white oak pastures.

welcome to my first guest blogger: JIM HUNT!

jim is a 31 year old pisces who loves dogs, reading, running,

cooking & most of all- being married to mollybjams.

Wow. It is an honor and privilege to share my take on consuming meat with the worldwide following of Puddles of Jam. 

When purchasing meat you basically have 3 options:

1. Buy the cheapest, which I will refer to as industrial or factory farmed.

2. Buy meat labeled "all natural", "organic", "free range", "grass fed", etc. from the store.

3. Buy truly free range (pastured) poultry or grass fed beef directly from a farmer. 

A number of factors will play a role in which of these options you choose. Most likely they will be cost and availability. There is no doubt that the first option above is going to be the "cheapest". In fact, my understanding is that at one time, eating meat was considered a luxury for the rich or well off. Today's industrial food production certainly makes eating meat more affordable. The problem is that "cheap meat" actually comes at a very high price when you consider animal welfare, and the impact on the environment. Industrial agriculture is one of the largest contributors to environmental pollution. It is pretty easy to make a case for going vegetarian if you do some reading about our food system. However, in my opinion it does not have to be "all or nothing". Choosing the second option above is certainly better than the first as any cow or chicken raised organically would never survive without anti-biotics in a "traditional" factory farm environment. The crowded conditions on factory farms are why anti-biotics must be given to prevent widespread illness and disease. While better than option 1, the biggest problem with option 2 is that there is relatively little regulation in terms of using words like "all natural", "cage free", "free range" etc. when marketing a product. Also, just because an animal is not given hormones or anti-biotics, and is fed an organic diet does NOT mean they lived in anything close to their natural environment. This brings me to option 3. This is the ideal. In my opinion this is as good as it gets, and White Oak Pastures is second to none when it comes to animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and producing a superior product in terms of being good for our health and tasting great. 
Oh yeah, they're local too! 

Atlanta area Whole Foods stores get their grass-fed beef and some of their poultry from White Oak Pastures. The catch is that it is obviously more expensive (although $2-$3/lb  cheaper if you buy it directly from them instead of from Whole Foods). Because of the higher cost, it may not be practical for most of us to eat all of our meat from a place like White Oak Pastures. For most people I know, money is as tight right now as it has ever been. But again, I don't think it has be be all or nothing. Maybe we should cut back on our meat consumption and make it a treat just 2 or 3 times a week. Maybe we eat from options 2 or 3 as much as possible knowing that there will still be times when our budget only allows for what is on sale at the Piggly Wiggly. Maybe you choose to go vegetarian (but keep in mind that unless you are going vegan, there are still the 3 options above to choose from when it comes to milk, eggs, cheese, etc.). This is already the longest Puddles of Jam post of all time, so I am just going to provide a link to a 15 minute long video about White Oak Pastures. I think you will see why Molly and I are going to try to save a little more each month to put toward our grocery budget so we can continue to order from them. If you are still reading, thanks :-). Molly can tell you that I would LOVE to talk with you further about this subject. 

Check out the picture of our shipment as well as the following video:

CUD from Joe York on Vimeo.

   cud.

our white oak pastures special delivery!

 our new freezer!

$75 bucks off craigslist- buy local!