Buying organic - meat and poultry

The organic jungle
In the last few years organic food became almost main stream, widely available not only in specialized health stores but also in large supermarket chains. The prices on products labeled organic are always larger than those of their "vulgaris" counterparts, often by a substantial amount. Not only the health conscious customers have to pay more they also have no true insurance that the items they buy are really an improvement over the usual deal. The regulations for organic farming provided by the government have lots of room for interpretation, which is inevitably exploited by money respecting businessmen. Moreover, not everything that is sold in the supermarket is bad for you. Some products do not really need organic twins. Navigating the organic market requires substantial amount of research and this here is my attempt to shed some light on this issue.

Organic meat - a good investment
If you are going to spend money on organic food and you are not a vegetarian, meat is probably the first item you should substitute. For an educational and detailed description of how industrial beef and chicken are produced you could read  Michael Pollan's brilliant "Omnivore's dilemma" or "Animals in translation" by Temple Grandin. You could also watch Michael's movie Food Inc. (albeit Pollan is talking about USA I believe that Canadians are following their southern neighbors closely enough). Or you could just type "beef/chicken factory farms" in Google and go through the links and images the search engine found.



Just to give you a taste of what you will find. Calves are grown to maturity in so called factory farms in sheds without access to the outside. They have very little space (since they are so many) and they are fed inappropriate diets. Their feed includes grain (corn), antibiotics, hormones, fat and protein supplement which contains urea (a synthetic nitrogen). Grain, fat and protein make them fatter, antibiotics are needed to reduce the risk of disease caused by the bad diet, and hormones make them grow faster. The fat comes from .. well.. cows. And sometimes other animals such as chickens. Sounds pretty bad for the cows that were meant to feed on grass, but what does it have to do with us? Well, we are what we eat after all. Cows grown this way cannot remain healthy and their maladies are passed on to us. Mad cow disease, for example, was caused by cattle being fed cattle. This practice has been banned, however, an exception was made for blood products and fat. Antibiotics that are also in the feed end up in our bodies helping to develop new strains of drug-resistant bacteria.

Chickens are grown in a similar way. They are also fed a profitable cocktail of grains, animal fat and drugs and held in tight cages without access to the outside. Chickens (and cows) are also subjects to single trait breeding. Temple Gradin tells about chickens selected for their large breast, a procedure that in several generations leads to birds with weak hearts and twisted legs that cannot walk.


Where can I find it?
Now that I ruined your appetite for that steak, let's talk about the alternatives.
Ideally, we would like to eat cows that were grown on a steady diet of grass and were let outside at least for a few hours a day in the warmer months. In the case of the chickens we would like them to spend time outside as well, eating grass, bugs and grain. Of course these cows and chickens should be antibiotic and hormon free.

Supermarkets
As always good quality requires time and money. Some more or less organic meat can be found in large supermarkets. Lablaws carries "Free from" meat and chicken, that comes from animals that according to the label were grain fed and are free from antibiotics and hormons. An improvement over the regular product and their "free from" chickens actually taste pretty good. Another advantage is that these are not terribly expensive. A whole chicken costs about 15-18$. Ground beef around 5-6$.

Highland Farms (and some health stores) carry "Rowe farms" products including meat and chicken. Their products are antibiotics and hormone free. They are a little vague about the rest of their animals lives. They say that their cattle is pasture raised and "every cow has lots of space so that they can grow in a low-stress, healthy environment". However, this can mean that the cows are exposed to pasture only at the beginning of their lives and then kept in a shed, or that the cows are allowed an hour a week outside. It also seems that their cattle is on a diet of grains not grass. As for the chickens, they are kept inside a shed but not in cages (again not clear how much space they have there). Rowe farms products are quite expensive. Chickens go for 25-30$ in Highland Farms. I did not try these but I did try their chicken sousages which failed to impress.


Farms
"Beretta organics" is another large farm providing ogranic meat and poultry. They are a little more descriptive about their practices. Their cattle spends the warmer months on pasture eating grass. Some of the cattle is fed grains in the last two months of their lives while "grass only beef", as the name suggests, is fed grass only. Their chickens are also allowed access to the outside, however, they say that some of their animals (likely chickens) are grown on other farms. All of their animals are free from antibiotics and hormones. Beretta's products can be bought in bulk online (150$ minimum order) and delivered to your door or one of the pickup locations. Their prices are lower than Rowe farms. A whole chicken costs about 15-20$. I am yet to try their products.

"Blue Haven Farm" is a small family owned farm producing various types of poultry, pork and lamb. Their products are descrbed as "humanely raised, fresh air, grass fed, hormone and antibiotic free birds ". They describe the feed as "purchased from a drug free plant in Heidburg with added flax, and certified organic feed from Bio Agi.  It is supplemented by GMO free cash crops". Again a fairly vague description of the farming practices. The birds are probably eating fairly proper diets of organic grains but do not have  access to the outside. Their products can be purchased in some butcher shops including the Healthy Butcher in Toronto.

"Fenwood Farm" specializes on chickens. Their organic chickens are raised inside without the use of hormons or antibiotics on organic grain diet. They also have "naturally raised" chickens which get non organic feed. You can place an order online and then pick it up from the farm (even fresh meat). Alternatively their products can be purchased in butcher shops and health stores.

Butcher shops
Butcher shops are a very accesible source of organic meat. Many such establishments, concentrating on organic and local produce, can be found around GTA. Of course these stores are prone to be quite expensive. Here are some of them:

The Healthy Butcher (Eglinton/Avenue or Queen/Spadina) caries an assortement or organic meats from different farms and prepared gourmet foods.  Items on sale can be found here.


Butcher by Nature (North of Runnymede station) carry a variety of organic meats and poultry from several farms. Also sell fish, breads and other items.

Gasparro's (Bloor and Ossington) carries Mennonite raised chickens, which are free of hormons and free-range (not caged). They also have a variety of other non-organic meats.


The Butchers (Center/Bathurst) provides a variety of organic meats and poultry as well as prepared food. They buy products from above mentioned Blue Haven farm among others.


Farmers markets
Another good source of fresh organic meat and chicken (as well as other products) are farmers markets. Some are open year around and other only during the warmer months. A comprehensive list of farmers markets can be found here.