat is not to be mistaken with organic meat or free range meat. But you can be assured that organic meat or free range meat is going to be usually produced in a much more eco friendly way.
Free range and organic meat and poultry are supposed to be better for you as well as taste better, but do you honestly know what the difference between the two is? I though I did, or at least would be close, but I looked it up and I was somewhat surprised.
Organic means it meets the requirements of the Organic Food Production Act of 1990. The meat and poultry needs to have been fed certified organic feed since birth. So what qualifies as organic feed then? Organic feed is grain and soybeans grown in soil that has been pesticide and chemical fertilizer free for three years minimum. Also the animals and poultry need access to the outdoors and no antibiotics or drugs can be used on them.
The term free range is commonly applied to poultry, for example chickens and turkeys. Free range simply means that the birds have some access to the outdoors. There are no USDA requirements as to the size of the yard or its cleanliness or if the birds actually have to use it.
It’s pretty obvious from the above descriptions that organic is better than free range. For example a chicken could be labeled free range if it had access to a junkyard and was pumped full of antibiotics and other drugs!
What is most important is not the label, but the source. I try to obtain my meat and poultry from trusted and local sources. For example I get lamb from the farm down the street. I know they do a good and humane job.
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