Reply #390: Alternately, buy from a rancher/producer that treads lightly on the land. [View All]

[politicat]

Many of them are staunch environmentalists because the land is their #1 resource.

We buy our beef from Lassiter Grasslands beef, and it's basically beef raised like buffalo. Locally, grains are a bad idea because this land is too dry to really produce effectively without massive irrigation and chemical projects. However, grazers can be raised on our grasslands effectively and safely, so long as they are moved from pasture to pasture and are not fed feedlot grain. As it happens, in my region, farming is what is most disastrous for our land. We have terrible wind and water erosion problems, and we're draining the Ogallala aquifer. Plus, our land does not heal from the plowing... there are places where 100 year old furrows are still visible out here. (Eastern Colorado)

There are also chicken, lamb and pig producers that work this way.

The meat is healthier than the IBP stuff, lower in e, coli, and for those of us for whom a strict vegetarian diet would be detrimental, and for whom fish is impossible, not living near the areas of production, it's the better alternative.

Pcat