Meat: The Next Frontier

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned that I was unsure of how to judge the chicken breasts I was getting from Whole Foods in terms of their Au Naturale-ness.  They are unbelievably delicious, yes, probably because they are raised better than your garden-variety Purdue chickens, but I wasn't so sure I was trusting all of the claims on the packaging.  As we all know, just because something says "free range" doesn't mean that it is necessarily running around a pasture somewhere.

Recently, though, I noticed that my chicken now come with a rating system on the package.  Hmm, perhaps the poultry version of "Hot or Not"?  Of course, I had to know more, so off to the internets I went.  And boy, was I pleased with what I found: A 5-step Animal Welfare Rating system.  Quite simply, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of guessing how your dinner was raised.  I praise both Whole Foods and the Global Animal Partnership for creating more transparency on these issues, and it really goes to show that consumers are caring more about what they are putting in their bodies.

Sadly, my tasty chicken breasts are only rated a 2.  While I'm glad they're getting an enriched environment, and apparently you need to have strict standards to even make the list, the fact that you need to rate a 3 to even get a mention that you have access to an outdoor environment still doesn't quite meet the Au Naturale standard I have set for myself.  And so I seek the next level in my poultry consumption.

In the research, however, I found this nifty website for Eat Wild.  It's a source for learning about where to find all-natural, humane, and sustainably raised meat, as well as links to find farms that are local to you.  You may not know that farmers and ranchers who are raising animals in a truly sustainable fashion are not only doing well by the animals and our taste buds, but often are doing well by the terrain itself as their farming practices actively promote the health of the land.  With grilling season quickly coming upon us, I look forward to making much use of both this information and many of these tasty animals.