Pasture Raised(outdoors) vs. Factory Raised(indoors)

What is Pasture Raised

Have you ever driven by an open field and seen these portable bottomless shelters with birds in them, if not you probably don’t know what i’m talking about, in simple terms this is the foundation of pasture raised.

It all starts with these portable shelters where we place 75 birds per shelter and move them daily, the whole idea here is to present the birds with a clean fresh set of pasture each day where they have access to numerous different bugs, worms, and clean air unlike factory raised. This gives the meat more protein(less fat), more flavor, and more nutrition, who doesn’t want that. We also supplement with gmo free grain being that chickens are omnivores. Our model is based on quality over production.

What is Factory Raised

You’ve probably never seen one of those 500 foot long buildings that contain upwards of 20,000 birds per building, with no fresh air, zero access to any pasture or the outside, no access to sunlight, and a 100% grain diet, just imagine how hard it would be to keep one of these buildings clean. If your saying that’s the life poultry was designed for you fooled me once but not twice. The underlying basis behind this model is production, how can we produce meat at the lowest cost possible, which usually means low quality.

Environmentally

When it comes to environment friendly the pasture raised system is great for regenerating our soils, currently were obliterating our soils at a high rate and no soil means no food, here the chickens drop their manure into the soil providing it with nutrients and organic matter, this organic matter makes the soil more permeable which lets it retain moisture better reducing the need for irrigation and a myriad of other benefits. So were getting high quality meat produced by an environment enhancing system.

On the other hand we have a system that pollutes the air, and there putting more manure on the ground then it can absorb, which allows manure to seep into waterways leading to dead zones devoid of wildlife. Enough said.

Relationships

Who doesn’t value great relationships, i know i do, the beauty of pasture raised is you usually have to source it from a local farm, which means you get to have a relationship with your producer, this is one of the many benefits some choose to overlook given that we’ve become more individualized these days. I know when i go to buy something i always choose the person i trust and i have a relationship with, it's just human nature.

When it comes to factory raised there’s so many different chains the meat has to go through that having a relationship with the producer is not possible and by the times it gets to you, you don’t know whats been done to it.

Cost

Finally Cost, when it comes to dollars it quite obvious that pasture raised costs more than factory raised, but when you compare nutrition between the two, does it really, pasture raised is substantially higher in iron, omega 3’s, have a lower omega 6:3 ratio, higher in antioxidants, healthier fats, and numerous other nutrients. It’s been said that one pasture raised chicken has the same amount of nutritional value as two-three factory raised chickens.

It all comes down to what your values and principles are, if you value health for you and your family, and good food then pasture raised is for you, just the other day i read a stat that read one-third of US adults are obese or over weight, that’s quite concerning if you ask me, but at the end of the day you have to make a decision that’s best for you.

Let me know in the comments section what your thoughts are.

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