Factory Farm Alternatives
Foer suggests that meat lovers who don't want to support factory farms consider patronizing small family farms rather than buying grocery store meat, which has been produced by factory farms. The products offered by these small farmers tend to be pricey, but these producers say that their animals live most of their lives outdoors, pain-free, with access to high quality food and water. Foer, who is a vegetarian, doesn't consider them perfect (and he says that some practices, like castrating pigs, are still unacceptable to him), but he finds them to be admirable alternatives for those who choose to eat meat.

Profiled in Eating Animals, Frank Reese's Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch (Kansas) features free-range poultry and American Heritage Turkeys. Niman Ranch (California), also featured in the book, is a producer of beef, pork, lamb and poultry, although the company does not appear to be as ethically run as it was when founder Bill Niman ...