What meat brand should you choose

I order my beef and pork from Butcherbox. It’s a delivery service. They work with certified animal welfare family farmers committed to regenerative practices around the Midwest. They carry a variety of meat products that are grass fed, crate free, free range, organic, wild caught, humanely raised, gluten free, dairy free, nitrate free and uncured. In some combination or another. I’m lucky to have access to organic free range eggs, I’d prefer to buy direct from a known farmer but those are scarce around me. My local grocery store carries organic air chilled chicken I like, store brand or Rosie’s is good and some wild caught fish is easy to find and even dolphin safe line caught tuna I forget the brand wild planet maybe. Such a difference from 15 yrs ago when these products were harder to find. I feel blessed to have the variety of organic options available to me.

All of my animal products (almost) come from local people, including eggs and a few other specialty products. I would suggest even if you reside in an urban area to take the time to seek out something similar and build a relationship. For example, all my beef are retired dairy cows from a family dairy and I have a local family for chicken, duck and eggs, it's pretty easy really and people generally get a lot out of a relationship like that, and most all my plant produce is local as well, right now it's potatoes, carrots, jerusalem artichokes and a variety of different squash and some greenhouse greens.

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend any 'brand' because if they're big enough to have a brand name and be national or multi state, they're too big to trust. Find local.

I bought from 2 ranches in Alberta that were 3rd and 4th generation who both raised angus beef and Alberta is cattle country in Canada and who really were worth dealing with, so they do exist, they just need to be found, which to many people is a lot or work, but I feel well worth it.

Anyway, for the last 12 years or so I've gone local simply because I can drop in and be proactive if I want and see how everything is raised and treated. Price is of course the main reason I sought local, it's much cheaper per lb buying a half or whole cow as opposed to getting steaks or roasts shipped to you. If my diet happened to be the popular plant based I probably wouldn't have changed, but, my diet relies on beef and other animal products so that's is another reason, which cost is certainly a main consideration.