As I sit here in TugBoat Annies eating a bacon cheeseburger!  Thanks Gug... :-)

I would like to throw out hunting as one means of acquiring meat.  Nothing beats harvesting the animal yourself.

Some people I know have paid farmers to raise and care for a cow or pig until it reaches size.  I don't know of anyone doing that in Thurston County.  Sometimes in the fall you can find local farmers offering sides of beef they raised. 

I would be interested in purchasing fresh local organic beef and pork.  Fishing and shellfishing in clean waters is of course another option.  

"Safety is a tyrant's tool; no one can be against safety."--Unknown

1) Realize that you don't need as much protein as the mainstream would have you believe. All whole grains, beans and lentils, and vegetables and fruit have protein so keep the animal protein to a minimum, if at all. I've posted references to protein requirements and how to get them met with a vegetarian diet elsewhere and will link them here if you like. Let me know.

2) If you'd like a transition to plant-based protein...try out the fake meats at Sunny Tree Restaurant. Again, this is to supplement a diet of whole foods rather than a primary source of protein. Also, the coop sells sandwiches from Hillside Quickie which are filled with plant based protein sources.

Thank you for your sensitivity to this issue. I'm encouraged to see your post, horrifying though the subject matter is.

 Several times a week I simmer up a pot of organic pintos and rice.  Garlic, onion, a bit of crushed red pepper, some black pepper...  

Although I will add bacon or sausage sometimes...  My mom eats very little meat, but a lot of beans and those strange "veggie dogs" that aren't actually half bad especially when fried with a bit of butter... 

"Safety is a tyrant's tool; no one can be against safety."--Unknown

if you can. 

I think we have to recognize that businesses lose revenue if they can't kill the sick animals and process them.

Is it fair to penalize these businesses because the cows they bought to butcher are sick?  

Its always a lot more expensive to buy organic meat than conventional, so we don't eat as much as a lot of Americans because we can't afford to.Its kind of like the old days, when meat was more of a luxury than a staple.

One thing about eating organic meats: you can really taste the difference. It is much better tasting than that Safeway stuff.

Jade

mistreated. I've been a hunter in my past, although the weather on this side of the mountains is not conducive to hunting for me. And, I don't believe animals are to receive the same protections as humans, like some of the more extreme animal activists. But the video that Gug talks about made me angry and sick. I hate to see animals suffer. The assholes that mistreated the animals in that area need to be prosecuted at a minimum. Even if the animals are set to be killed for food, be humane about it. Kill quickly and don't let them suffer.

No matter if the science is all phony, there are collateral environmental benefits.  Climate change provides the greatest chance to bring about justice and equality in the world ever.Christine Stewart (the real basis for the AGW scare)

Don't forget that this same thing DID happen in our own backyard in 2002... Remember Midway Meats in Chehalis??  http://www.kirotv.com/investigations/1868748/detail.html (maybe someone can pm me the directions how to insert the link into the text. thanks!)

That aside, this topic begs the question, is organic better? I think that point is debatable!! Beef animals fed corn are bad for you. Grass fed beef is higher in omega threes than corn fed beef and - guess what people - ORGANIC BEEF ANIMALS CAN SPEND THE LAST 45 DAYS OF THEIR LIFE IN A FEEDLOT!! It's true.  None of the local organic beef guys do this, but if you are buying organic beef from CA or the midwest, chances are these animals spent their last days on a dirt patch with no access to pasture.

Given the choice between buying organic meat at the coop or buying beef from my neighbor who doesn't vaccinate or give antibiotics (hardly any grass-fed beef guys give vaccinations or antibiotics unless its necessary), I'd choose my neighbors hands-down. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to buy half a cow, ,so we do buy our beef at the co-op.  I ALWAYS go for River Run Farm in Clatskanie, OR. They have grass fed beef, and their steaks actually won a New York Times competition for tastiest grass-fed steak a few years ago. There aren't many local organic beef farmers around, because there is a lack of certified organic slaughter facilities (all organic animals must be slaughtered and butchered at a certified organic meat shed). There's a mobile slaughter truck up north of Seattle, there's an organic beef person up there, Skagit River Ranch. You might be able to buy a certified organic beef animal locally and have it butchered a a meat shop of your choice, though. But then you're looking at buying a whole animal's worth of beef. There's also the Meat Shop in Tacoma who raises his own organic beef - a great guy, but has to bring his animals to Oregon to slaughter (I think). Not sure, but I think his animals are grain fed, at least they taste like it. Anyway, can you tell I've researched this??

p.s - terminology check.  A "cow" is a female bovine that has had a calf.  Most of the animals in the video are spent dairy cows, meaning that they've outlasted their usefullness are are now only good for ground beef (note that spent dairy animals on the average conventional dairy average 3-4 years old, while most organic dairy animals live to 5-7 years old).  Most of the ground beef we eat comes from spent dairy cows.  Most steaks and other cuts of meat come from "steers" or castrated males.  So, not all beef comes from cows, so it's incorrect to interchange "beef" and "cows." Sorry, just a minor pet peeve from a previous dairy girl.

And what about bulls?  well, unfortunatley if they have balls, they're pretty much good for nuthin' when their done.  :) couldn't resist.