Nicolette Niman’s Guide to Avoiding Factory Farmed Food

Lawyer fighting the pork industry turned rancher focusing on sustainably raised meat, Nicolette Niman is also a vegetarian.  She spent years working on Bobby Kennedy’s campaign against industrially produced pork, much of that time being in my home state of North Carolina.  Describing factory meat farms as “biblical-scale plagues of pollution and stench,” she’s dedicated her (still-vegetarian) life to giving much-needed insights into the current conditions of the American meat industry, and showing that there is a humane and environmentally sound way to raise livestock. As the food industry is quite a tightly connected web, she’s put together a few guidelines to help us make informed decisions around food for both our health and our world. 

What to look for with all animal based foods:

  1. Domestic, please*
  2. Pasture is the gold standard
  3. Grass fed is very good (but the label is weak)
  4. Organic is very good (but the label isn’t perfect)
  5. Free range is okay (but the label is seriously flawed)
  6. Antibiotic free doesn’t mean much

Full article here.

*I’m adding in a preference for local whenever possible.