Let’s talk about the ethics of organic foods. Most people fully understand the health benefits and reduced exposure to chemicals from a human standpoint, but what about from an environmental and animal point of view?
Organic meats are farmed on small, sustainable farms with fewer animals, so that the amount of manure produced is manageable. It can be recycled and used as an organic fertilizer for the soil during crop rotation. This manure can be classed as organic because it was made by animals that were fed complete and balanced organic foods. The nutrients found in this manure help to grow crops of healthy grasses and feeds for the animals on the farm to graze.Factory meat and dairy farms typically create a huge amount of toxic sewage, sludge, and chemical run-off that pollutes ground water, soil and plantlife (and contributes heavily to soil erosion) and even pollutes the air we breathe. Factory farmscreate so much manure that is not recycled, or used to fertilize soil, that it is a huge health risk to the environment and humans in the form of E.coli and other harmful bacteria, which can make people incredibly ill.
Animals raised on organic farms are allowed to be just that. They are permitted to graze, exercise and engage in normal behaviors for their species (such as free range roaming the pastures). There is no question that this is much more ethical than factory farms, which are known to constrain their animals in tight quarters, shoulder to shoulder, never given the chance to free feed on grass or, in some cases, even see the light of day. Organically raised animals are given high quality feeds, kept stress and disease free naturally and are not pumped full of harsh chemical antibiotics, or growth hormones. Their growth is achieved as nature intended. By not feeding or injecting animals with chemicals, they are not only reducing the exposure of these things to the animal and consumer, but also the farmer. The work environments of the people who labour on the farms is healthier, happier and more humane, which reduces their stress too.
Undoubtedly, one of the least humane practices in non-organic food farms is the practice of feeding livestock with other, ground up livestock, unnaturally forcing them to eat their own kind. This practice has been linked to outbreaks of BSE (mad cow disease), a serious health risk to both livestock and consumers.Organic food farms are 100% guaranteed to not feed animal by products to their animals, ensuring they stay free of this potentially fatal side effect. Organic foods are sourced in an environment that caters to the needs of the animal, the farmers, the consumers and the Earth itself. They are ethically and environmentally conscious at every step, from pasture, to plate.
Pasture to Plate is dedicated not only to the production of high quality organic foods, but to the protection of animals, the environment and the health of the people who rely on their products to feed their families.