Tim Ferris has a guide to meat labeling. He looks at nine different claims that may appear on meat labels, and explains each. Trouble is, even though he’s skeptical of some claims, he’s still too damned trusting. The best advice he offers is:
Get to know your local butcher or rancher and get to know your meat.
You don’t “get to know your meat” by talking to your local butcher. You get to know your meet by taking time to actually visit the farmed animals; watching how they’re raised and how they’re slaughtered.
To me, that’s the bare minimum that every “conscientious carnivore” ought to do. Labels can tell you something, but they don’t begin to tell the whole story. This is too important of an issue to leave to someone else’s word.
Of course, actually visiting the animal farms that you patronize is a time consuming annoyance. But given how greatly living and slaughter conditions vary between farms, isn’t this the very least those animals deserve? (Via Mark Bittman.) Link.
