142: You Don't Need Expensive Meat to Eat Well

142: You Don't Need Expensive Meat to Eat Well
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I think you should buy the best meat you can afford. But the problem is, you know, whenever I say, well, you know, go, you know, buy grass-fed, grass-finished meat, you know, most people see a $30 pasture-raised ribeye at Whole Foods and then decide good meat is unaffordable and walk away from the topic. But that's not really how you should be looking at it.

The real question really is what tier of meat makes sense for your budget, and the answer is different for beef than it is for pork or poultry. So in this video, I wanna talk more about how to navigate the recommendation of buying the best meat you can afford, and to give you specific examples of, depending on the category of meat, the type of meat, what I consider good enough and what I would consider a no-go that, you know, I would just never buy and, and rather live without than having to buy it.

And I'm also gonna give you a very specific example of a brand of meat bars that recently reached out to me and introduced me to their new lower cost version, and that I had a very Um, interesting response to. So stay tuned for that. I'm, I'm gonna show you that here in a minute. Welcome to the Primal Shift Podcast.

Maybe let's first, you know, talk about what good meat really means because a lot of people treat good meat as a single price point. You know, u- usually the highest one they've ever seen. But the gap between pasture-raised and conventional, uh, conventionally raised meat really depends entirely on the cut.

Steaks are where the price difference is the most obvious. You know, the other day my wife came home and said, "Well, you know, uh, do you know what a, a, a pound of grass, uh, fed, grass-finished rib eye costs? $30." I mean, that's ridiculous and one of the reasons why we don't have a lot of rib eyes. You know, hopefully once our cattle are old enough and to- for freezer camp, you know, we'll have some of them again.

But it's just ridiculously expensive. So I, I, I do feel that. But, you know, a ground beef for example is an entirely different story. You know, pasture-raised ground beef from a good local source runs about maybe $10 a pound where we are here and that even that includes the, you know, the Windy Hill farm or the farm at Windy Hill here across, uh, the state line in Alabama where we source a lot of our beef from.

They re- you know, regeneratively, uh, and rotationally graze their cows. They use Salers cattle. You know, they do everything right and it's still only $10 a pound. Um, th- that's the best meat you can buy for a reasonable amount of money I would say, and you can find it even cheaper. You can find grass-fed, grass-finished me- uh, meat at, at Aldi or at, at, at Walmart for maybe, you know, five, $6 a pound, you know?

And that's very close to just a regular ground meat that you can find, you know, everywhere. So there's not a whole lot of difference when it comes to ground meat. But also ground meat is probably where most of a family's beef budget actually goes, you know? Unless you're a real steak eater, you know? I would love to be, but we are not, we are not that either.

And- You know, that comparison that most people make in their head is the most expensive cut of the most expensive tier against the cheapest cut of the cheapest tier. And that's not a real, you know, choice. That's not a, a fair comparison. And so I wanna share with you a framework that I use when it comes to buying the best meat that we can afford.

You know, and in tier one, you know, those are the 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef, ideally from a local regenerative farm, like the farm at Windy Hill we purchase from, um, only 15 minutes from where we live. You know, the other, uh, type of meat that falls into that same tier one category would be pasture-raised pork and poultry from, you know, a small farm where you can see the animals on grass, or your own animals if you have the time and the land.

Like, in our case, all of the poultry that we consume, we raise as good as we can, rotationally, the whole nine yard. Pork, we also... We have pigs And up until recently, we've purchased pork in the store. That is about to change. We are about to put our first pig in the freezer, and from that point forward, and we have nine piglets that will follow, from that point forward, we'll consume only the pork that we raise.

Tier two are grass-fed beef from, you know, a reputable brand at the grocery store, maybe a local farm where you can walk the property and ask questions, even if they don't have a fancy certification, like they're not s- uh, certified regenerative, certified organic or any of those things, but you can see that they are doing things right.

And when you do that, you know, you're really becoming the certify- certifying authority, and that's often my highest standard than a third party, you know, commercial third party audit can offer anyway. Tier three, those are, you know, conventional grocery store beef, especially cheaper cuts like ground beef, you know, chuck roast, brisket, etc.

They are, you know, far from ideal, but it's still real food and significantly better than anything else. And then there is the stuff that's below the line for us at least, and that includes industrial, uh, pork and industrial poultry and anything ultra-processed obviously. You know, and that last category where I draw the line, I wanna explain a little bit why I draw the line where I draw it and why, you know, conventionally raised beef that I would be okay consuming if I had to, is significantly, like significantly better than conventionally raised pork and s- and poultry for that matter.

