Puckishly Pink Meat

With a nod towards responsible purchasing and being a stewards of the environmenty, we don't eat meat every day and try to source it from local family farms.  Our eggs come from Bridgewater via a friend, beef/buffalo from TMZ Farms near Pinckney (purchased at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market), and pork from a family in southeastern Michigan. See TMZ Farms here http://tmzfarm.com/index.php

Naturally, we weren't always this diligent.  It started a few years back when we were driving through the Heartlands and saw huge shiny tanker trucks carying Swine Plasma and labelled "not fit for human consumption".  After checking with the internet, large scale pork producers reintroduce blood plasma back into food supply.  See USDA's research here http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul05/pigs0705.htm  Dried-blod plasma is feed to piglets to boost their immune systems.  And frankly, this doesn't sit well with me.

Recently, we had a bad experience with a  piece of beef that we purchased at a local grocery store.  It looked good in the butcher case but when we brought it home and rinsed it, the pretty pink color washed off and we were left with slimy gray meat - it was disgusting.  Another visit to the internet revealed that large meat packingaging companies process meat with carbon monoxide to retain the fresh pink color.  See video here http://hightowerdownload.com/node/26

After these incidents, we do what we can to purchase from local farmers believing that we're getting a healthier product.  Any readers in Michigan have any suggestions for family farms?

Astrid