As a physician, I see health reasons to eat meat—B12 and other micronutrient deficiencies, and sufficient protein intake to keep and build muscle. During their rehabilitation, I often encourage my patients to eat more protein, and there is evidence for this. I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence of carnivore/ruminant diets helping with metabolic and inflammatory disease, and mental health (ref: diagnosisdiet.com).
I also understand the animal welfare arguments, I want the animals I eat to have a good life.
In our family, we have settled this discordance by buying whole or large fractions of a grass fed cow from a local farmer (Dobson Farm), and that happy cow can feed our family for months (requires a large freezer). The farmer has proudly invited us to come visit the cows and see how happy they are in their field.
Grass fed beef is not as tasty, and this is known in the industry. The other things is that marrow bones and organ meats are quite nutritious, we also sometimes get ground beef with liver ground into it. Eating these parts of the animal is cheaper, and means that potentially fewer animals can feed us, as it is likely most beef cattle is produced for steak. Marketing the health and animal welfare benefits of grass fed and ‘non-steak’ cuts may lead to better animal health and efficiency of the industry.
Also - I’ve heard of a farm in Ontario, Canada, which posts videos on their social media to show their happy chicks, if I lived closer, I would buy from this farm. Maybe more farms should live-stream their happy animals?
I think this is a good idea.
As a physician, I see health reasons to eat meat—B12 and other micronutrient deficiencies, and sufficient protein intake to keep and build muscle. During their rehabilitation, I often encourage my patients to eat more protein, and there is evidence for this. I have seen lots of anecdotal evidence of carnivore/ruminant diets helping with metabolic and inflammatory disease, and mental health (ref: diagnosisdiet.com).
I also understand the animal welfare arguments, I want the animals I eat to have a good life.
In our family, we have settled this discordance by buying whole or large fractions of a grass fed cow from a local farmer (Dobson Farm), and that happy cow can feed our family for months (requires a large freezer). The farmer has proudly invited us to come visit the cows and see how happy they are in their field.
Grass fed beef is not as tasty, and this is known in the industry. The other things is that marrow bones and organ meats are quite nutritious, we also sometimes get ground beef with liver ground into it. Eating these parts of the animal is cheaper, and means that potentially fewer animals can feed us, as it is likely most beef cattle is produced for steak. Marketing the health and animal welfare benefits of grass fed and ‘non-steak’ cuts may lead to better animal health and efficiency of the industry.
Also - I’ve heard of a farm in Ontario, Canada, which posts videos on their social media to show their happy chicks, if I lived closer, I would buy from this farm. Maybe more farms should live-stream their happy animals?