FREE-RANGE MEAT - is it better for you?

[badshotbob]

As a hunter, my pitch for getting more deer in the freezer to my wife and family is they are better for you than beef which to me, is obviously true. Less fat, more natural, etc... Not that I want nor could stop eating beef, but would rather eat healthier all the way around.

My wife agrees with this philosophy and would like to carry it further in our daily lives by finding a free-range farm to buy chickens and turkeys and eggs and whatnot from. According to research, the massive meat production farms have many things wrong with them. The animals at most carry illnesses that are untouchable by any medicine out there. Do you think even after cooking that we are getting the steroids and illnesses and chemicals in this meat?

Please don't get me wrong - I am not part of PETA by any stretch and don't want this to head toward a PETA-sided angle on how animals are treated. To be honest, I really don't care how they are treated at big production farms like this - we have to feed the world somehow. My focus is on the quality of free-range meat or home-grown meat here. Thanks for any thoughts.

[jerseyhunter]

I purchased some Austalian free range prime rib and there was alot less fat and marbling, it tasted like a cross between venison and beef. I guess since its free range they get more excercise hence less fat. just my 2cents

[badshotbob]

BTW, could someone contact a mod and have them delete the other post - my computer crashed right when I sent and it posted two somehow. (I can't do that from my work computer for some reason)

Thanks.

[Coastie]

It would appear on the face of it that meat grown on the large production type farms are no better nor any worse than any other. These facilities have existed now for several decades and to my knowledge there have been no adverse affects noted by anybody other than those hyping the "Natural" grown critters.
Free range beef is without doubt tougher than whang leather if it is not "Properly aged" (allowed to rot under controlled temperature conditions until a nice thick skin appears which must be peeled away) which increases cost by quite a bit. The flavor and texture of "aged beef" is in my belief quite good, however, a nicely marbled hunk of beef from the feed lot isn't all that bad either.
As for chickens, they have a propensity for carrying various diseases, most of them not communicable to humans and even those that are can be killed by proper cooking. Pork has been given the bad mouth for several milenia due to the presence of trichinosis in hogs that are allowed to feed upon uncooked garbage. Since the government stepped in and outlawed the practice of farmers feeding raw garbage to their swine, the problem has all but disappeared. Please understand that wild boar and feral hogs are excepted from this rule as are bears and raccoons, they all have the possibility of carrying trichinosis since they eat whatever they can find where ever they can find it.
I know these are not the comforting words you were looking for but wild meat, overall is still the best thing you and your family can eat. The reduced fat content alone is reason enough to enjoy game as often as you can.

[bearmaster]

We just bought a quarter of free range Scottish Highland beef. It is hands down better than any game animal I ever had eaten. Prior to eating this beef I was a grain fed bear meat fan. but, I have a new favorite meat.

I went to cut into a nice thick T-bone and before I could apply pressure with the knife it pulled away. The most tender and flavorful beef I ever ate.

I bought Highland because I have intentions of buying a few once I move this summer. Now I am completely sold on Scottish highlands.
They have less fat than most breeds due to the heavy layer of hair and they fatten and taste good just on hay.

I do like them free range chickens too. not that I care if animals are penned but I just don't care for what they may be eating in such conditions.

[James B]

We have so poluted the planet that its about impossible for any living creature not be effected by some of the chemicals, sprays and growth hormones. I try to buy the least processed foods I can find. We eat as much wild game as we can. Even so we have done the damage already and will have to live with it as best we can.

[farmcntry]

We raise most of our own meat. Hogs, cows, etc. They taste a lot better to me than any store bought or resturant served meats!

[trophyhuntr]

it all boils down to $$ like everything else, look at large feed lots out west use growth hormones , get feed ratios down as low as possible, dont like beef with alot of marble buy a different cut of meat, but keep buying american beef,pork,chick.

[Jorgy]

This is a question more than anything else since I'm not a "beef farmer" or have ever worked on one, but if a farmer/rancher has free range cows they still have to inject them with a bunch of stuff, don't they? Maybe all but the growth hormones anyway.

I do try to fill my freezer every fall so that my red meat purchases will be very low. Didn't get an elk this year though so could every one send me a few steaks

[trophyhuntr]

that is correct, Jorgy