So let's talk about pork and poultry for a moment because that's really... y- you, you really have to think about that, and, uh, I, I would have a hard time then deciding, you know, con- continuing to consume regular pork and poultry. The housing is really one of the main things here. You know, even feedlot cattle, you know, spend most of their lives on pasture.

They are finished in a feedlot. Before that, they eat grass. You know, calves have to eat grass, otherwise they would die. Well, first they c- they drink milk, then they eat grass, and then they are finished for a couple of months in a feedlot. That's not ideal, but they at least they can move, they can lie down, and they can stand on dirt.

Most commercial pigs don't get any of that. Roughly 93% of US pigs are raised on factory farms, and the defining feature of those factory farms are gestation crates, what they are called. They are metal enclosures about two feet wide where a pregnant sow cannot turn around, often can't lie down comfortably, and they stand on concrete for most of a four-month, for most of their four-month pregnancy.

And that's then repeated across multiple pregnancies, and that means the majority of that sow's adult life, they are confined where they cannot even turn around. They are standing there facing forward, maybe being able to lie down on concrete under artificial light And that's just horrible. You know, I, I do not wanna support anyone raising animals in such a cruel manner.

In industrial poultry, unfortunately, isn't much different. You know, tens of thousands of birds in a single barn. You know, ammonia in the air, and lifespans measured in weeks. That's absolutely terrible. And main reason why we raise those animals on our homestead where the, the pigs can be on grass, they run around, they chase around, they are having a good time.

They are only having one bad day, and that's the last day. Well, the, the male ones have two bad days. The castration day is also not that fun. But nonetheless, the rest of their time they are living the life. Reason number two is the feed. You know? And this isn't something that I've talked about in the past, but here, you know, here is the thing.

Cattle are ruminants. Their four-chambered stomachs can break down and detoxify a wide range of less than ideal inputs. You know, even when finished on grain, the upstream digestion partially insulates the muscle meat. That's a good thing. Pigs and chickens are monogastric animals, and they don't have that buffer.

You know, they are just like us. They are what they eat. And whatever is in the feed shows up in the meat. That's... And in, you know, specifically the fatty acid profile. You end up with pesticide residues, with soy isoflavones and other contaminants. All of that crap that's in the feed ends up in the meat and in the fat.

And the problem is industrial pig and poultry feed is mostly conventionally grown corn and soy, you know, often supplemented with rendered, you know, animal byproducts. You know, that's still permitted for monogastric livestock in the US. You know, unlike for ruminants where you can't do that anymore fortunately.

You know, ruminants should only be eating grass and, and, and forage. But for monogastrics, that is still permitted and is still practiced. So all of the crap that they're eating ends up in the meat and in the fat. That's then what we consume, so we get basically we go through the same cycle as those animals.

We consume crappy food. That's not good for us. And so the case against the industrial pork and poultry, you know, isn't just ethical. It, it's the product itself has problems conventional beef does not have even if-- even though conventional beef is not ideal either but significantly, significantly better.

Now let me give you one specific example and, and my reaction to it. You know, our friends here at Carnivore Bar, uh, they make one of the highest quality meat bars that I've ever had the pleasure of consuming It's grass-fed, grass-finished meat, tallow, salt if you want to, and then, you know, some bars have, have some spices, um, have some, some honey.

The apple, uh, the apple, um, the apple flavor one is really my favorite. That's the one apple pie one. That's the one that I consume a lot. But they reached out to me recently and said, "Hey, you know, we've recognized that charging $16 for our high-quality protein bar is just not something that a lot of people can afford.

So we wanted to make a less expensive version of that bar that's also a little bit smaller, is not quite as, um, doesn't have as many calories," because the original carnivore bar has 400 calories. That's quite a whopper. Has a lot of fat, very sat-satiating, so a lot of people just eat part of it and then put it in the, in the fridge, you know.

So they came out with the, what they call the Everyday Bar. If you can see it here in the camera. Everyday Bar. They have, you know, their, their regular one that's only beef tallow and salt. They have some, uh, flavored ones. They even have one with, uh, I think with blueberries. This one is blueberries and honey.

Um, and that's, I think they're gonna launch it at, like, five bucks or so a bar instead of 16, so significantly cheaper. But when they told me that they're using grain-finished beef, I'm like Come on guys. You know what I mean? That's the opposite of what I'm promoting. I, I cannot in good conscience promote a grain-finished, uh, beef product.

But then it occurred to me, I'm like, well, you know, the truth is that I don't know a lot of people who are willing to shell out $16 for one bar, even if it has 400 calories, but that's still expensive. If you use that, if you consume one every day, let's say, worst case scenario, that is a lot of money you would spend only on, on a meat bar.

