What are pasture-raised meat, dairy and poultry?
Pasture-raised animal products provide a sustainable and healthy alternative to feedlot, factory-farmed meat, dairy, poultry and eggs. As opposed to conventionally-raised livestock, these pasture-rasied animals graze on grass for the duration their lives. Pasture-raised animals "are raised from birth to market on family operations. Their diet consists of freshly-grazed pasture during the growing season and stored grasses (hay or grass silage) during the winter months or drought conditions. The animals live such stress-free lives that they are rarely sick and do not need to be treated with pharmaceutical drugs. They are not given hormonal implants or growth-promoting additives. ... Their products are healthy, wholesome, and natural in every sense of the word" (excerpted from eatwild.com).
Conventional meat, dairy and poultry products require a variety of controversial techniques for their production:
- Industrial farming operations use animal feed that generally contains pesticide-treated corn, growth hormones, appetite stimulants and may contain the pulverized remains of other animals.
- Livestock are injected with routine treatments of antibiotics.
- Animals are forced to live in small holding pens or cages, restricting their mobility and overall quality of life.
- Production waste from large meat facilities often puts extra stress on the natural environment and pollutes local communities.
- Meatpackers and livestock facility laborers often work in dangerous conditions for minimum wage.
Advantages of pasture-raised meat
Pasture-raised meat is healthy for you
- Pasture-raised beef has one-half to one-third the fat of conventionally-raised grainfed beef.
- Pasture-raised meat has higher vitamin E content.
- Pasture-raised meat is higher in omega-3 fatty acids, which helps prevent heart disease and reduces the risk of brain and nervous disorders.
Pasture-raised animals live happier, less-stressful lives
- Pasture-raised beef and poultry follow natural eating schedules and eat natural diets.
- Pasture-raised animals live in comfortable, natural settings.
- These animals are also less prone to sickness and disease
Pastured animal products are better for the environment
- Pasture-raised animals do not eat grain and other products shipped hundreds or thousands of miles and treated with petroleum-based products; thus they do not significantly contribute to petroleum burnoff and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Pasture lands sequester carbon from the air, actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Grazing practices used in pasture farming increase plant biodiversity and soil fertility.
- While wastes from the conventional animal food industry may end up contaminating rivers and ground water, waste products from pasture-based animal farming get recycled back into the ecosystem.
Grassfed and pastured farming systems are better for farmers
- Farmers practicing pasture farming are not exposed to the potentially unsafe conditions of factory farming.
- Raising pastured animals can often increase profit margins.
[Summarized from eatwild.com]
Pastured and Grassfed Animal References
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