Where's the Beef?

Are you able to buy beef, lamb, pork that's raised, packaged and sold within 35 miles of your kitchen? The advantages? You'll be dealing with farmers whose smaller operations allow the animals to graze freely (also called "free range") and without antibiotics or hormones. 

The philosophy of ‘natural is best’ keeps the meat free from unnecessary additives and antibiotics, along with a strict ethical belief about the wellbeing of their animals, ensures that their products are first-rate.

Eating naturally raised pork, beef and lamb makes a world of difference in the taste.

The higher price you may pay is simply what good meat costs. The Salem NH Farmers Market is supporting local farms with like-minded standards, and I know our customers at the market are getting an excellent product in return. They know where the meat was raised and with the farm their selling the product, they have the advantage of asking questions and getting answers right from the actual source.

Sustainable Agricultural practices for beef, pork, poultry and other animal protein foods include, at a minimum, raising animals without arsenic compounds, without the routine use of antibiotics, and without added growth hormones. Ideally, the animals also eat food grown without the use of pesticides or genetically modified seeds, and are raised outside on pasture

Factory Farming. Raising animals on pasture is dramatically different from the status quo. Virtually all the meat, eggs, and dairy products that you find in the supermarket come from animals raised in confinement in large facilities called CAFOs or “Confined Animal Feeding Operations.”  These highly mechanized operations provide a year-round supply of food at a reasonable price. Although the food is cheap and convenient, there is growing recognition that factory farming creates a host of problems, including:

• Animal stress and abuse
• Air, land, and water pollution
• The unnecessary use of hormones, antibiotics, and other drugs
• Low-paid, stressful farm work
• The loss of small family farms
• Food with less nutritional value.

Join the  campaign to buy local sustainable meat and poultry. This campaign has been designed to encourage institutions, businesses, their employees, their students, and consumers to go beyond buying local vegetables and fruit to also purchase meat, poultry and other animal protein foods produced by local farmers using sustainable agricultural practices. Our farms at the market who sell the meat are all natural grass fed beef and chickens and Heritage breed pigs. Their meats and poultry are fed an all-natural diet with no added antibiotics or other additives as growth stimulants. Their animals are provided access to green grass and sunshine on there Farms.

All our vendors at the Salem farmers Market are the producers of all the products brought to the Market. Come and meet the producers on Sunday May 5, Hosted by Lake Street Garden Center from 10am to 2pm..

See you at the Market! 

Jane Lang

Farmers Market Volunteer Coordinator

salemfarmersmarket@comcast.net

www.salemnhfarmersmarket.com