Buy local meat and eggs

Buy your meat and eggs from local farmers. Don't support the market pressures that create monsters like Austin DeCoster, now responsible for a national outbreak of salmonella and nearly half a billion eggs being recalled from the market, due to the appalling conditions of his "farms".

Sure, local meat costs a lot more, but think about what makes 99-cents-a-dozen-eggs even possible. Before the environmentally destructive practice of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) became commonplace, eating meat for the vast majority of us was far more a luxury as demand far outstripped supply, and most eggs came from the backyard hen house.

The costs you "save" by buying factory farmed meat and eggs are merely being passed on to the communities and exploited workers affected by the producers unethical practices.

In the summer months most neighborhood farmers markets feature local producers - Black Earth Meats, for example. Another option is to join a meat CSA or co-op, such as the one at True Nature Foods in Edgewater, where you can have access to locally pastured, grass-fed beef, pork, and chicken, as well as fresh eggs.

The shells are much stronger and the yolks a bright orange from the levels of beta carotene in their diet. The beef cooks faster and has a more wild taste from the abundance of grass it eats that the animal evolved to consume. Also, consider that corn-fed beef is far more likely to contain stomach-acid-resistant e. Coli bacteria, since the environment of a corn-packed rumen (the organ that converts grass to protein) is highly acidic. The outbreaks of this pathogen are not coincidental with the rise of CAFOs.

CAFOs also present some of the most dangerous working conditions imaginable, and take advantage of illegal migrant labor.