Goats are the same as well.
The best lamb if I have had was one raised in mountainous pasture in Albania where wild tea and wild oregano is raised.
[0] https://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-c...
The mutton near the reservation often lived fairly long lives, so I wouldn’t terribly be surprised if stew was common for even the desirable cuts.
They sell pasture raised lamb as well and ship to you.
I’m not associated with them, just a happy customer.
I do understand that for some folks in western countries this amounts to somme kind cruelty, in poorer countries, that raise living creatures in the open, this is a necessety.
A farm that is pasture raising, might not have enough grass for every lamb to go be grown in the winter.
It sounds like eating lamb has a material basis in poorer countries (potential lack of food), but in places like the US that is not the case. It is done solely as a “tasty” food product.
Nothing wrong with eating pasture raised animals from a local family farms. It can be pricier, but if you can afford it, go for it.
Since they forage grass (which captures carbon), they tend to be almost carbon neutral. Your vegan soy beans are probably raised and processed with some intense farming method, using lots of fuel, and are probably more damaging to the environment. Things like vegetarian meat substitute (like beyond meat), are worse to the environment than grass fed/pasture raised animals from small farms.
Also, things like 'almond milk', are very intense users of water, which has become very scarce in central California.
BTW, this is what pastures in Albania look like. 100% natural
http://abroadcooks.blogspot.com/2017/01/albania-tave-kosi.ht...
This is entirely false. Pasture raised animals are generally worse for the environment than feedlot-fed animals, which are already much bad to begin with compared to plant-based foods. You can try to justify it to yourself as “the animals are happier because this is more humane” (which I’m not disregarding, mind you, although I dryly note that not eating animals at all is even better), but from an environmental standpoint raising animals this way is energy intensive and “inefficient”.
Eating meat for survival - if there are no other options - sure - gotta do what you can to survive.
Eating meat for taste pleasure - is it really justified that millions of sentient beings have to suffer horribly and in addition to this the environmental damage and the horrible working conditions for fellow humans in factory farms created by our demand for meat.
We generally consider babies as innocent... the idea of killing babies of other species just so we can derive some sensory pleasure from it is frankly barbaric[0](yes go ahead down vote me to oblivion) - but from an ethical standpoint - how can we place our pleasure above the lives of other non-human animals and biosphere health?
Future humans will agree: https://youtu.be/sS7NRtEJBcA?t=28
Damian Mander - founder of International Anti-Poaching Foundation put it best: https://youtu.be/BUMGBwgGYWw?t=100
[0] Barbaric as in non-civilized as explored in this video:
Richard Dawkins: No Civilized Person Accepts Slavery So Why Do We Accept Animal Cruelty?
I will check out those links thank you!