I know far less vegans these days than I used to. I got sick and tired of their holler than thou attitude. It's gets tiring to be told that they are better than everyone else because of their beliefs.
I make very conscience decisions on wear I buy my meat and dairy. I only buy farm fresh eggs from a local farm a few blocks away from my house. I've become friends with the family over the years and I know exactly how they are treated.
I also only buy meat from my local butcher. I know the farms where he gets his beef, chicken, pork, etc. They are all relatively local and they are mostly family farms. I don't support meat factories. i choose to support smaller farms that treat their animals as ethically as possible. They also don't add a bunch of crap to the meat.
Frankly, I don't trust meat from anywhere else. I guess I'm lucky to have the luxury of making that choice, I wish more people did that have the option. Hell, same goes for my fruit and veggies, local farms as much as possible. I don't eat a shitload of meat, but I'm not gonna stop either. I eat fruits and vegetables daily and trust me, I'm healthy. Eating meat from time to time isn't going to change that.
In fact, tonight I will be BBQ'ing a nice juicy steak.
Hey thanks for your honesty man, I definitely applaud what you're doing instead of supporting the meat factories, that's pretty cool and should be the mainstream method of farming.
Sadly it's not mainstream though, I have an uncle who owns a local farm, 'local' even though he's very far from me and I probably visit very rarely once every 5+ years or more, he keeps the animals in cages sort of like the ones you see in those Peta videos where they can't even move, very smelly, feces everywhere, I don't know if he advertises them as 'free-range' or not either, but he probably does since it's a small 'local' farm.
I agree that it's sad that it isn't mainstream. It's hard for it to be though. Some people don't have access to these farms and then there is the price. I pay a lot more for the choices I make. Oddly enough, my eggs work out cheaper. Anyways, most people choose to eat what's cheapest. Many do it because it's all they can afford.
Sorry to hear your Uncle treats animals that way. If he is advertising as free range, he is part of the problem and giving legit farmers a bad name.