My Food Revolution: Not a Vegetarian, Just Meat Conscious

I love meat. I mean, I really love eating meat, there are few things in the world that beat grabbing a burger and drinks on the patio with family or friends on a warm summer day. All of my life I have eaten meat, it's something I thoroughly enjoy, something I plan on eating for the rest of my life. Upon watching Food Inc, after being sparked to start my own personal journey towards eating healthier by watching Food Revolution, I now think twice before indulging on said burger or even chicken tenders or steak.

The documentary was released in 2008, and anyone who has watched the news remembers more than a fair share of contamination and e. coli recalls. Just recently meat in five different states were found to have an antibiotic resistant strain of Staph in the meat. Not just ground beef but also poultry. Here is the link: http://t.co/sIsqTtz

So why is this happening? If you have seen any documentary or read any book about the subject you may already know. If you haven't, you need to. It's a vicious cycle that can be stopped quite easily, but it would cost too much money. First, there used to be thousands of meat slaughter houses across the country. Now there are too few. These slaughter houses have cows packed in, living on a corn diet. Well corn is not what cows should be eating. It fattens them up and they are not meant to eat corn. In turn, there is a spike in the e. coli virus in their gut. Now if you were to take that cow off of corn and feed it grass for five days - 80% of the e. coli would be gone. This doesn't happen. Instead the corn is fed to the animals, they're packed into an area that is too small and they can barely turn around. They have to poop where they stand, the poop is literally up to their belly. Instead of washing these animals off they are simply slaughtered and go through the assembly line getting cut up. The problem with this is that there is a good chance if just one cow is infected the rest of the meat can be as well. How? Well they stand in each others' feces and are cut by the same machinery. It can't be that hard to get even one spec of contaminated feces into the meat. And that ground beef you're eating? Most likely it's made up of thousands of different cows.*

So what can you do? Are you just supposed to stop eating meat and become a vegetarian? Well, trust me I have a hard enough time giving meat up for one day let alone a lifetime. Instead, why not decrease the amount of meat you eat but increase the quality? When you buy free range, grass fed beef you are buying meat from a rancher who treat their cows in a more humane manner, the cow is eating what they are supposed to be eating, and usually the ground beef you are having is going to be from one cow, not thousands. Not all of us can afford the super expensive stuff every day so the question is: Quantity or Quality? For me, I'll take quality any day over quantity. It may not be easy, but I'd like to avoid e. coli and Staph and any other unnecessary crap as much as possible.

If you can find a farmer/rancher who sells free range, grass fed cows / pigs / chicken and you have the storage space like my brother and his wife, you may want to consider 'buying a cow' and 'half of a pig' as they have done. They meet the cow, visit it and ensure that it's being raised in a healthy manner. Then they decide which cuts they want and store that cow for up to a year. They eat all they need from one cow.

*All information regarding slaughterhouses and the process is from the 2008 documentary Food Inc.