How to Survive Skyrocketing Meat Prices (Without Becoming a Vegetarian)Daisy Luther To those of us who have been watching the alternative news, this is no surprise. Mac Slavo of SHTFplan wrote about it HERE. Lizzie Bennett of Underground Medic warned us HERE.Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog and The End of the American Dream has been shouting this from the rooftops for more than a year HERE and HEREare two recent examples. Between the drought in California, the virus that killed off a bunch of baby pigs, and overall inflation because of an increase in fuel prices, every bite you put in your mouth is costing more this year, and those prices will continue to rise. Does this mean that you have to become a vegetarian? Does it mean that you have to eschew healthy hormone-free meats and go with the toxic grocery store offerings? Not at all. My last trip to the grocery store here in the Pacific Northwestern US was absolutely appalling.I vowed to use a combination of strategies to help our meat purchases go further. The absolute best way to buy meat is to purchase in bulk and to do so locally. We purchase direct from a local farmer who field-raises his animals and doesnt use hormones and antibiotics. You can buy a quarter or a half of a pig or cow, and youll pay on average a much lower price than you would if you bought the meat packaged separately over the course of the season. As well, you are locking in your meat price by purchasing it all at once. This way, you wont be strongly affected by the meat inflation until next season. Eat leftovers Often when you purchase meat in bulk, you end up cooking large portions. You probably wont open a Styrofoam tray of chicken breasts, but instead youll purchase a whole chicken. You will be more likely to cook a stew or a roast. Have a plan for what you can do with those leftovers to extend them through another meal. Here are a few quick ideas: You can find more ideas for repurposing leftovers HERE. Use up the things that most people throw away. When preparing the meat, if you are cutting away some fat or bone, place it in a bowl and put it in the freezer. When you have enough like scraps of meat, its time to make broth from it. You can make hearty broth from ham, turkey, chicken, beef, or pork virtually any kind of meat. Use the inedible parts and cook it down for hours to get a rich and delicious broth. You can then use this broth as a base for soup or to cook your rice in to add a hit of nutrition. Here are directions on how to make and can poultry broth and ham broth. Do you have such a tiny amount of leftovers that it wont equal a full serving? Start a container in your freezer for those leftovers and create leftover soup. Sometimes its fantastic, sometimes it isnt so great, but those odds and ends can combine to make meals that I consider to be basically freebies. We always have a large Tupperware container in the freezer that contains little bits of vegetables or meat. Add a jar of homemade broth and a handful of rice, barley or pasta, and youve created leftover soup. It will be different every single time, based on your familys leftovers. This answer isnt for everyone. Some folks prefer to forget that the meat on the Styrofoam trays at the grocery store didnt originate on those trays. Others have gotten locked in to a more narrow definition of meat , believing that the options are fish, pork, beef, and chicken. However, if you arent bothered by the concept of hunting, there is an abundance of meat walking, swimming, and flying around. You dont have to hunt, yourself. Im fortunate to have some friends and neighbors who hunt. In exchange for some of the bounty, Ive bartered my skills at canning things like venison chili or moose meatballs in spaghetti sauce. If you fish, that can put an instant meal on the table. Learning to quickly and efficiently clean fish is a great skill and can gently prepare you for butchering other types of meat. Perhaps with the sharp uptick in meat prices, its time to brush up on these skills and learn to harvest what is naturally abundant in your area. How do you combat the outrageous meat prices? Share your ideas in the comments section below. Related Articles: Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, where this first appeared, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca If you enjoyed this article, please Vote for The Organic Prepper as a top prepping web site. 