What does it mean when meat packaging uses the word "natural"? Not much.
2. Applegate
3. Bell & Evans
Selling a variety of chicken products all over the country, the website details their animal welfare standards, including breeding, farming, transporting, and processing. Bell & Evans products are widely available, but you can search for your particular city on their website.
In addition to meeting the requirements of Kashrut, Grow and Behold also makes animal welfare a priority, saying that its livestock "are free to behave as cows (or chickens or sheep) are wont to behave." The company sells an array of products, including chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, fish and cheese. Depending on where you live, products can be either picked up or delivered.
7. KOL Foods
KOL Food's line of beef, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, salmon, deli meat, and hot dogs are all certified Glatt Kosher. According to the company, "each animal is raised [in a] traditional, environmentally-friendly way, in open fields." You can read more about their humane practices on their website and find a local buying club if you're in or near a major U.S. city.
8. La Quercia*
La Quercia offers a range of cured pork products, in stores and through distributors all over the country and online. All of their pork comes from farms the owners visit themselves, according to the company. *(Note: While La Quercia says they do not use pigs treated with non-therapeutic antibiotics, their farmers "can treat illnesses.")
10. Niman Ranch
Niman Ranch offers beef, pork, lamb, and prepared foods, available online and in stores across the country. The company says its livestock are "raised outdoors or in deeply bedded pens" and "are able to express their natural behaviors." Read more about their animal raising practices on their website.
11. Organic Prairie
Offering organic beef, chicken, pork, turkey, hot dogs, burgers, sausages, and bacon, Organic Prairie says it offers meat from "family farms" raised by farmers who "practice respectful, humane animal care." Read more about their practices, find a local retailer, or order online on their website.
12. SlantShack Jerky
13. Smart Chicken
14. Wellshire Farms
Located in Bluffton, Georgia, White Oak Pastures sells grass-fed beef and lamb and free-range poultry. You can read more about their animal welfare standards, environmental measures, and local food commitment on their website. Their products are available at all Publix supermarkets (located in Southeastern states) and at Whole Foods Markets nationwide.
16. 5 Knives
Offering an assortment of vegetables, beef, pork, and shelf-stable goods like applesauce, Hudson Valley Harvest sells its products in stores along New York's I-87. Read about their animal welfare standards, explained for each species, on their website. (*Note: Hudson Valley Harvest says they never use antibiotics as growth enhancers but will administer medicine to sick animals.)
Made in the far off lands of Brooklyn, New York, this hipster jerky comes from 100% grass-fed beef raised on pasture and non-confined. Available for purchase online and in Brooklyn.
19. Murray's Chicken
Murray's Chickens are raised in the Pennsylvania countryside and available throughout most of the Northeast. The company is Certified Humane, Non-GMO Project Verified, and consumers can look up the individual farm their chickens came from using a number on the packaging. Products are available up and down the East coast, and stores can be located on their website.
20. Nature's Place
As Hannaford supermarkets' in-house meat brand, Nature's Place offers customers all-natural beef, poultry, and pork. In addition to certifying that the meat is antibiotic and hormone-free, the grocer says it is "equally committed to working with farms that provide the healthiest environments for their animals and have sound animal-friendly methods of production." Read more about their standards on their website.
22. Sweet Stem Farm
24. Publix GreenWise
26. McDowell Farms
29. Callicrate Beef
Country Natural Beef is a cooperative of Western ranchers that say they are committed to healthy animals, healthy land, and healthy people. Read about their animal welfare practices, including everything from breeding to slaughter, and find a retailer or restaurant serving their products near you.
32. Fatted Calf
33. Llano Seco Ranch
34. Mary's Chickens, Turkeys, and Ducks
The Pitmans say they have been raising poultry on their family farms for three generations, raising their chickens, turkeys and ducks "as nature intended." You can read about the animal welfare standards on their website and find a store selling their meat close to you.
36. Pozzi Ranch
