DIY Guide to Buying Your Animal Proteins

This guide is the progeny of our own deep dive on sourcing both for Power Supply and for our families. We learned so much in the process that we wanted to share what we found so interested folks could apply it to their home shopping for proteins. There are 4 parts plus a glossary. Use them a la carte based on your interests or go the full tasting menu route front to back.

• Understanding the landscape from Factory to Farm - a quick table-setter to help you figure out where you are and where you want to go.
• Setting your personal sourcing standards - weigh your personal priorities and create a simple guide you can follow when shopping or dining out.
• 5 common questions for evaluating most animal protein sources - arm yourself with simple questions and answers you can use to evaluate sources on the fly.
• The cliff notes sourcing view by animal - get the quick lowdown by animal so you know what to look for on your favorite proteins.
• Glossary - A listing of common terms and our shot at deciphering what they mean.

What’s the Sourcing Issue?

Beyond the big buzz around real food, actually finding quality meat from sources you feel good about can be tough. There’s a fog of food labels out there. “Expert” opinions vary widely. One minute you think a label like free range or organic is safe, the next minute it’s not.

Not to mention the time/cost questions. Sure we all get that we should move away from factory farming. And who doesn’t want to buy everything from that beyond-organic, local farm where you can meet the farmer and see the natural magic happen with animals a-pasturing as far as the eye can see?

But not everyone has the time to make these trips or the dough to consistently afford the chow from these little slices of food heaven. It’s easy to see why people often throw up their hands in surrender, tuning out at the first sign of a “safe” label keyword.

But it doesn’t have to be so. There’s plenty of room to take meaningful steps towards better food, while keeping your sanity, your solvency and your soul. All the while learning stuff that’ll help you keep chipping away with better choices as the supply of good stuff becomes more accessible and affordable.

Part 1 - Understanding the landscape from Factory to Farm