Hi I Have some Q's

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Permalink Reply by FarmSchooler on November 24, 2008 at 1:26pm

We eat meat we raise or (in season) hunt, so Im probably not a good person to ask.....we try to have a different meat once a day, with leftovers used to "season" other things the other two meals of the day. Our animals are free range (15 acres) so our cost has been nominal compared to what we get out of the deal. Internet prices for these organic grass-fed home processed meats are more than I could ever afford for a family of 6-10. We only process animals that are not producing as they should otherwise. I use about 4-6lbs of meat, milk & eggs per day for 6 people....but that changes with the seasons too.....summer equals A LOT more produce centered meals.

Goat - meat & milk
Chicken - meat & eggs
Turkey - meat only...at two years old
Duck - meat & eggs
Pork - meat
Rabbit - meat

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Permalink Reply by FractaLove on November 24, 2008 at 7:54pm

The cost seems to vary quite a bit, with fish usually the most expensive, then beef, then chicken, then eggs.

I usually eat about 3-4 eggs at a time.
about one chicken thigh, although the size of these varies a great deal
about 8-10 ozs of fish
maybe 6 ozs of beef, although I eat this very very rarely.

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Permalink Reply by Mera Magic Meraa on November 26, 2008 at 11:55am

Actually I was talking about cooked meat eaters. I mostly just wanted to know details about the costs and specifics of what would be healthy and how un organic, and conventional meat would affect them.

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Permalink Reply by FarmSchooler on November 30, 2008 at 2:42am

An excerpt from Pastured Poultry Profits – J. Salatin

"… the whole notion of confinement housing, or "factory farming," as the humane society calls it. The inherent fecal contamination in such a model causes all sorts of health problems. Feathers, eyes, beaks, nostrils - nothing is exempt from a layer of fecal dust and its pathogen-laden micro organisms. The birds breath in the fecal dust which contains a high percentage of ammonia, and this causes lesions of the respiratory linings, the fragile mucous membranes........Fecal contamination, and certainly ammonia, can both be diminished by a proper carbon nitrogen ratio in the bedding, and a composting floor litter. But even with the closest attention to detail, a house of 10,000 birds is still going to have a major problem. Its just too many birds in too tight a space. Air exchange and management simply cant keep up with such a volume.

Because the factory house has such inherent problems, productivity is maintained by feeding antibiotics and hormones, poisons to enhance the appetite (like arsenic), heavy metals and a host of other additives that increase meat toxins. The meat therefore becomes soft, water absorbent and lacks muscle tone and is violently toxic to environmentally sensitive people. This environment stimulates drug resistant salmonella, which the human body was not made to handle. the medical community is publishing startling discoveries about R-factor disease strains. Dubbed "super bugs" by researchers, these organisms are resistant to traditional antibiotics and have come into existence as a direct result of drug feeding farms.

Now we move to the processing, which begins after the birds are loaded onto trucks and driven for up to three hours to the processing plant. Mechanical killing requires a perfectly still bird so the cutting wheel will hit the jugular vein every time. When the birds hang upside down on the shackles, they twist and turn - not conducive to mechanical killings. To get them still, an electrical current stuns them. This keep the birds from bleeding well and accounts for much of the black clotted blood around the bones of conventional birds.

Mechanical evisceration breaks open intestines and pours fecal material all over the carcass, inside the body cavity and contaminates the birds. Large chill tanks often have several inches of fecal sludge in the bottom. In fact, about 9% of the weight on department store chicken is fecal soup. The soft muscle tissue is more conductive to in soaking, and the carcass sponges up the fecal contaminated chill water. Of course this adds to the carcass weight, but certainly does not contribute any to the health of consumers. (ever wonder why your chicken shrinks down when you cook it? Its been suggested it shrinks down about 11% on average)
This filth is why birds receive as many as 40 chlorine baths - how much of that permeates the meat?"

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