Meat Shares
We offer pork shares and beef shares. Lamb and chicken raised at Green Medows Farm are available for retail sale in our farmstand when available. The pork is from our own hogs and is pasture raised. The beef comes from Appleton Farms in Ipswich, MA and from Miles Smith Farm in southern New Hampshire.
How to purchase a share:
Pork shares require a $20 deposit. We will call you when your share is available. It is important to come pick up your share as soon as it is available, as we do not have storage for meat shares. Pork shares weigh approximately 40lbs and includes frozen, raw pork in labeled, portioned packages. The pork is sold at $7.50 per pound and includes approximately 30lbs of assorted cuts including: ground, country style ribs, pork chops, and other assorted cuts. The smoked pork is naturally processed with no nitrates and includes approximately 10lbs of ham and bacon at $11 per pound.
Beef shares are $165 for 20lbs of frozen beef. It requires a $20 deposit and we will notify you when the shares are available. We typically get shares in every other month.
Click here to sign up for a beef or pork share.
Our own chickens and lamb are currently only available in our freezer for retail sales and not as shares.
Why buy pasture-raised meat?
Most pork consumed in the United States today comes from huge hog confinement operations, known as CAFOs. Each building in a typical CAFO might hold 1,000 or more sows, or 10,000+ market hogs.
Hog CAFOs are notoriously inhumane and are among the worst polluters of air and groundwater of any agricultural operation. However, there is an alternative.
In recent years, there has been growing interest in pastured pork. Raising pigs on pasture is not only more humane and natural for the animals, it is also environmentally sustainable and produces meat that is more nutritious and, many people discover, more flavorful as well.
More nutritious. Pastured pork and beef have higher levels of vitamins E and D, healthy Omega-3 fatty acids,and many other nutrients than conventionally raised meat. Most beef cows in America are raised for a short time on grass and then "finished" in confined feeding areas with a diet of grain that is unnatural to them, which boosts E. coli counts in their guts, and which encourages the spread of disease.
More humane. Animals raised on pasture have more than just freedom from confinement, they have the freedom to behave in natural ways. Our pigs are free to engage in natural rooting and socializing behaviors, and can enjoy fresh air and sunshine while protected from hot sun by the shade of the woods.
Better for the environment. CAFOs store manure in huge cesspools that stink for miles around and can leak into groundwater supplies, poisoning them. On pasture, the pigs' manure enriches the soil, rather than poisoning it. As the pigs root throug the woods, they are helping us clear future fields for growing crops.
Safer for farm workers. Hog hands on factory hog farms have unusually high rates of certain diseases, especially respiratory diseases. A study by the University of Iowa found that over 70% complained of acute bronchitis or other respiratory ailments. The American Lung Association reports that approximately 58% of hog workers at CAFOs have chronic bronchitis. Every year, a few workers die from falling into manure pits, usually by asphyxiation from the toxic fumes.
Better for rural communities. In addition to the horrific stench and the potential for groundwater contamination, hog CAFOs ruin the economies of local communities. Due to poor worker conditions, job turnover in CAFOs is very high, and many workers are transients. Additionally, many CAFOs have absentee owners, so the profits rarely return to the local community. Most pastured pork producers are small family farmers whose profits are repaid directly to the community, and who provide smaller numbers of jobs, but steadier, safer employment.
Safer for human health. Pastured pork is less likely to be contaminated with E.coli. The antibiotics fed constantly to pigs in CAFOs to keep them healthy in stressed, overcrowded conditions also have far-reaching human health effects. Antibiotic-resistant diseases are on the rise, and in 2002, researchers discovered antibiotic-resistant bacteria floating on dust particles in the air in and around hog confinement plants. A strain of antibiotic-resistant staph infection known as MRSA has recently spread to the general population, and rates are particularly high among communities with hog confinement farms. An outbreak of swine flu in April 2009 may also have begun on 950,000+ head hog confinement farm in Mexico.
Increases agricultural biodiversity. In the United States, most pork comes from just four breeds of pig - Yorkshire, Landrace, Hampshire, and Duroc - because these breeds are most suitable for confinement breeding operations. At Green Meadows Farm, we raise more hardy, self-sufficient heirloom breeds such as Tamworths, Berkshire cross breeds.
More flavorful. What do you think tastes better: an animal who ate corn and soy, or an animal that was free to eat their natural diet, move in a natural way, and had a humane life? Try it for yourself!
