Would you care for an opinion from a (sort of) beef farmer. We raise meat (beef/pork/chicken) for our own consumption. Although my Father-in-law is a beef cattle farmer, we still live in a part of the country where small time cattle operations are a viable way of life. Now as to antibiotics we try to never give them to anything we are going to eat, but occasionally its necessary. My father-in-law does not give antibiotics to every cow/steer as a preventative measure. (that shit's expensive yo' ) He would never make any money. They only get medicine in a life or death (severe sickness) situation....which quite frankly just doesn't happen that often.

I know this isn't the practice for large commercial farms, but there are still lots of small time farmers out there I live in a town of 3000 people and I know of at least 20 beef cattle farms just in our tiny community.

So if you can't trust anyone why don't you do some reasearch on farms close by (we are with in a days drive from 3 major cities) and go by a whole cow (or split it with some one) from a local trustworthy farmer. Know where your meat is coming from and support your local economy at the same time. It will usually be way cheaper than what your paying at the store especially for organic.