Organic Meat

I have always found it true we are never too old to learn, and learning something new each day is usually a great achievement and a good thing.  Sometimes though this is not to be the case.  Today I learnt what happens to pigs, and its not very nice reading.. suffice to say I will never eat shop bought pork again, only a reliable organic source.

During my usual rantings about natural and organic foods and the horror's of additives etc I was asked this morning what makes organic meat? and how can it be organic when it is still injected by law..  I did not know the answers to this, so spent the day researching.

Majority of my research was done on the Soil Association website, were it does go into detail about cattle, sheep, pig, poultry and fish.  The gist of it is though, pretty much like the poultry which is common knowledge to most of us, we all know (dont we?) the happy chickens are the free range ones that are NOT in tiny batteries, happy still are the ones who forage in an organic environment only fed organic feed.  Hence the 'free range eggs' being preferable, as these are the ones who come from healthy chickens who are not kept in a horrific and stressful environment.  This is the same for the other animals kept for our food.  The Organic Meat is from the animals who are allowed more outdoor time, to forage, graze and enjoy.. they are allocated plenty of space per animal (there are regulations about this) feed on what is natural to them with addition of organically produced feed.

No growth injections are given, or any other unnecessary treatments, the care given to these livestock means they are rarely ill as they are not stressed and are happy.  Of course there might be a time when illness does strike and the vet might have to administer antibiotics, if this is the case the animal is to wait a designated length of time to be sure non of these additives can be passed onto humans.  Unlike the 'other' side of things.

I have today been totally horrified by what I have read, and give you the option whether or not you would like to find out for yourself or continue in blissful ignorance.  However, the Pork in particular did interest me as for sometime I have not been able to eat this without being quite poorly, I never buy it myself only had it when at family gatherings.  My local organic farm shop (Manic Organic, link on right of page) do have some meats, I have already sampled the beef and the lamb mince which are excellent and again no more expensive than the butcher, but quite probably more expensive than 'some' supermarkets (there is a reason for that!).  I am going to enquire about the Pork tomorrow, I have seen Organic Pork burgers which I will be trying soon, so hopefully there will be other cuts to try.

If you would like to read more on this and support the fabulous work they do, you can find the Soil Association here http://www.soilassociation.org/   This can tell you all about organic foods, meats, cotton etc and what happens to those poor pigs.

Ending on a lighter note, I made another cake this week - fairly healthy, its an Apple Sauce cake, made from Apples from my Aunts garden, so no pesticides there.  My cake had cranberries and nuts in too, and was delicious.