Check out this list of CSAs in FL. Maybe one of them is near you! They can probably help you to find the meat you want, and if they can't, you could maybe contract one to raise a few pigs and chickens your way (I hope you have a deep freeze!).

Eric in Japan

Here is a link that might be useful: FL CSA

Hi Castorp,
You should check out the website www.themeatrix.com. It will show you a very short, informative and somewhat funny video about factory farmed meat vs. small farms. At the end it will give you the option to search for small farms (w/ free-range meat) in your area and specify what kind of meats you're looking for. I'm sure you'll find lots of info here. Also, if you get the chance, you should read the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. It's very interesting and will open your eyes about the realities of factory farmed meat, and conventional (un-sustainable) agriculture.
Hope this helps! :)
Lunaflora

And just because they SAY the animals are free-range, doesn't mean they really are. Some places have their chickens (etc) in a pen packed so tight you can't see the ground. It DOES qualify as free-range as far as the USDA is concerned, but there's no quality of life, just factory farming without cages.

'Pup

Thank you for the responses, and especially for the links. They're just what I've been looking for. Now I have to start investigating.

I've been wanting to read Fast Food Nation. I'll try to check it out the next time I'm at the library.

One of the interesting things about the Atlantic article was how it pointed out terms like "organic" and "free range" are being exploited. Once terms like that are defined, industry finds loopholes. So "sustainable" is the key word now, evidently. Because the word hasn't really caught on yet, big ag industry hasn't bothered to exploit it. Those of you who frequent this forum probably already know all this, but it was news to me.

Wonderful!!! I found through the Eating Well Guide a farm just up the road that raises sustainable chicken and beef. They also have raw organic honey, turkeys, eggs, and vegetables in season. I pick up my first order next week. The prices are decent, and the people seem very nice. I still haven't found a local source for pork yet, but I'll keep looking. Thanks again for your help

Local Harvest is an excellent site designed to help people find food grown locally. Some items can only picked up while others are able to be shipped around the country. When you get to the site you enter your zip code. Farmers who are closest to you will show up in the list first. One of the categories is Meats. If there isn't a farm within driving distance check back again later. New farms are joining all the time.

www.newfarm.org is full of interesting information and stories.

Sustainability is very important. Small farmers are able to make a decent living without the huge government subsidies so many large farmers have to make ends meet. The farmer makes a good living and the consumer gets fresh, healthy, well raised food. Eat local!

I was in the midwest this spring. I had a bird's eye view of development going on in the city I was landing in. Lots of farmland is being turned into housing developments, stores, etc. I wonder how we're going to feed ourselves as this kind of "progress" continues.

Here is a link that might be useful: Local Harvest

You should call your local extension office.

Also the book, "Portrait of a Burger As a Young Calf: The Story of One Man, Two Cows, and the Feeding of a Nation"
by Peter Lovenheim

is a very good read--very well written.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0609805444/104-2314055-1381559?v=glance

We used to raise goats, chickens, a pig now and then, geese...made our own yoghurt and utilised "mexican" refrigeration, which is to say we'd kill whatever we were going to eat the day of eating. (Highest regards to Mexico for teaching us this energy saving concept)...
We now limit our meat intake to that which is around us. Venison, grouse, squirrel, rabbit, woodchuck on occasion, and fish from the many lakes and streams around us.
Keeps us from having to feed and water the critters, or hire a caretaker when we travel, or use costly refrigeration/storage/transportation techniques.
We are fortunate to have 50 acres within the confines of over 80 square miles of state forest.
However, I've read complaints from cattle ranchers in North Eastern Arizona that the elk herds (which number in the hundreds and perhaps a thousand) are grazing on "their" BLM leased land ruining it for the ranchers 400 head of cattle. I say, take the cattle off the land...allow the elk to thrive and allow the ranchers to "harvest and cull" the herd periodically. It would provide healthier meat in greater quantities than the beef provides from the equivalent land.
Same goes for Buffalo on the Great Plains.