Hey all, just wondering if any of you get additional motivation to go hunting because of the quality of meat you harvest. I grew up on a farm and have a degree in agriculture. I an not naieve to how animals are raised, etc. I know how most meat animals are raised, and the benefits of organically grown free range meats such as venison, wild turkey, among others. For me the enjoyment I get from hunting continues to the dinner plate. I appreciate the fact that I am consuming a sustainable resource, and one that is totally organically grown. These variables have allowed me to introduce quite a few a non-hunters/shooters to the shooting sports.
Hunting to Provide Organic Sustainable Meat
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usmc1371
Member
I would have to say yes. Every time I grab a package of elk or deer burger out of the freezer it puts a smile on my face. I know the meat I am eating has never had a hormone or any kind of med. Last fall when I had to miss a couple classes for hunting season one of my teachers gave me a hard time about missing class and about "killing bambi". Funny thing is she is one of those folks who buys only organic foods and doesnt' mind paying extra for it. I asked her if she really really knew where her meat came from and she couldn't say for sure, I told her I knew exactly where my meat comes from. It took a while but she began to see that hunting is about more that a bunch of guys killing animals for fun.
Yes.
Also, there is another factor, for me. I didn't grow up on a farm. At some point, I figured that I needed to be part of the process of killing what I eat, to face the realities of nature.
So there is a biological component, and also a spiritual one, for me.
Also, there is another factor, for me. I didn't grow up on a farm. At some point, I figured that I needed to be part of the process of killing what I eat, to face the realities of nature.
So there is a biological component, and also a spiritual one, for me.
ChefJeff1
Member
The organic lean meat thing in the main reason for me. I also love to be out hiking and I like guns too.
chas08
Member
Yes,
absolutely. How "totaly organic" it may be, with the use of pesticides and fertilizers today, remains to be seen. But I get a great deal of satisfaction from consuming the fish and game I take.
absolutely. How "totaly organic" it may be, with the use of pesticides and fertilizers today, remains to be seen. But I get a great deal of satisfaction from consuming the fish and game I take.
oneounceload
member
"Organic" is what your grandparents simply called "food"
Well I grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska and there was nothing organic about anything we grew. The garden, cattle, chickens, corn, beans, wheat, all were heavily treated with various pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, etc. I think you would have to go back quite a bit further for that to be the case. My grandma went through Ortho Sevin dust, and 2-4-D on her garden like it was going out of style!
Pony Express
Member
ehhh, not really, I do it more for the taste...my local Stop & Shop has yet to stock sqiurrel meat!
Good for you! most people in my area are too hardheaded to ever consider that there might be people in the world who think differently than them, especially when it comes to "Killing Bambi".
Good for you! most people in my area are too hardheaded to ever consider that there might be people in the world who think differently than them, especially when it comes to "Killing Bambi".
rcmodel
Member in memoriam
I doubt there is anything too organic about deer or turkey meat, in Kansas anyway.
They are out in the bean & corn fields every evening munching away right after the field sprayers got done squirting any number of pesticide and herbicides on the fields that very afternoon.
rc
They are out in the bean & corn fields every evening munching away right after the field sprayers got done squirting any number of pesticide and herbicides on the fields that very afternoon.
rc
courtgreene
Member
interesting about the teacher. I'm a div school student and in one of the required courses there was a section on staying spiritually and physically healthy. The guy from the undergrad who was a fitness/nutrition expert said that there really is no such thing as healthy meat other than what you kill yourself. So maybe not ALL of academia is infected with that attitude. I guess even if he was against hunting he would still have to be honest to what science tells him because to do otherwise is academically dishonest. It may also help that Boiling Springs NC is a rural town TEAMING with deer. Easier to dodge asphalt than deer in a car when riding at night. Either way I asked about the safety of wild game and he said that, while there are SOME pesticides and the like ingested by deer/turkey, anything harvested from hunting is much more healthy than anything raised and butchered. Frankly, he said, it is so lacking in nutrition that it may as well not be classified as meat.
Tim the student
Member
Yep. I think RC answered it well.
I consider four legged animals I kill to be more "organic" than not, but I'd be quite surprised if there was no traces of pesticides or herbicides in them. Maybe not in the squirrels I guess.
FWIW, there is a reason I catch and release only in some waters I fish.
joshk-k
Member
It is one of the top reasons that I hunt. To provide a comparable amount of comparably healthy meat at market rates would be prohibitive. I think that the amounts of chemicals that an animal like a deer grazing a corn-field would absorb are way less than the hormones, chemicals, etc, that are fed directly to beef cattle, for instance.
Although I do eat commercially available meat (usually organic, grass-fed, ethically raised) and so don't have much ground to stand on, I have some moral/ethical qualms with raising animals purely for slaughter. I feel on much more ethically solid ground harvesting a wild animal that was not raised just to be killed.
