How to Find Cruel Free Meats and Eggs

Do you live in a farm state? Check local grocers to see who their meat and produce providers are. Usually local farmers, especially if they're small town farmers and not the commercial growers, will raise their animals organically and cruelty free. Many towns have farmer's markets on given days during the week during growing season. Some farmers will come with their produce and allow people to sign up for meat shares. You basically can buy half of a cow or pig, or buy the shank or other portion that you prefer. Check web sites for local farmers to see what they have available. Sometimes it's a full farm, sometimes it's a dairy farm.

Not only do you have the benefit of cruelty free, but organic AND supporting local farmers. But to be honest, supporting local farmers is the biggest appeal for me. That sends the biggest message to commercial growers.

If you have any access to the grocery chain Whole Foods: You can go in and ask their butchers about the sources of their products. The chain often has information about the farms that provide their products. I don't think everything they provide can be guaranteed "cruelty-free" but I'm sure at least some of their farmers meet some form of humane treatment standards, so I'd talk directly to the butchers there.

Great suggestions so far. Try your local farmers market. There are several in my area and on different days as well. There are local meat farmers at each one and you can talk with them about how they raise and butcher their animals. It can be a bit more expensive but totally worth it for me and my family. Not only with the cruelty but no hormones. Be careful with buying free range even at the regular grocery store as regulations can vary. Free range can sometimes only mean being outside for an hour a day.

We buy our meat from a local farm that is grassfed and organic. This is the best solution we have come up with for us.

Check out www.localharvest.org, type in your city and see what comes up. You should be able to find phone numbers and addresses for farms. You can then call them to ask them directly, or ask if they allow tours of the farm. I think that is the only way to know.

Be very careful of labels. "free range" and "natural" are not regulated. Meaning they have no promise behind them. The only regulation is the term "organic". There are strict rules and inspections for organic. Grocery store organic is good. Finding a local farmer is best. They will be smaller and therefore able to better take care of the animals equaling a better product and better lives for the animals. Organic and local is more expensive. But nothing is more important than your and your families health. Savings later is life will make it all worth it.

Much of the commercially bought 'free range' that does NOT include the USDA Organic seal are not really free range - they most likely only have access to a window instead of being in battery cages or in pitch black chicken houses.

There are TONS of co-ops, health food stores and such that are local...

www.localharvest.org is a great site too!!

Grass fed and grass finished (beef) are the best meats you can get, but I"m not sure about pork

Free range chickens, cage free eggs.....but this goes much deeper than that. What about breads (and those eggs), etc.

A local family farm is your best bet. Or a kosher butcher.

It's been said that about 1% of people in this country have actually tasted grass-fed beef.

There is a difference between organic, cruelty free, free range, etc. Just keep researching and find a point that you can begin.

Hello, here are a couple links for you from the Cornucopia Institute. I've used their site to research eggs and milk, particularly.

Eggs:
http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/

Milk:
http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html

When you go into the ratings, if you click on the brands listed, it gives you a run-down of the farm itself where the animals come from.

Ex Farmer Lady and Organic eater here answers. If you have a garden you can have as many as eight hens...no rooster, fully fenced with fencing across the top or the raccoons will get them.
Whole Foods is not organic they are a cross over store. Much of what they sell for fancy prices isn't organic meat nor is anything else they sell unless you see it says organic. Check out stores that are 100% organic like New Leaf in the California. You can go online to find them.
You need to go to an organic hog farm. Even that will turn you off from eating pork forever.
Free range chickens have an open door but they never get to go outdoors as there are hundreds of chickens in the coupe.
Harris Beef is raised caringly so I think it's okay to eat. Also Anderson's Lamb.
If you have type A or B blood it's easy to be a vegetarian but type O cannot do it totally.

Costco's eggs are (Kirkland brand). They just had a big article on it in their "Costco Connection" magazine. As for the meats, I'm not sure unless you buy from someone private.

Too bad you don't live in a state that has the store Earth Fare. They are awesome!

I don't know anything about the area you live in, but around here we have many farms and CSAs that provide food that has been raised and treated humanely without hormones or steroids. Do you have a local butcher? It's best to buy local because it's much easier to track where the food came from. I get my eggs from my friend Sarah, whose family raises chickens. I buy any meat we eat from Earth Fare. I get my produce from local farmers who can guarantee they have not used pesticides.

My suggestion is that you goodsearch CSAs in your area and see what you find.

Kudos for changing the way you shop/eat! You're helping make this world a better place.

ADDED: Okay, I just ran a mapquest after goodsearching CSAs up there. There are some in Palmer, which mapquest says is about half an hour from you. Why don't you start there? Give them a call and see what they offer.

Buy directly from the farmer and ask questions. Read this book (it's short)

"Holy Cows And Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide To Farm Friendly Food" by Joel Salatin

When farming is properly done, the animals get lifetime of protection from disease, excessive heat, excessive cold, hunger thirst, and predators. They pay for this with a quick and painless death. Maybe they would have lived longer in the "wild", but their death would likely be slow and painful. The critters we eat are prey animals after all. It is their ecological niche to be eaten by something.

Amanda G. says "But you will never see what is depicted in our kids farm stories, or on Charlotte's web. It just doesn't exist."

This is incorrect. There are a few farms exactly like this. I've seen them. Wandered through the property. Watched live free-range chickens wander through the slaughter area completely unconcerned. When farming is done right, animals are very happy with the arrangement.

There aren't a lot of good farms, but they exist and their numbers are growing. Find them and support them with your business.

No meat is actually cruelty free. Animals are raised~ badly, tortured and then slain, drained of blood and then stripped of every little part of them. Sometimes you will find examples of "less cruel practices, and less drug/hormone intervention. But you will never see what is depicted in our kids farm stories, or on Charlotte's web. It just doesn't exist. In fact 99% (more actually) of the meat sold in the U.S. is factory farmed meat, where the cruelty is at a staggering, appalling high. The forces in place that create the standard for humane practices are deeply wedged and comfortable in the back pockets of the U.S.D.A.

I could go on all day, but i wont because i actually want someone to read this.

If you want to stop supporting and nourishing yourself off of this awful abomination then you would be well advised to go vegetarian or vegan. That or hunt/raise your own meat.

OR

and this is a big 'or' because as ive pointed out i dont believe "cruel free meat" exists. You could always shop whole foods, i read so many things about the owner and how he is a vegetarian who feels the same way i do, but in order to keep his business open he has to offer meat. He is very strict on his labeling and the standards by which he accepts meat into his stores are some of the strictess, toughest in the country.

If you are open to the idea of giving up (at least some) meat, check out the website thekindlife.com. I am vegan and the rest of my family is vegetarian and we are very happy and healthy. Good for you making conscious choices :-)