Non-intensive farmed meat

[monty0703]

Where can I buy meat that is genuinely free range and the animals have not suffered at any stage? The rspca 'Freedom Food' range has been criticised by many animal welfare groups.

[sft42]

Eh? If your that worried then why eat meat in the first place....I wonder if the cow gets a great sense of satisfaction from not being abused through it's life as a bolt is shot into it's skull when it goes to make a very PC burger.

[cardinal]

sft42 is quite right. If you eat animals unfortunately they have to die first (yes I know but let's not get into that). The very nature of dying maybe or maybe not painful, we don't know so we make a decision to eat or not. If you are really worried about it become a vegan. Lifes a bit#h as some say.

[Jaybee]

Make friends with a local free-range farmer. You may even be able to choose your animal.

[Miss Zippy]

I understand the 'hypocrisy' if you like that sft42 and Cardinal point out, but if people are going to eat meat, isn't it better that at least the animals have lived the most comfortable lives possible, with least suffering? Surely it's preferable that an animal lives a pain-free existence, rather than spend 1/2/3/4/5 years (I'll admit, I've no idea at what age, for instance, cows are killed for their meat) living a miserable and painful life in awful conditions?

[incitatus]

in general organic farmers tend to produce with less cruelty because they have no props to fall back on. one way to be certain of conditions is to go to a farmers martket and talk to the farmer directly. then visit the farm. then munch on that cowwy goodness.

[Gef]

If you are looking for free range living conditions then stick to lamb. They spend all of their (short) lives grazing naturally outside.

[archbishop]

Cattle/sheep are not intensively reared in general. They are ruminants and eat cellulose(grass) which humans cannot digest. So us clever humans put them out on the grass and turn them into 1st class proteins which we can digest. To say they have a painful life would be wrong, even in winter the farmer will make sure they have cover and food. It's in his interest to do so. To get back to cardinals point it is the death of the animal which is the problem. When you know animals, you know when they are distressed. An abattoir is not a pleasant place and I have seen a lot of distressed animals, but a minority. Pigs are another matter and although one of the cleanest animals(not a joke) they are cannabalistic (along with chickens) and are intensively reared (check out Denmark) but oddly enough their slaughtering is less painless than cattle. Your choice but we have domain over all the animals of the world.

[coggles]

If you have the space and a big enough freezer, you could always buy a cow/pig/lamb etc.

[tracymort]

have you seen http://www.themeatrix.com ?

[archbishop]

Brilliant link but the animals still have to die for us to eat them.