Josh
Although I do eat commercially available meat (usually organic, grass-fed, ethically raised) and so don't have much ground to stand on, I have some moral/ethical qualms with raising animals purely for slaughter. I feel on much more ethically solid ground harvesting a wild animal that was not raised just to be killed.
Josh
Can they be organic when they eat genetically engineered corn on the fields, which by the way FDA didn't approved for human consumption and who knows what's in the water they are drinking, probably fed with pesticides ... oh well I eat them anyway ;-)
The whole organic thing and the green thing is more marketing ploy than anything. several years ago for a product to say organic it had to meet pretty strict guidlines. nowadays if a cow whizzed on that ground within the last 500 years it totally organic.
Now i do live on a farm and the beef, pork, and chicken that we raise for our family get no antibiotics or hormones. Yes we do use 2-4-D, Pasture gaurd, round-up, fertilizers and others. I just don''t think you could hope to be remotely successful without there use. My family enjoys game meat and it is a important part of why we hunt. I have never considered it to be organic but it sure alot better than the crap you get at the super market.
Now i do live on a farm and the beef, pork, and chicken that we raise for our family get no antibiotics or hormones. Yes we do use 2-4-D, Pasture gaurd, round-up, fertilizers and others. I just don''t think you could hope to be remotely successful without there use. My family enjoys game meat and it is a important part of why we hunt. I have never considered it to be organic but it sure alot better than the crap you get at the super market.
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Free range organic meat is the only reason I hunt. I try to kill my limit each year. If a nice buck comes along. Great. I will shoot 3 does if I see that the herds have plenty, and always try to take the elderly does, but I hunt for meat.
Just the other night I was telling my 5 year old daughter how good the acorns, clover, grass, and berries of southern Arkansas tastes as we were eat two packs of back straps from a hunt.
Just the other night I was telling my 5 year old daughter how good the acorns, clover, grass, and berries of southern Arkansas tastes as we were eat two packs of back straps from a hunt.
caribou
Member
Yep, good eating for the guy who gets his own.......
Sebastian the Ibis
Member
Caribou, based upon your prior posts & pics, I can only imagine the variety of your "good eating."
Armored farmer
Member
All right you guys....take it easy on us farmers.
the FACT is, without the pesticides and fertilizers we use the farmer could NOT produce enough to feed this world.
Apparently some of you haven't had the oppurtunity to see a truckload of grain mixed with ground grasshopper parts and various other worms bugs etc that your local "organic" farmer delivers to the mill to grind up and make your "organic" bread with.
Nor have you seen some of the pot-bellied, snot-nosed, sore-eyed, organically raised' 3 yr old steers limping around in their organic pasture..so skinny you could read a paper through them.
I'll take my beef healthy, and my grain without the bugs thank you.
the FACT is, without the pesticides and fertilizers we use the farmer could NOT produce enough to feed this world.
Apparently some of you haven't had the oppurtunity to see a truckload of grain mixed with ground grasshopper parts and various other worms bugs etc that your local "organic" farmer delivers to the mill to grind up and make your "organic" bread with.
Nor have you seen some of the pot-bellied, snot-nosed, sore-eyed, organically raised' 3 yr old steers limping around in their organic pasture..so skinny you could read a paper through them.
I'll take my beef healthy, and my grain without the bugs thank you.
MCgunner
Member
I mostly keep the freezer stocked with hog meat, well, and fish and wild fowl. I kill an occasional deer, but I'd starve to death if I had to live off it. Wild pork is much leaner and healthier than domestic, though one should thoroughly cook it and I don't think I would jerk it. It needs high heat to kill possible parasites. Pork has enough fat in it, though, so that the BBQ pit doesn't turn it into boot leather. That's kinda cool. I also make a lot of sausage. Since getting my own grinder, that's a great thing to do with parts I don't want to mess with otherwise. I mean, I don't live off of game and fish exclusively. I eat my fair share of T bones. I LOVE a good T bone, yum...
Wild pork is some good stuff. I trap most of what I eat and there is no shortage of hogs around here. It might be a futile attempt, but I try to help out the farmers. Hogs are a plague on farmers in Texas. Oh, and hey, insects are high in protein!
Wild pork is some good stuff. I trap most of what I eat and there is no shortage of hogs around here. It might be a futile attempt, but I try to help out the farmers. Hogs are a plague on farmers in Texas. Oh, and hey, insects are high in protein!
kbbaily, hey man not trying to be hard on farmers, but I'd take grass hoppers over insecticides any day of the week. Thats the point, a lot of folks are willing to put up with a few worms ot bugs to avoid harmful pesticides. Sadly most US farmers are unaware of how to raise livestock effectively without LA200, hormones, etc. We are just talking about the extra incentive hunting provides since it offers meat that is easier on the environment, and contains far fewer contaminants. Whats healthy for the steer, may not make for healthy beef to consume.
