Organic or "regular" meat?

I'm like Sparks. My major consideration is what's on sale, and the rest of the time I buy regular. I'm not a fan of organic. Knowing people on the production side of the industry, I know what's involved in growing organic. I think most people would be surprised at the relatively little difference between the two. Honestly, I think organic farming has as much negatives as regular, except that producers and suppliers can charge more because it's trendy

The thing that gets me with organic and "free range" is the false belief that they give.For example, buy free-range eggs, one would think the chickens are living a happy life running around the farm being chickens. Not true. All that needs to be done, legally, to declare one's chickens as "free range" is there needs to be a door/opening in the coop/cage where the chickens are kept so that they could go out if they wanted to. The kicker is that most of those openings are not large enough to allow for the chickens to actually get out. So not sure why this is a 200% price increase kind of difference.

When I was broke and living check to check, I'd buy whatever I could afford. Now that I'm on my feet again, I try and buy organic if I have the option. After watching a few documentaries about the food industry, I cringe every time I think of cows standing knee high in their own poop. :-X

I've seen a whole heckuva lot of beef cattle ranches, and none of them had cattle just stuck standing in their own urine and feces.

I've also been to three separate slaughter houses in Texas, and the conditions of all three were quite clean. Cattle were in clean pens with hay and water. They weren't crammed side to side. And there were at least a thousand head at each facility. To be honest, I was impressed with the conditions (one of them was the one I used to slaughter and prepare our cow).

Oh, I know the bad and disgusting exist. But the overall slaughter industry isn't what PETA portrays it to be. And while one can have a big/chichen/turkey/etc. farm as clean and humane as possible, the fact d jets that we dint have the space nor the money to raise such animals/fowl over thousands of acres of land. And the current need for such far outweighs the amount that would be available if such breeding/raising farms were outlawed. Which is exactly what PETA wants.....for no person to eat meat of any kind.

This isn't 1880 anymore where most people and there families exist off the produce grown on and animals raised on their own land.

I've seen a whole heckuva lot of beef cattle ranches, and none of them had cattle just stuck standing in their own urine and feces.

I've also been to three separate slaughter houses in Texas, and the conditions of all three were quite clean. Cattle were in clean pens with hay and water. They weren't crammed side to side. And there were at least a thousand head at each facility. To be honest, I was impressed with the conditions (one of them was the one I used to slaughter and prepare our cow).

Oh, I know the bad and disgusting exist. But the overall slaughter industry isn't what PETA portrays it to be. And while one can have a big/chichen/turkey/etc. farm as clean and humane as possible, the fact d jets that we dint have the space nor the money to raise such animals/fowl over thousands of acres of land. And the current need for such far outweighs the amount that would be available if such breeding/raising farms were outlawed. Which is exactly what PETA wants.....for no person to eat meat of any kind.

This isn't 1880 anymore where most people and there families exist off the produce grown on and animals raised on their own land.

I've seen a whole heckuva lot of beef cattle ranches, and none of them had cattle just stuck standing in their own urine and feces.

I've also been to three separate slaughter houses in Texas, and the conditions of all three were quite clean. Cattle were in clean pens with hay and water. They weren't crammed side to side. And there were at least a thousand head at each facility. To be honest, I was impressed with the conditions (one of them was the one I used to slaughter and prepare our cow).

Oh, I know the bad and disgusting exist. But the overall slaughter industry isn't what PETA portrays it to be. And while one can have a big/chichen/turkey/etc. farm as clean and humane as possible, the fact d jets that we dint have the space nor the money to raise such animals/fowl over thousands of acres of land. And the current need for such far outweighs the amount that would be available if such breeding/raising farms were outlawed. Which is exactly what PETA wants.....for no person to eat meat of any kind.

This isn't 1880 anymore where most people and there families exist off the produce grown on and animals raised on their own land.

PETA would like us to believe that all farms are industrial nightmares. That is, of course, not true. The industrial farms, would like us to believe that they are all small farmers who sincerely care about the welfare of the animals. That is also not true.

Farms range from factory farm nightmare to humane family farm, and by and large, other than checking it out yourself or by reputation, there's no way to know where that plastic wrapped package with a happy cow on it that costs three times normal price came from. And that's without taking "organic" into account, which really has very little to do with the welfare of the animals. At the margin, "organic" farms probably take slightly better care of their animals, because they have to to not use all the antibiotics and such . . . on the other hand, many small farms can't use the organic label, because it costs too much to get the certification.

Mike and I are increasingly buying from Virginia small farmers and buying grass or pasture fed. It tastes better, and we can be fairly certain about how the animals were treated (something no label in a grocery will tell you for certain). We don't care too much about organic, though I get organic milk at the grocery to avoid BGH (and milk from farms just isn't feasible . . .if we can't freeze it, then we have to go to the store). But, of course, the sort of places we generally buy from basically are organic. And I don't care if they dose a sick cow with antibiotics so he or she gets well (which organic farms can't do . . no antibiotics, period, not just no preventive use). We have also switched to vegetarian 2-4 days each week so that we can afford the difference in price (and its better for us anyway).

If more people made the same choices: eat less, higher quality meat from more humane operations, we could still feed everyone, and probably without much, if any, increase in land use. Its the demand for cheap meat in vast quantities that, at least in part, drives an industry that treats animals . . .in a way I wouldn't treat them, although its not as bad as PETA wants you to think, nor is it all the same. But if I wouldn't treat an animal like that . . .why should I buy from people who do? I am genuinely fond of cattle and chickens. I like them. I rather like goats too, and my aunt's sheep are pleasant creatures. I don't particularly like pigs, but I nod to their intelligence. However, I also think all these critters are extremely tasty . . . but I want to know that they lived well and died humanely.