What is "Pastured"?

Pastured meats and eggs come from animals that are raised on grass, their native diet. Ours are raised in the pasture and rotated to fresh grass every few days.

The advantages of raising animals on grass are many:

Animals raised on grass Animals raised in feedlots and industrial confinement operations

no hormones or growth-promoting additives	feed is laced with hormones and growth-promoting addditives
animals grow at a natural pace in stress-free lives	animals are hurried along in the feedlot or factory house, chickens stuffed into confinement cages or packed tightly in a large room with many others
better nutrition	poor nutrition, many animals die of acidosis and other diseases
clean and hygienic environment	animals stand on bare dirt or mud in their own manure
fresh air, clean water and natural land	air pollution, water pollution, and land pollution imminent
grass is natural to the animal's digestive system	grain is foreign to the animal's digestive system
only grass and health-promoting supplements are fed to the animals (such as garlic and apple cider vinegar)	feedlots are allowed to feed "by-product feedstuff" such as municipal garbage, stale pastries, chicken feathers and candy
high-fiber grass helps keep diseases rare	starchy, low-fiber grain fed in feedlots promotes diseases such as subacute acidosis, Mad Cow Disease, campylobacter and e.coli which needs even more antibiotics to counteract the reactions
manure is spread out over a large area and naturally composted	concentrated manure must be scraped up and dumped in heaps or scattered in high concentration, burning the soil and creating foul smells

Information adapted from www.eatwild.com

For detailed information including scientific study results about why grass-fed animals are best, visit these pages on EatWild.Com:

Grass-Fed Basics Food Safety Benefits for Animals

Benefits for the Environment Benefits for Farmers Benefits for Your Health

About the terms "free-range" and "organic"

Many times producers use the term "free-range" to describe their eggs and chickens. Some of them are talking about the same types of practices that we use when we call our products "pastured", particularly the small farmers like us who are scattered about the United States. However, beware of the large-scale producers that market their eggs in the grocery stores as free-range. That label may only mean that hens have access to the outdoors, still living in confinement houses with one door at the end leading to another concrete pad. Large-scale manufacturers many times will tweak their operation slightly to take advantage of the lenient legal terms so they can raise the price of their products by promoting them as "free-range". They are motivated by profit, not nutritional quality. You may wish to contact the company who produces the food you have been buying to find out what their production practices are. Not all eggs or chicken labeled "free-range" actually have access to green grass!

The term "organic" is so loosely defined that conventional confinement operations could feed the animals organic grain only, the animals having no access at all to green grass. In those cases, the difference in quality is minimal at best. Many organic producers are motivated by integrity, and do not stoop to such practices, but the only way to find out is to contact the producer.

Another point to consider when dealing with the term organic is that to get organic certification, producers must go through a bunch of legal "red tape", potentially costly and a big hassle. Many times the ones who are willing to do that are the large-scale producers who make their money from selling in large volume. Most small farmers like us do not have the financial resources or the patience to deal with numerous regulations, so therefore may not market their products as certified organic. However, those same small farmers may actually be using practices that one would consider organic and sustainable. Labels are governed by legal code, so once again, the best way to be confident of the quality of the food you buy is to contact the producer to find out their practices.