Instead of buying commercially raised meat, I choose to buy meat from my local farms, where I can see how they are raised, what they are fed, living conditions, etc.
I get my pork from my local dairy, who gives his excess milk to his pigs. Best pork evah, believe me. I buy the whole animal, he takes it to the butcher, and I get back about 100 or so pounds of all the cuts, including the smoked portions like bacon, ham and so on.
All for between $3-$4 a pound!
For beef, I buy very local pasture raised animals and arrange little buying groups of my local friends. We buy the whole animal, or half and go in according to our freezer capacities. When all is said and done, I end up paying about $3.20 a pound, across the board.
That's $3.20 a pound for ground beef, Porterhouse, T-bone, ribeye, you name it!
I also get the soup and marrow bones, with which you can make a lovely beef stock which you can use in all sorts of things.
It's so much better tasting than anything you can get commercially raised, it's far healthier, more humane for the animal and to top it all off, it's less expensive!
My butcher also raises elk, deer and bison.
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