| Friday, May 15, 2009 |
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The Cost of Pastured Meats
By Monica @ 8:47 AM   
I woke to a nice post and picture in my google reader this AM. Robb Wolf reports on his recent acquisition of lamb meat:
We went in with the Fragosso’s and each bought a whole grassfed lamb. I think we ended up with about 60lbs of meat and the price was about $3/lb. Damn cheap when you consider the quality of the food and the fact we are supporting local, sustainable food production. We are looking at doing a GF cow at some point but will need a larger freezer than what our refrigerator has. If you look around you can usually find a GF meat supplier nearby.
This is strikingly cheap. I've never seen leg of lamb cheaper than $5 in any grocery store. Rack of lamb in the grocery store is obviously considerably more expensive.
In the fall we'll be getting pastured pork from the farm where we get our amazing milk, Ebert Family Farm. This pork is $1.25 per pound with an added cost of $250 to butcher a hog. (See where a good portion of the cost comes in?) They usually finish the hogs at 250 lbs. which means the total cost per pound for the pork is around $2.25 per pound. I've never had pork that tastes quite as good, and when you consider the quality, that's damn cheap. Must be all the skim milk the pigs are getting. The hogs are also not confined in a building and thus, have more vitamin D in their flesh.
Who said local pastured animals aren't competitive in price? All the consumer needs is a freezer. All the farmer needs is access to a local, USDA-approved slaughterhouse that butchers the type of animal in question, which is a mandatory requirement. This last one often proves to be the real problem. Read to find out more about how this inflates the price of your food and decreases your access to quality and choice in the supermarket.
For more information on where to find meat from animals raised the old-fashioned way, on pasture, visit Eat Wild and/or your local Weston A Price chapter pages.Labels: Meat Inspection, Meat Myths
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2 Comments:
Even here in S.C., not exactly the Great Plains, you can find it for $5 a pound if you buy a 30lb box of mixed cuts frozen at the farm store. Whole Foods also carries grass fed, albeit at a higher cost per pound.
If it's not available or you can't take the cost, buy the leaner cuts to minimize the poor fat profile of the regularly available feedlot beef. I mix in almond flour and coconut oil to add fat back in to ground beef for burgers or meat loaf. Dr. Eades suggests marinating steaks and roasts in half red wine and half olive oil, which he says helps add monounsaturated.
However, kicking the bread and sugar addiction is probably the biggest step toward better health most folks can make, IMHO. Just the money you save in giving up those can more than make up for any added expenses from grass-fed meats, raw milk and pastured eggs. Our family food bill has actually gone down along with our waistlines.
Indeed! Thanks for the comment. (Not sure why I didn't see it before... I guess I'm not seeing comments from bloggers.)
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