Yeah, and it's whole food. It's at the end of the day, whole food. You get a good amount of meat and fat, like if you were to eat a steak, you know? No, no argument about that. But it's still incredibly expensive. So I, I thought about it. I, I really thought about it for a couple of days, how I'm gonna... what I'm gonna respond to the carnivore bar, and what I'm gonna, you know, tell you guys if you ask me, "Hey, do you recommend the everyday bar?"

And my take on it is, is, is, is simple, is pragmatic at the end of the day. If you can afford it, I would recommend you spend more money on the highest quality food, because at the end of the day, that shapes supply, you know? The more people ask for grass-finished and are willing to pay for it, the more readily available it will become, and as supply increases, prices are hopefully gonna come down.

I envision a future where there are no more feedlot animals, where everything is raised in the way that we do it here on our homestead, not with a couple of massive producers, but with a whole lot of smaller ones like us maybe selling them to the neighbors, etc. Maybe that's, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm being, you know Too optimistic?

I'm sure I am. You know, this is probably just an, uh, wishful thinking. But nonetheless, the more people demand that, the more supply there will be, the lower the price it will be over time, you know? But in the meantime, if you have to pick between the everyday bar, which uses grass-finished tallow, by the way, it's only the meat, the protein that's, uh, grain-finished.

The rest of it is, you know, organic and the whole nine yards. The same quality aspects of the higher qu- the, the higher priced bar, it's just that, that meat itself is grain-finished. If you have to pick between this and a crappy ass protein bar from the store that might cost you $4, or I don't know how much they cost because I've not bought one in forever, by all means, go for this one.

Grain-finished beef is still significantly better than any plant-based protein concoction, you know, crappy junk food. It's better than pork, most pork in the store, and poultry and all of those things. So by all means, you know, this is definitely... If this is in your budget, but the higher priced Carnivore bar is not, go with this one.

So I, I'm just using this as an example, you know? I mean, they've... I, I really like Carnivore bar. I, I do like the philosophy and I, I do appreciate that they are offering something that's less expensive, even though it's not something that I would personally purchase But again, if you, if you have a limited budget and you have to pick between this and another protein bar that has ingredients that are made in the lab and, you know, all kinds of crappy stuff, it's, it's a no-brainer to go for the Everyday bar.

So that's my take on it, and that was just a very recent example that I, I thought was fitting for this episode because it really drives home the point of buy the best meat you can afford. And I've mentioned it, uh, in, in, uh, I think it was a... I'm not sure if it was a previous podcast episode or... I think it was a, a podcast episode, um, where I think for those of us who have the means, I think we also have the obligation to make the better choice and pay more so that eventually the better product becomes available to more people, and everyone or more people at least can afford it over time.

So you know, that, that's what we do. Um, we al- we always strive to buy the best meat we can afford. Fortunately, in most cases that means grass-fed, grass-finished from us. It actually means from our own animals, you know, from our cows, from our pigs, from our chickens, from our turkeys, from our ducks, from our honeybees.

You know, we are so fortunate that we can raise a lot of the stuff that we eat, a lot of the food that we eat on our homestead in the best way possible. It's certainly not the cheapest way of doing it, I can tell you that. It's not the most time-saving way of doing it either. I just spent an hour outside this morning, you know, getting the cows back into the paddock because I forgot to close the fence last night.

Self-inflicted, but you know, nonetheless, there are those things that happen. But you know, we try to buy... If what we have to buy from someone else, we do it in a way that supports people who do it the right way. We pay a little bit more for that, and we avoid things that that are not good enough, that are not up to our spec, if there is no better alternative, we just cut it out.

You know, I just recommend you instead of buying the cheap-ass poultry at the, the rotisserie chicken at Costco that they sell f- below cost, I recommend you skip that and buy more beef, even if it's conventionally raised, you know? And I would... If there is one thing to take away from this episode, you know, start just with one thing.

If you can say, "You know what? I'm gonna cut out the cheap-ass poultry or pork," then do that. If that means, you know, significantly reducing your intake, do that. If, if that means, you know, spending some time and finding maybe, you know, maybe that's, you know, winner, winner, chicken dinner, you know, that kind of chicken is something special, make that maybe your special meal, you know, once a week or once a month instead of having cheap-ass chicken every day.

Have your beef every day and make the chicken special or the pork special, you know, if you cannot find, uh, poultry or pork from a place that raises those animals in a way that, that you would, that you would raise those animals as well. You know, those ge- gestation crates and, and the way poultry are raised are just absolutely awful, awful, awful.

Um, I'm not gonna support it. I hope you don't either. Uh, with that, we're gonna wrap it up. I hope you liked my rant about how pigs and, and chickens are raised in this country. Um, if not, let me know. If you did, let me know as well. You know, if you're watching this on a platform supporting comments, stick around, subscribe to the show, and I hope I'll see you in the next episode.