Choose Free-Range Foods For Better Health
Not just for animals and the planet: it’s in your interest to choose grass-fed over factory farmed
Meat, dairy, fish and eggs are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. But even then, the quality and quantity of the nutrients they offer depend on the diet of the animals in question. Therefore, it makes sense to choose food from livestock that has eaten well.
Meat and dairy
Meat may be sourced from animals that are grass-fed, pasture-fed or concentrate-fed. Grass-fed does not necessarily mean that the animal grazed on grass all its life. Nor was it necessarily exclusively grass-fed — the animal may have been supplemented with or finished on concentrate feed. “Grass-finished” is a term that usually means that the animal ate grains all its life but spent the last few weeks on pasture.
Concentrate feed, as given to intensively farmed livestock that see little light of day, is composed mainly of grains and soya. This fattens them up, in the same way grains and soya fatten up humans.
In the US (but not the UK), intensively farmed livestock are routinely given antibiotics to stop them from getting sick. They eat no grass or forage.
