some help with meats

[JennP]

Okay, I was shopping yesterday and got totally confused with meats. I know grass-fed, pastured beef is the best beef choice. My issue was with pork products and fowl. 

 

If a pig is 'organic' how does one know if it was fed organic grains at some point? I have the same issue with fowl. I left with only some beef and confusion. As I was at Whole Foods I was hoping I would be able to leave with more meats.

 

Right now, I am still prepping for W30, but I am left wondering how to purchase a variety of meats.

[Vian]

Pork and poultry cannot effectively be raised without grains. They are ALL fed grains. The best pork and poultry you can hope for are pastured animals fed an organic vegetarian diet. While pigs and chickens are not by nature vegetarians, the vegetarian feed is higher quality than "normal" feed with all kinds of animal by-products and weird stuff in it. Plus they are pastured, so they can eat whatever bugs and critters they find in the pasture.

 

Next best would be organic and/or humane certified. This means that at least the animals were raised without pesticides or antibiotics, fed an organic feed free of pesticides and antibiotics, and were given enough space to behave like animals and move around, even if it was probably just on a dirt lot with nothing edible to "forage".

 

After that is conventionally raised, which probably has been injected with antibiotics, was fed a feed with pesticides and GMO grains, and was housed inhumanely. 

 

The Whole30 | Whole9 program encourages you to buy the best quality meats you can afford, but does not require that you buy anything better than conventionally raised meats.

[JennP]

Thanks Vian. I could not wrap my head around how pork and fowl would not have grain in their diets. Now I wonder why that grain impact is not an issue, but grain finishing a cow is. Oh well, not something I can worry about or I will never eat.

[missmary]

Now I wonder why that grain impact is not an issue, but grain finishing a cow is.

 

This is actually quite simple! Cows are ruminants. They are meant to eat grass, and pretty much only that. Pigs and Poultry are omnivores, so a bit of grain is part of their natural diet. A forest pig fed only acorns, insects and worms would be better, but a pig raised on pasture with access to forage but supplemented with grain is just fine.