Cost of ethical meat in your area

[sanguine_speed]

I'm interested for comparison's sake what the costs of the following would be in your area.
I've written in my own in case you're interested. We're in CAD which is almost at par with USD.


grass-fed organic (certified or not) beef, half a cow (hanging weight): $3.50 per pound.

organic (certified or not) whole chicken, per pound: $4.50.

organic (certified or not) chicken breasts: $13.11 per pound certified. Impossible to find breasts only outside of retail stores, but the retail store does use organic chicken from our province at least.

organic (certified or not) ground beef: cheapest lean from retail store in area, not grass fed but certified organic is $5.50 per pound.


organic (certified or not) grass fed ground beef:

Buying grass-fed organic locally is $5.32 per pound. You can pay $4.75 per pound if you buy 10 pounds, or $4.25 per pound if you buy 20 pounds.

Another place charges $6.49 per pound.

[Violet2]

grass fed meat is $5 a lb and up. Hard to afford for us.

V

[treeoflife3]

You can't really get any of it in my area. There is a place an hour away that sells pastured beef... for DOUBLE what I can buy 2 minutes away at kroger. We just can't afford that on top of the distance.

[mnnice]

We pay $2.89 (hanging weight) for grass feed beef
We pay $6.50 (actual weight) for grass feed lamb

We pay $1.39 (actual weight) for non-confined, non factory farmed, allowed to wallow the mud pork feed a standard grain diet. This includes smoking hams and curing the bacon.

[LaLaLaLa]

The farm stand up the road sells grass-fed, locally slaughtered (important to me) meat. All we can afford of that is the ground beef, at $6 a pound. It's been so long since we've had steaks, I forget the price.

[quelindo]

I buy all our meat at our natural foods co-op. I'm not sure if it's all certified organic or not, but it's all local and antiobiotic-free and natural.

Lately I've been stocking up when things go on sale so I mostly have just the sale prices written down:

Whole chickens: $1.89/lb sale price

Boneless, skinless chicken breasts: $3.99/lb sale price, $5.99/lb regular price

Regular chicken breasts: $2.79/lb sale price, $3.99/lb regular price

Boneless, skinless chicken thighs: $2.99/lb sale price

Beef chuck roast (boneless): $3.99/lb sale price, $5.89 regular price

Ground beef: $3.99/lb sale price

Eggs: $2.99/dozen regular price

ETA: This is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[Mama Mko]

grass-fed organic (certified or not) beef, half a cow (hanging weight): $2.95 per pound.

organic (certified or not) whole chicken, per pound: $3.15 per pound

organic (certified or not) grass fed ground beef: $4.25 per pound

[dealic]

This is specific to the farm we just started getting our meat from:

grass-fed organic (certified or not) beef, half a cow (hanging weight): $3.15 per pound

organic (certified or not) whole chicken, per pound: $3.15

organic (certified or not) grass fed ground beef: I think it was $3-4 per pound. We didn't get it, we tried some steak before ordering our side and it was $7 something per pound.

They also have organic pastured eggs for $3 a dozen.

I am actually quite happy with the prices! I figured it would be a lot more expensive to switch to ethical meat and was sad we wouldn't be able to afford it. But when we were researching CSA's we learned they had meat we could actually afford!

(None of their meat is certified organic but their produce is certified and their animals are grown with organic standards. There isn't an orgainc abbatoir locally so that is why it can't be certified.)

[sanguine_speed]

Wow, our meat is expensive. Ah well, perhaps it just means our farmers are paid better than average.

I also forgot to mention, I'm in Ontario Canada.

[dealic]

Originally Posted by sanguine_speed

Wow, our meat is expensive. Ah well, perhaps it just means our farmers are paid better than average.

I also forgot to mention, I'm in Ontario Canada.

So am I

[StarJune]

These prices are in CAD too:

grass-fed organic (certified or not) beef, half a cow (hanging weight): $3.25 per pound.

organic (certified or not) whole chicken, per pound: $4.45.

organic (certified or not) chicken breasts: $12.80 per pound

organic (certified or not) ground beef: lean is $5.75 per pound.


All certified and not grain "finished" beef either. I learned that even though some advertise as grass fed, they may be finished with grain.

The local farmer's market has non certified, free range, grain fed chicken breast (bone in) for $3.99 per pound and the eggs are $2.50 per dozen.

I guess comparable to others.

[JamieCatheryn]

Our source has chicken, turkey, pork, and beef at are double the price of mass market factory farmed meats, close to same as the health food store has I think, that's not bulk and it's brought to town (farmers market). I've seen the pics of their farm and will visit an event they're hosting next month, they're all in big pastures and fed grass and other appropriate organic and varied stuff for the pigs and birds. They've got a CSA or bulk ordering for discounts but we don't get much red meat.

Whole Chicken $3.25/lb
Ground beef $4.50/lb
Ribeye $15/lb
Sausage and bacon $7/lb

[goldenwillow]

We are so lucky to have 2 meat co ops that we buy from. Grass fed beef. One charges $12.99 a pound and the other is $6.50 a pound for tenderloins and ribeyes.

[fruitfulmomma]

Dh scored a really great deal on some organic grassfed beef a few weeks ago because they were running the regular stuff on sale, which we wanted, but they had run out and told him he could take the good stuff for the same price. I peeked at the label today and the original price was around $7 for about a lb.

I think last time I was at WFM and bought grass-fed beef or buffalo it was $5-6/lb. but that has been a couple of years.

[~Boudicca~]

Chicken is in the neighborhood of $2.99 a pound, beef $4.99-$7.50, same thing for lamb.

[sanguine_speed]

Originally Posted by dealic

So am I

Haha, obviously not in Ottawa.

[GuildJenn]

We get a farm share in the fall/winter/spring that works out to about $4/lb and includes some really great cuts of beef and pork, chickens, and some goat as well as ground beef, and so on.

[redvlagrl]

I'm in Canada too. All of these prices are for grass fed/pastured animals, not certified organic.

We pay $2.69 for ground beef

$4.50 for boneless skinless chicken breast

about $2 for other chickn bits - thighs etc

[sunnysandiegan]

I am still searching for a source!

[CherryBomb]

Grass fed ground beef is around $5.84 a pound, I think. Things like heart and soup bones are around $3 a pound. I get "better than bacon" for 9.99 a pound, and ground sausage from local hogs is around 7.99 a pound, I think.