If you don’t buy them from very traditional read very expensive producers it is also very unnatural. Animals are simply used as self replacing bio reactors that are fed the cheapest inputs like grain and animal remains. Even the vitamin d in milk is mostly there because you just supplement the animals. I visit a small farm on vacation a few times a year and they have a bunch of chicken running around. I have no qualms eating their eggs, they are not even slaughtered in most cases as the fox eats them first. They also have a dozen cows on their meadow. But let’s not pretend that is where most animal products come from.
So in Ireland, supermarket meat is cheap, but usually higher in fat and "wetter". Still decent meat, but you are paying for water IME.
At the butcher I pay only slightly more, I know exactly which farm it came from, I know where it was slaughtered and processed, and I can ask for specific cuts/amounts, so less wastage.
Its also much higher quality and not as "wet", so its much nicer to cook with (and I'm not paying for water weight).
I've saved a metric shitload on my monthly food shopping by using the butchers and greengrocers in my area instead of the supermarkets.
