Meat

pinksonya

Where do you buy yours?  I really like to buy organic when I can.  I had a nutrition course a few years back that taught me way too much about beef, and now I'm scared to buy it in the grocery store.  We eat mostly chicken, and I get the Perdue brand at Wal Mart.  This is supposedly raised well, or at least was a few years ago when I took the course.  I wouldn't mind finding another good brand.

New_to_PGH

We rarely eat red meat - I'd guess about 3x/month? Anyhow, DH eats enough for 3 people, so we buy frozen, trimmed chicken breasts at Sam's club - $2/lb for a 5 lb bag I think (I think the brand is Tyson)We also eat a lot of salmon - again, at Sams, usually for about $7/lb (Sam's store brand)

tattgirl58

I always buy natures basket organic meat at Giant Eagle.  The beef is always good.  I buy bagged chicken from Sams club (Tyson) which is antibiotic free and freezed seperately.  It's always so juicy and I actually prefer it to the fresh kind.  It's only 11.98 for 3 lbs too  

e8jackson6

We typically buy generic frozen chicken breasts at Wal-Mart, because we really go through it.We rarely eat red meat, but we'll buy that and fish at McGinnis Sisters on 51 - they have a really great selection and it's always very good.I typically get perdue when I get any ground meat.  And whatever brand they have at Wal-Mart for pork, pork loins, roasts, etc. Probably not that helpful for you. :/Costco has really good chicken - we do occasionally get breasts, thighs, and whole chickens from there.

marburs

my Grandfather's barn.  butcher one once a year.  Can't get any more organic than that. lol- seriously tho. 

npales

We also get the trimmed, individually frozen chicken breasts, but we buy them at Costco. We don't buy red meat almost at all (tonight being the first exception in about 4 months). We buy a good amount of pork, usually at Giant Eagle (no help). I also like getting the Extra Lean Ground Turkey at GE (gosh, I forget the brand). For fish, either we buy frozen filets at Costco, or we buy environmentally-friendly fish at GE Market District.

Pirata13

Whole Foods. Or from the Amish guy at the Farmer's Market.  I rarely eat meat, but if I do, organic all the way.

daveys_baby

I don't know if I've ever had organic.  We get ours mostly at Foodland, when they have a sale on red meat (usually chuck roast or london broil) we stock up.  Shop 'n Save also has deals sometimes and we'll get their generic flash frozen chicken breasts (sometimes they have them as low as $4 for a 3lbs. bag.We like the chicken breasts and marinated chicken breasts at Costco.  That's also where we get pork since they usually have a great deal on porkchops and sometimes even have a coupon.  I don't eat fish, but I've gotten stealhead salmon there before and DH really liked it.  They also have ground Butterball turkey that DH likes, I substitute it in chilli instead of red meat.

pinksonya

Hmm, maybe I should check out whole foods.  We eat red meat maybe once a month if that, so it's probably worth the extra cost.Sara - Lucky!

morganphd

I'm not much of a help. We have ours delivered, and the meat that is delivered is organic (beef and pork) and free-range chicken. We throw it in the freezer in the basement. When we do need extra meat for something that we've run out of or for a party coming up, we'll buy at either Whole Foods or Wegman's.

pinksonya

Or maybe I should stop being weird and buy meat the grocery store like everyone else?

morganphd

You're not being weird! We buy organic for the same reason. A little information would scare a lot of people away from regular meat.

pinksonya

I am surprised that not many people buy organic meats.  Didn't realize I was in the minority.

daveys_baby

I probably should be worried but I just haven't read up on it much.  Shannon, if you care to elaborate i.e. waste time at work ;-) feel free to enlighten me (send me a facebook message if you think it's so gross that it shouldn't be on the boards).  Thanks!

morganphd

Took the day off because I'm sick. I don't want to post a lot of info on here, but here are two of the arguments that I present to my students when we do the biotech chapter (and I'm sure Sonya can give a lot more) 1) They give cows bovine growth hormone to make them bigger faster. However, there have been trials that show that humans are susceptible to this hormone too, because it's similar to ours. This may be a big contributer to the obesity problems in the US. You don't see it in Europe because their cows aren't given the hormones. 2) Most animals are given antibiotic to keep them from being sick. However, those antibiotics are causing a great deal of resistancy in the bacteria in the animals, which is contributing to the antibiotic resistancy that we are seeing in bacteria that humans are falling ill with (both because they can pass the genes to our bacteria and because their bacteria that don't die can be passed to us).

daveys_baby

Thanks Shannon, I hope you feel better!  I wasn't sure if it was "mad cow" related, which scares the heck out of me.  My mom read a book about that a few years ago which argued that there may have been some isolated incidents in the US that were covered up...but who knows.

morganphd

What scares me about Mad-Cow (or Creutzfeld-Jacob, which is the version humans get) is that the man who won a Nobel prize for finding it as the first known prion disease, adopted a bunch of young boys from New Guinea. He was there working on Kuru, which is a similar disorder that the indigenous people were getting from eating the brains of infected people that had died. But, when he adopted them, he took them to the UK, where he proceeded to sexually abuse them. Just another showing that there are monsters out there everywhere.

