Crowd Cow's pasture-raised meat and responsibly-caught seafood is delicious, but more importantly, it makes me more conscious about where my food comes from
- Crowd Cow sources its meat directly from independent farms that employ more ethical and environmentally friendly practices than traditional factory farms.
- It sells pasture-raised beef, pork, and chicken, as well as grass-fed beef, and premium domestic and Japanese Wagyu beef.
- I could see exactly where each cut came from, making me appreciate my food more than if I shopped at a regular grocery store.
The keys to any relationship are communication and transparency. And yes, as easy as it could be to turn your head the other way, this tenet also applies to your relationship with food.
When online meat supplier Crowd Cow first launched, you had the opportunity to get to know your beef very well — the company let you literally buy shares of a cow directly from a local farm. Once enough people pooled in to buy an entire cow, your cut was shipped directly to you.
Even though Crowd Cow's business model has evolved and you can no longer become intimately familiar with a cow along with a group of strangers, its basic spirit lives on. Crowd Cow wants you to know exactly where your meat comes from and how the animal was treated before you cook it.
How Crowd Cow works
Crowd Cow sells a variety of responsibly raised meat and seafood:
- Beef (both 100% grass-fed and pasture-raised grain-fed, as well as domestic and Japanese Wagyu)
- Pork (pasture-raised)
- Chicken (pasture-raised and free-range)
- Lamb (raised in the US)
- Seafood (wild-caught)
You can shop all these cuts individually, filtering by type of meat, seasonal specialties, or the farm it's sourced from. Each product page tells you the precise farm and location where the meat came from and additional background information about the farm and its practices. There is also a large range of prices: You'll find anything from $14 smoke sockeye salmon to $360 Wagyu center-cut ribeye.
Crowd Cow only works with independent farms, and never with industrial farms or meat brokers. It says the meat from these farms is typically "only available at specialty markets, farmer's markets, and high-end restaurants." Crowd Cow is thus also a more convenient and accessible way you can try high-quality meat.
You can also sign up for a recurring subscription box to stock up your fridge with these meats. Prices start at $99 and each subscription box saves you 5% on the total. You can pause, change the frequency, or cancel any subscription at any time, and shipping is free. You can curate your own box with different cuts of meat, or choose from two plans that include steak or Japanese Wagyu. With these two subscriptions, you get an assortment of cuts (which can vary depending on availability) delivered to you on an automatic basis.
Online orders can be delivered nationwide except Alaska and Hawaii, and ship out within five business days and take about 1-3 days to arrive at their destination. Items are packaged with dry ice to ensure the meat and seafood don't spoil in transit.
What it's like to order from Crowd Cow: delivery and meat quality
I tested the Farmers Market subscription box ($129) so I could try a variety of the meats it offers.
My order arrived in a box insulated with Green Cell Foam insulation, which is biodegradable and water-soluble, and packed with dry ice. I usually don't arrive home until late on most days, so I'm always concerned about any frozen food package deliveries, but all the meat was still frozen many hours after it was delivered. Before I picked up my package, Crowd Cow sent email updates at every step of the way, from shipping alert to delivery confirmation.
The Farmers Market box included top sirloin steaks, ground beef, bacon, Italian sausage, chuck roast, and butterflied chicken. Each individually wrapped cut had a label with the name of the farm it traveled from.
I've cooked the majority of this spread and each cut was delicious and flavorful. What I really love about these boxes is the variety. I typically get bored cooking and eating the same thing every week, and this box was the perfect opportunity to try many different types of meat — high-quality and responsibly raised meat, no less.
Where Crowd Cow fits into the food world at large
At a time when the environmental impact of eating meat continues to be raised as a key concern in conversations about this planet's future, it might be surprising that services like Crowd Cow not only remain afloat but are doing better than ever before.
As it turns out, US beef production isn't slowing down, which makes Crowd Cow the optimal service that lets you have your meat and eat it too. If you're going to eat meat, Crowd Cow is one way to ensure it's not "mystery meat." It sells a more conscious and responsible way of eating an increasingly contentious protein, so that, at the very least, you are not blindly participating in the problem.
In a discussion about the role of meat in the future of food, James Peisker, the founder of another online meat startup called Porter Road, has said, "People should absolutely be concerned about their diet's environmental impact. Our simple rule of thumb is to eat less, but better meat." Crowd Cow operates in a similar vein.
The bottom line
Crowd Cow gives you reliable, convenient access to the type of meat you want to be eating — raised with ethical and environmentally friendly standards by farmers and ranchers who care. If you like cooking and exploring different types of meat, but want to approach it with a careful conscience, then you should try Crowd Cow.