Sadly most US farmers are unaware of how to raise livestock effectively without LA200, hormones, etc. We are just talking about the extra incentive hunting provides since it offers meat that is easier on the environment, and contains far fewer contaminants. Whats healthy for the steer, may not make for healthy beef to consume.MCgunner
Member
Farming is about productivity. One cannot raise "organic" without charging for the lower production and the world would starve if we had to rely on unproductive grain crops without the use of pesticides. Me, hell, I've been exposed to chemicals that would scare you hairless in my 30 years in the chemical industry! Eating a little methyl parathion ain't gonna matter, LOL! I've breathed hydrogen cyanide and survived. I've got 21 years of exposure to vinyl chloride monomer. Google the MSDS. I'm a walking dead man as it is.
I don't mind eating my own fish or farm raised fish. Actually, though, catching your own can expose you to more problems from mercury around here than eating farm raised catfish. I tend to not buy fish at Walmart, though. Hell, I catch enough I never have to bother with buying fish. There are local fish markets. If I buy, I'll pay a little extra for local caught.
http://www.vimeo.com/11817894
I don't mind eating my own fish or farm raised fish. Actually, though, catching your own can expose you to more problems from mercury around here than eating farm raised catfish. I tend to not buy fish at Walmart, though. Hell, I catch enough I never have to bother with buying fish. There are local fish markets. If I buy, I'll pay a little extra for local caught.
http://www.vimeo.com/11817894
CoRoMo
Member
Nope. I like the pursuit more than anything else. To outwit an animal in his domain, that is primarily why I hunt. But the reason #2 goes to the free meat. I'm a frugal miser and would never afford several hundreds of pounds of store bought beef. We've never really bought much meat from the grocery store anyhow. The wife and I were raised in farming/ranching families and are accustom to lots of meat in the freezers from the families' livestock. Whether the game meat be "organic" or not, I don't really care. It's basically free and acquiring it is an experience that I'm addicted to.
IMHO, that word really needs embolden quotation marks around it 99% of the time.
Please explain. I continue to hear the reports of ongoing studies that "organic" food doesn't offer any meaningful benefit over conventionally produced foods. Marketing ploys and hype aside, I realize that "organic" fans think it just tastes better, or they claim that it makes them feel better to consume something that has achieved the "organic" label, but what tangible benefits have been revealed by the unbiased science that studies these things?
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MCgunner
Member
Unbiased would be the key, here. So much of the "science" is just contrived to prove a political point. That goes quadruple for anything that "proves" a point for the animal rights and eco-freak crowd.
Don't eat meat, gives you a heart attack. Well, I'm 57 years old and by God if I get a heart attack, I've enjoyed a lifetime of T bones and it was damned well worth it!Ask anybody running a feedlot how much input it takes to produce a pound of beef. Aside from the health benefits, I feel better about eating wild animals simply because it is better for our environment. I realize farmers and ranchers can't compete without GM hybrids, pesticides, hormones and the like, as long as our society continues to subsist on McDonalds hamburgers, and crappy pre-packaged mass produced food. I just dont' want to add to that demand, nor do I want to injest that crap. I love hunting unspoiled land, fishing in unpolluted streams, and eating wild animals vs. feedlot raised ones helps to ensure my daughter can have the same experience. Hell, I can't even eat fish out of the small river I fished in as a kid because its so full of mercury and pcb's, and this is in very rural Nebraska. That's pretty sad. It may not ending up making a difference, but at least I didn't contribute to the degradation.
If it weren't for the opportunity hunting affords, I probably wouldn't consume meat at all.
If it weren't for the opportunity hunting affords, I probably wouldn't consume meat at all.
CoRoMo
Member
I feel better...
Yeah, I know that each side of every political argument is going to have their own "science" to support their view. But when I hear recurring reports from the liberal media that yet another study shows no nutritional benefit to "organic" food, but that the advocates of this industry 'feel better' about consuming these foods and they think it just tastes better, I can't so easily discount the report.
Again, I've never heard of any supposed health benefits to eating "organic", just emotional benefits. If there are real benefits that science can point to, I'm listening. I know what goes into the feedlot process, and the thought of eating that food is emotionally distressing, but I still order a burger when I'm at the Wendy's drive-through. If it can't be proven that I'm harming myself by eating that stuff, I'm not going to believe so.
Yeah, I know that each side of every political argument is going to have their own "science" to support their view. But when I hear recurring reports from the liberal media that yet another study shows no nutritional benefit to "organic" food, but that the advocates of this industry 'feel better' about consuming these foods and they think it just tastes better, I can't so easily discount the report.
Again, I've never heard of any supposed health benefits to eating "organic", just emotional benefits. If there are real benefits that science can point to, I'm listening. I know what goes into the feedlot process, and the thought of eating that food is emotionally distressing, but I still order a burger when I'm at the Wendy's drive-through. If it can't be proven that I'm harming myself by eating that stuff, I'm not going to believe so.
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