Context is everything. Animal products can be a really harmful choice for the environment if raised, transported, and consumed a certain way. A vegan diet can also be really harmful if grown, transported and consumed a certain way. Rainforests have been cleared and eco-systems destroyed to accommodate both. Product, fertilizers, -cides, fuels have been shipped back and forth across the world for both. In our context, we believe our meat is one of the most sustainable ways for you to get calories for several reasons:
The animals are raised on pasture in a way that attempts to maximize both yield from the pasture and carbon sequestration. We move the animals around the pasture strategically and with the animals health and wellbeing in mind. For some animals this means daily moves with fresh pasture. For others, like pigs, it can mean moving them to areas that we need a "reset" on or to root up a problematic area. Animals raised this way can actual be net-positive for the overall eco-system.
The pasture is self-sustaining and doesn't require any tractors for tillage or inputs (synthetic fertilizers or -cides).
It's local. They are processed either in Baraboo or in Plain, WI (~30 miles away).
Daily rotations and effectively managed pasture can reduce erosion compared to tilling forms of food production (especially on the half of our land that is sloped). Less top soil loss also means cleaner waterways.
It can provide fertilizer/compost material for vegetable/fruit crops.
It is a good way to recycle excess or not marketable vegetable/fruit crops.
It is a low labor way to produce calories without fossil fuels and thus can provide small scale farms with a source of income and promote a more decentralized, stable, and equal food system (compared to a few global ag companies controlling and owning everything).
Even if we intellectually grasp why animals are an important part of our farm ecosystem and a sustainable option, it still isn't easy for us and really shouldn't be. We don't ever want to take the life of another living creature lightly or become desensitized to the point that we don't pause and consider the sacrifice when we consume meat. In an attempt to honor/respect the animal and ensure we never lose connection with the gravity of our actions we wrote the following which we recite whenever it is time for the animal's one bad day:
1 - Through evolutionary chance and great hubris we have constructed and peddled a fiction that life can exist without death. We believe we have the ability to escape the natural processes and exist on only one half of this great wheel. Despite our desperate grasps for permanence or belief in everlasting growth, the great wheel continues to turn.
While this animal moves today from life to death, its death will in turn provide for more life. Let us cherish that life and never take for granted a breath that we take on this side of the wheel.
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2 - What is the most humane, sustainable, ecological calorie one can consume? For us, we believe it is one that is grown as part of a self-sustaining eco-system. One where a wide variety of animal and vegetable species interact in harmonious balance, one where nutrients are exchanged through growth and decay and the only input needed is the free gift of sunlight. The animal we harvest today is from our best attempt at this system and we acknowledge our role and part in the ecosystem as we use it to sustain us. Let the calories given today not be wasted, but rather feed the process towards a more humane and sustainable eco-system.
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3 - We, homo sapiens, have proven we can determine in large and significant ways what lives and dies. We can, and have, taken this power to grow our species beyond its capacity. We can, and have, used this power to destroy whole ecosystems, enslave others, and hoard resources. We can, and have, used this power to shield ourselves from the great sufferings we cause and live blissfully ignorant in our entitlements.
It is our responsibility, however, to wield this power in a way that honors all life. That recognizes that we are only one part of the eco-system and that for us to flourish for generations, we must use our power to foster an eco-system that flourishes for generations. Today we act in that understanding and with that goal. We do not take this animal’s life lightly. We know this animal and mourn its loss. We consume this calorie and offer it to others not with blissful ignorance. It is not a calorie that results from caged animals or destroyed habitats, but rather, we hope contributes in a small way to the flourishing of all of our nested eco-systems.
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4 - We are thankful for this animal’s life. We are grateful for its manure and we are grateful for its industrious mowing. We acknowledge how fortunate we are as we now take its life to nourish us and others. Let any who take part in this animal not forget the cost and remain grateful. May those humans cherish their life and use the nourishment provided by this animal to spread love, joy, beauty, and ecological harmony.