Making educated choices around buying better meat and dairy is important for a number of reasons. The food we choose to buy has an impact on our health and also on the environment. In this post I’m going to try and make things as easy as possible to understand. Hopefully it will help you make better decisions around buying meat and dairy, should you wish to do so.
I want to reiterate that I am an advocate for eating a diet focused mainly around plant based foods. Meat can form part of a healthy balanced diet. However, eating a diet rich in plants is one of the best things we can do for our health.
It is proven by science that a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables is optimal for human health. Eating more plants also usually means there is less room on your plate for meat. The key here is choosing to eat less, but better quality meat. When you cut down on your meat intake and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, along with legumes, fungi, nuts and seeds, your health will improve. You’ll also be able to afford higher quality meat on an occasional basis. Meat becomes more of an occasional treat and you begin to appreciate it more and express more gratitude for it. It was after all, once a living breathing animal, and we should be able to acknowledge that if we do choose to eat animals.
Click here to read my post about eating a mostly plant based diet. I talk about what a mostly plant based diet can look like.
Even though I am not ‘vegan’, I do care deeply about animals and their welfare. I eat between 95-99% plants with the occasional inclusion of animal products from time to time. We live in a world where people will always eat animals. It is incredibly important that we do so in the most respectful way possible. I like to support good farming practices and stand proudly and passionately against any form of intensive farming. You can essentially vote for better farming with your £ by making better decisions. Reducing the demand for intensive farms is a key part in bringing an end to it all together.
Food labels you can trust.
It can be pretty confusing when there are so many different food labels out there. Knowing exactly what they all mean isn’t always straight forward. Unfortunately, phrases like ‘Free-range’ don’t always cut it. ‘Free-Range’ usually means that animals have more space. It doesn’t guaranteed that animals are raised outdoors or fed a natural diet. It also doesn’t ensure environmental protection.
Essentially you want to be looking to buy organic products as much as possible. Organic products will usually have the highest standards around animal welfare and environmental protection.
Below I have listed two of the most trustworthy food labels that you will find in the UK. These are the products that offer the highest standards in animal welfare and environmental protection.
Soil Association:
When a product is certified by the Soil Association, you will always find the logo present on the packaging. In order to be certified by the Soil Association, licensees must meet strict European laws about the production of organic food. They must also go further in key areas such as animal welfare, protecting human health, and looking after the environment. This requires lower stocking densities, restricted use of antibiotics, animal feed that closely resembles what the animals should naturally be eating and farming methods that maintain biodiversity. Since these farms adhere to laws around organic food production, none of the animal feed comes from GMOs.
The soil association probably has the highest levels of welfare standards when it comes to animal agriculture in the UK. Animals must have access to pasture and are truly free range.
There is no routine antibiotic use on Soil Association certified farms. An animal will only be treated with medicine if it is sick. This is super important, because our antibiotics are precious. Animals are given routine antibiotics on farms that use intensive methods. This is to keep them healthy due to the poor standards in which they are raised. This is very damaging in the sense that it uses precious medicine that could otherwise be used elsewhere. The overuse of antibiotics can also be detrimental to their effectiveness in fighting disease.
Pasture for Life:
All Pasture for Life certified meat comes from farms who raise their animals exclusively on grass and pasture. As a result these farms have some of the highest welfare standards in the UK. Farms certified by the Pasture for Life are encouraged to make the most of the wildlife benefits of grazing. Guidance is given to farmers on how best to manage grasslands and hay meadows. Farmers are given important advice around the timing of farming operations to ensure minimal disturbance to nesting birds.
Pasture for Life also offers traceability, so you can trace your meat back to the farm it came from. You can often even trace it back to the individual animal or batch of animals.
Where to buy?
You can usually buy better meat and dairy of a higher quality when you shop at farmers markets, or at local farm shops. For those of us who live in cities, this isn’t always easy to do. Often your weekly shop will be at the local supermarket. It’s usually better to look for a butcher that specialises in high quality British meat if you can. This way you are also supporting a small local business.
If you don’t live near a good butchers, Waitrose is the best for better quality meat than other supermarket brands. I would recommend you also try buying meat online directly from a certified supplier. This is a really great way of knowing you’re getting the quality that you want. You’ll also directly be supporting farms that adhere to higher standards. I have shared some links below so that you can find an option that works for you.
Paster for Life grass-fed meat suppliers
Paster for Life grass-fed dairy suppliers
Please don’t support Intensive Farming.
I say this with a plea. Please never buy intensively farmed meat. Money drives intensive farming. They focus on producing large quantities of meat and dairy at low cost with profit as the main goal. There is little to no consideration for the animals welfare or for the damage they cause to the environment. They also do not care about human health.
Animals farmed in this way are often fed a diet of corn, soy, wheat and other grains. This is a huge problem because of how the grain is farmed. Animal feed is often grown in large monocultures with little to no crop rotations. This damages soil. Soil health is incredibly important for the overall health of the planet. There is a really fantastic documentary called Kiss the Ground. It explains the importance of soil health and how we can work with nature to help fight climate change. I would highly recommend it, it’s pretty fascinating! For more information about the problems with animal feed, read this article on onegreenplanet.org.
I could go on and on about how much I despise factory farms. Instead I have listed some more resources below for you to discover more. My message to you is simple. If you care about animals, your health and the health of the planet, do not support intensive farming.
Resources:
Compassion in World Farming are a fantastic charity who are fighting for a world without intensive farms. I often donate to them as I thoroughly believe in their cause. Their website is packed full of information on the matter. If you’re not aware of the issues with intensive farming, this is a great place to start your research. A word of warning – some of the images displayed on their website may be upsetting.
Visit www.ciwf.org.uk for more information.
You can also check out their Compassionate Food Guide for great tips on how to shop more compassionately.
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Kiss the Ground is a really great documentary available on Netflix all about the importance of global soil health. Unfortunately industrial and intensive farming methods have hugely depleted the richness of our soils around the world. The documentary explains how these destructive farming methods have negatively impacted our health, climate change and the environment. It explains how organic and regenerative farming can massively help in our fight against climate change. If all our farms worked with nature rather than against it, we would all be healthier and so would the planet. I highly recommend giving it a watch!
I hope that you found this post useful and I thank you for choosing to buy better meat and dairy. I encourage you to eat meat and dairy less often. Not only for your health, but for the environment. You can be part of the solution through your purchasing choices, which is a fantastic and easy thing to do to reduce your carbon footprint. Unless you decide to eat a solely plant based diet, I hope that you enjoy fantastic quality meat and dairy from time to time. You can feel proud that you are supporting good farms too. The planet needs more people like you!
If you like what you’ve read here today, please share this with your friends and family.
Thank you for reading, have a beautiful day.
~ Faine