What about organic, grass-fed meat?

I have had a busy week, how about you? I haven't posted but I have been using my treadmill and thinking about food, as usual. We have made quite a few recipes from The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet and have eaten very little meat. Overall the recipes were good, and all of us liked most of the offerings on the table. At this point, I believe we can easily cut out the majority, but not all, meat. I don't see us cutting out all cheese and dairy. I get that there is "alternative" meat, eggs and dairy, but what is the point? OK, I can see that I might need a transitional food to help me let go of my favorites, but for the long-term? I don't think I am ready for that.

It seems a lot of the moral issue with meat and dairy products is the way commercial farms raise and process the meat, or produce the milk and cheese. I heartily agree. We raised our own beef last year and although we did not feed organically, our pasture was organic and our animals were raised in a very low-stress, loving environment right up to butcher, which was done on our property. Now, we were in the process of moving, so I didn't actually see the killing or whether the steers were frightened in the process, but an experienced local butcher completed the task right in our own barn. We also had the meat cut up in a local butcher shop with a good reputation for cleanliness and professionalism, and the owner does the cutting in view of customers.

We fed our cattle a grain mixture we bought locally by the ton, and supplemented during winter with whole dried corn. We also fed local meadow hay on demand and kept the stalls nicely bedded with straw. We used a watering system to make sure fresh clean water was always available. We didn't over-crowd, didn't vaccinate, gave antibiotics only upon arrival from the sale-barn (a necessity if you want living calves two days later as a sale-barn environment provides a lot of exposure to disease.) We also treated animals who were sick, of course, which doesn't happen very often if you are doing other things right. We found it was most important to keep them dry, well-fed and to check on them frequently as calves are amazingly good at getting themselves into predicaments. Now, we did treat for ring-worm which gets into the wood of the stalls and really can't be eradicated, and sprayed for flies when it got really bad, but didn't put a growth hormone delivery unit into their ears (as many commercial beef and milk producers do) or give them any other hormones or routine medications.

The result is that the beef in our freezer is far more tender and flavorful than anything I have eaten or bought in my life! I don't even buy beef from a store or order in restaurants anymore because I know it will be a disappointment in comparison. It is hard to believe that although we did not do anything extraordinary in raising our animals, the methods we did use, created such an improvement in the quality of the meat!

So, my question now is: if you are buying (or raising) organic, even grass-fed (as ruminant animals are designed to be fed) meat, from local farmers who raise animals with care and with ethical practices, then is it still "bad" for you to eat the meat?

As for dairy being a good choice at all, what about goat's milk products, which are highly digestible? We raised and milked our own cow when I was a child, and I was still allergic to the milk. But, the milk from our Nubian goats enabled me to enjoy dairy all I wanted, as well as exceptional health and vitality. So, is the meat and dairy itself that is unhealthy, or only the chemically-laced commercially raised meat and dairy, that is the real issue? Seriously, I want to know.

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