Committed Carnivores: Now is the time to choose organic meat
Irish meat is in the news at the moment, and for all the wrong reasons.
However, if you are a committed carnivore, then maybe now is the time to consider the organic option.
Most meat in Ireland comes from animals who eat a concentrated feed. For pork and poultry, this is all year round, for cattle and some sheep this mostly for the winter.
This inevitably increases the carbon footprint of meat – growing the ingredients, making up the concentrated feed pellets and transporting them. It changes the nutritional make up of the meat in a negative way – grass fed animals produce healthier meat. It also occasionally leads to problems the like of which we’re experiencing right now with contamination.
Now for the good news!
Certified organic animals are fed different feed to their conventional counterparts, so there is absolutely no potential for the same contamination to cross over. With certified organic meat, you have this guarantee.
Occasionally cattle and sheep farmers use no concentrates, or the lowest permissible limit of concentrates. (some farm schemes insist on the feeding of some concentrates – even then, for organic farmers, the feed is always different to conventional feed)
An example is Joe Condon
The moral of the story? There is no such thing as a free lunch! But by supporting organic producers you are encouraging an environmentally sound alternative to flourish. In situations like the one we are in now, this is vital.
Ollie
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Ollie,
There is evidence that organic farming produces lower emissions in comparison to conventional methods. There is also in this context to consider that animals solely fed on grass never have e-coli. I’m open to correction, but as far as I know this health problem only occurs in concentrate fed animals, organic or not, There is a lot to be done to make organic farming in Ireland more sustainable.