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Understanding the True Costs of Humanely Raised, Quality Meat
More and more Americans are shopping for meat that has been humanely raised and handled. The farm-to-table movement has led many people to start asking questions related to animal welfare, while others are starting to understand that better quality meat is better for their health.
These shifts in consumer behavior have to lead to a boom in the meat industry as more people want higher quality, humanely raised pork, beef, and poultry. And even though more people are wanting to purchase higher quality products, many are holding back due to the price difference between humanely raised meat and traditionally raised meat.
If You Want Better Quality, It’s Going To Cost More
As a shopper, when you visit your local farmer’s market or butcher, you may notice that meat is usually double to the cost of what you find it for in a traditional grocery store. Chicken can start at $6+ per pound, lamb starts at $9+ per pound, pork and beef start at $10+ per pound.
It may leave you saying, “Why does it cost so much!” Well, let’s start with the fact that’s it’s important to know is that the farmers that are raising their animals humanely aren’t trying to gouge their prices using terms like “grass-fed” or “pasture-raised.” So, what exactly are you paying the extra money for? A lot more than you may have thought.
Cost: Space Per Animal
When it comes to animal feeding operations, stocking density is maximized so that there is revenue coming from every inch of space (this often at the detriment of the animals). The stocking density results in stress to the animals, violence and even cannibalism, and disease. To combat this, large, industrial operations use methods that can be considered inhumane to animals (debeaking birds, docking the tails of pigs, and feeding antibiotics to negate diseases that will occur in confined, unsanitary conditions.)
For animals that aren’t raised in commercial/feedlot environments, living on farms provides more space and stress is greatly reduced. In…
