The hoop barn for piglets and the brooders for young birds are airy and bright and deeply bedded. After shoveling out the coop yesterday, I can confirm the chicks sleep on a mattress of wood shavings thicker and fluffier than our Tempurpedic. It smells good in here. The air moves. The pigs are friendlier than most I’ve met, skittish but curious and happy to see people.

I’m a sensitive animal lover. I also eat meat. To me, they are not mutually exclusive. The overlap occurs at places like Pasture Song Farm where the animals are given a quality of life even I envy. After the barn, most of the animals here move to pasture for the rest of their lives.

We don’t always eat meat like this and I don’t judge anyone who doesn’t source their food this way. But it matters to me, so I keep trying, keep asking questions, keep nudging my priorities and my spending in line with my values.