pinksonya

You could go in so many different directions with this topic.  The way the animals are raised and fed is a big concern.  Many cows are not fed what their bodies are able to process.  They are also given antibiotics and hormones, as Shannon mentioned.  Same with chickens and pigs... not allowed to live as they are supposed to.  Pigs are very family oriented, but on large farms, are torn from their babies at birth and not allowed to roam.  Chickens are also kept in very tight quarters.  The stress is believed to be much higher in these mass produced animals, which can effect us, without even considering the hormones they may be given.This is only the tip of the iceberg.  There are some horrible things that happen in the butchering and processing of the meats.  Won't go there.

morganphd

Sonya, did you ever read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair? I know it's older (early 1900s), but it's enough to scare many into a vegetarian lifestyle because many of those processes still go on today.

pinksonya

I'll have to check it out.  When  I learned a lot about meats in my nutrition course, the discussion was focused around "Fast Food Nation."

LaFemmeRousse

**butting in**"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan is a recent book on this subject that is pretty darn awesome.  I've been vegetarian since I was 9, but even for meat-eaters this can really make you re-think where your meat comes from.  My FI, avowed almost-carnivore, loved it, and it's really changed some of his shopping habits.Shannon, reading "The Jungle" is one of the reasons I became veggie in the first place

morganphd

Jen - I don't think I could ever become a full vegetarian because I really do love the taste of meat way too much. But DH and I are much more aware of where our meat comes from and what goes on in it's production because we (well mainly me) have read too much. It's also the reason that we try not to buy things with high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, or artificial sweetners. Our children are going to love going to their grandparents just so that they can get the treats that their friends will eat.

LaFemmeRousse

Shannon, I'm very much the same way.  Even though we're not planning to have kids for quite awhile, I'm already worrying about what meat we'll feed them, because we probably won't be raising them veggie.  I don't and won't cook meat, but I'll probably be the one shopping for it, and the idea of supporting factory farming or feeding them meat from one already makes me feel guilty and gross!  My parents are practically as bad as I am after living with me for so long, so FI's parents will definitely be the naughty grandparents

npales

The main food/meat cause I care about is over-fishing of oceans, and fish being farmed in ways that are harmful to the environment. You'd be surprised how dangerous some fish are to humans because of the way they are farmed. Other fish, because of how they are caught, are causing the fish population to pretty much die off, which then affects mammals, birds, and many other species of wildlife. For example, polar bears in the North Pole and penguins in the South Pole have a harder time finding food. This makes penguins and baby polar bears way more exposed to predators. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a National program called Seafood Watch that is widely adopted by many grocery stores, restaurants and consumers as a guide to enviromentally friendly seafood.Unfortunately, I haven't learned enough about red meat or pork to have a feeling on those, and we don't eat them very often.

daveys_baby

I read "The Jungle" in 7th grade and again in high school for class...I guess I didn't talk myself out of meat because I fell into thinking all that was in the past, I really do cook the heck out of pork though lol b/c tape worm worries me.  It's scary that food can still be tainted in many ways when we think we're so advanced in the 21st century.  "The Jungle" lead to a lot of changes in the food industry back then, hopefully someone today will do something that causes government intervention.That's very creepy about the scientist.  My mom actually worked with a man who died of it years ago, he had gone over to the UK on a vacation before there was much awareness raised and ate beef that was tainted.

greenet

my uncle has the human form of mad cow disease. it is really sad. Im actually not allowed to donate blood or anything since they are not sure when he contracted it. I guess you can pass it on and it can go undiagnosed for many years. Im pretty sure that it wasnt passed down to him - but you never know. crazy

Point202

I would love to be more conscious of where we buy our meat, but we really just get whatever is available at Giant Eagle and/or Aldi.If you are looking for true organic, and as a bonus locally raised meats, check out the Penn's Corner Farm Alliance.  They offer locally raised, grass fed meat shares:  [url]http://www.pennscorner.com/store/36[/url]I've never purchased one because with just two of us in our house I don't know how we'd go through so much meat before it got freezer burn!

morganphd

N - I agree with you on the fish too. When we buy seafood, we try to buy local since we are in a coastal state. Chilean Sea Bass is still a really "IN" food here in Philly, and we won't go to restaurants that have it on the menu. I know it's not doing much, but at least we aren't supporting it. That's a great website (montereybayaquarium.org). I bookmarked it for future reference.

pinksonya

I think it's actually the 21st century that is making things worse.  Everyone wants cheap, fast and easily accessible foods.  The mass production is crazy.I fear I'm going to be that horrible parent, too.  My children will love going to their friends houses where they're allowed to have packaged foods (junk)!Seriously though, we don't eat perfectly or not eat packaged foods at all.  I try very hard though to buy more healthy, natural foods and avoid the processed "stuff."

pinksonya

Thanks for sharing that site!  Very neat.  I hope I can afford to support local farmers someday.  It would be great to buy something together with family or friends and split it.

LaFemmeRousse

N, great site!