A Case For Meat

One of the issues with which I struggle daily (just ask my close friends) is the sustainability of meat. Long ago, when I was in graduate school at Cornell and later Oxford, I was a vegetarian. I stopped eating meat for ethical reasons, long before Fast Food Nation hit the scene. I felt very strongly that even though humans evolved to eat meat, and much of the population did not have the luxury to turn their nose up at a food source, that we had the technology to keep people happy and healthy without slaughtering animals for food.

What can I say? I was young and full of principles. I focused on the face of the beautiful cow that should not become my supper and ignored the reality of the thousand faceless animals killed in the growing of my squash due to deforestation, pesticide runoff, habitat destruction, maiming from farm equipment, etc. Life, it seems, is never that simple.

But until I could guarantee the end of suffering for the meat animal itself, I could not pay into the system which caused such cruelty. So I went without meat. This was actually quite easy to do. Mad Cow had paralyzed the UK and so even McDonald's offered a veggie burger. The years ticked by and although I missed the taste of meat, I was happy for the token effort I was making to Make The World A Better Place.

Then I got sick, very sick, and I began to lose eyesight in my right eye. Back in the States, and working at my first professional job, I had access to MRIs, specialists, tests. They found nothing, no brain tumor, no retina detachment, no Glaucoma. Doing research on my own, I found I had a severe Vitamin A deficiency which is derived from eating too many tubers. Yep, starch can suck the vitamins right out of you. I started eating meat again and my eyesight improved. My doctors were incredulous, after all, American doctors never consider diet and nutrition when treating an ailment, right? Many people can live quite happily on a vegetarian diet. I could not.

I decided I needed to eat meat, but was saddened at the lack of choice. Picking up a steak at the grocery story made me sad for the creature that had sacrificed so much. (Again, this was before much of the publicity around the fecal contamination in butchered meat, so I was not concerned about cleanliness). Until I did some more research and found a grass farmer in the Texas Panhandle that would ship meat to my door. Clean, ethically raised meat that never stepped foot in a feedlot and was humanely killed instantly. No misses, no suffering. I became that farmer's biggest fan and as he expanded his offerings from beef to chicken to lamb to goat, he became my sole meat provider. I had entered a world of Food Consciousness.

The years ticked by and I become vaguely away of some of the other issues with our meat supply: the contamination from fecal material, the treatment of workers, the ridiculous amounts of fossil fuel required to grow a pound of corn-fed beef and deliver it, packaged in wrap, to the grocery store. My dream of a farm starts to take shape in my mind. Yes, it would be great to grow some veggies, but really, I wanted to secure a sustainable meat source.

And here I am. With only five acres, I am not about to run a herd of beefers on my land, but there are wonderful, low impact solutions for people just like me. I've covered the chickens I raise on the farm in a previous post. I know they are treated well and they are humanely processed, because I do the work myself. Every chicken is appreciated and they are never forgotten or faceless. Animals, especially those that sacrifice their lives for us to eat, should always be treated with dignity.

Chicken is great, but what about other meat sources? This fall, we logged the back three acres which will open up about 4 acres of pasture in the next three years. It takes time to build pasture, and I intend to do it right, so there will be no grazing through 2010 and then select, high intensity, rotational grazing from then on. But more about that in another post. With 4 acres in high production, I can rotate through 2-4 horses (with Brego muzzled to lessen his impact, of course), a lamb and a pig. And then there are also the goats, but more on them in a later post as well.

I estimate that my small family can live quite happily on chickens, a pig and a small lamb a year, using all the parts from tail to snout. These animals will live in fresh pasture and treated with dignity, this I can guarantee. Once the pastures and animals are running smoothly, I will no longer buy beef, even from a local farmer. Many, many people raise cows sustainably and with beneficial impact, but I will be able to provide my families' meat on farm without it.

In the meantime, the pastures are still a year or more off. So I bought a pig from a local farmer. I purchased the live pig and then paid the farmer to take him to butcher. I was able to see the pig alive, in his field, wallowing in mud. I was able to follow his progress and even help move him from field to field. When the time came, I was able to specify the cuts to the butcher. He was my pig, in a very real sense, even though he did not set a trotter on my soil. I will have more details about the pig in the coming days.

So in many ways, I have reversed my opinion on many things. I used to abhor the slaughtering of animals for meat, and it still weighs heavily upon my mind. But now I either perform the act myself or I am a willing and eager participant. Not out of blood lust, mind you, it is never a fun job. But because it is the only way I can continue to eat meat, with eyes wide open, to the Real Cost of the food on my table (lest we forget the Meat Fail). I firmly believe that if you eat meat, you are complicit in the death of an animal. The sooner we all acknowledge this fact, the sooner the atrocities in our food supply will stop because people will not stand for it.

Meat Fail

Those chicklins sure are cute, but there's no hiding the fact that half of them will turn out to be cockerals which means they will be butchered for food on the farm. I think it's important to know where your food comes from and that chicken mcnugget came from a chicken that looks exactly like one of my chicks (if it's not 100% recycled cardboard, that is).

The big difference is that my chicks get fed clean food, clean water and will get to live outdoors and actually BE CHICKENS before they are humanely slaughtered. If you eat meat, you are complicit in the death of an animal, whether at your own hands or by proxy.

This Meat Fail made me laugh, and then it made me very very sad:

Sorry for the terseness of this post, but the reality distortion field that the general population has propagated into the media and beyond gets a little grating sometimes. Know your food, it's the only way to stop the abuse of animals in our industrialized food complex. Give a damn about the animal who gave up its life to nourish your own.

Honest Food

I've been reading a lot, ok too much, about our industrial food complex.  The information out there is staggering and I have been able to apply my graduate school research skills to tracking down the source studies or statistics.  I am about to leave this topic in search of more, shall we say, optimistic topics, including getting my garden growing.  But before I do, let me put together a rant.

Every day, the news is so bad.  It's depressing as hell.  The challenges we face are so overwhelming, and you can't trust the people in charge to make the correct decisions.  Our democracy is subverted by Big Companies with Big Lobbyists pushing our elected leaders to make decisions.  Last time I checked, our representatives were supposed to vote for us.  Now they vote for dollars and I don't recall voting for Monsanto to represent me.

But I digress.  It's about Bigness.  When something gets too big, it becomes non sustainable.  Whereas one cow can graze on grass and deposit her manure to fertilize and build the soil, 200,000 cows in a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feed Operation) creates a problem that didn't exist, simply because of scale:  Manure Lagoons.  What doesn't make it to the lagoons become bedding for the animals, standing up to their knees in liquid manure.  Our food is literally covered in shit and it collects into biohazard pools (who are they kidding with this "lagoon" euphemism??) which become a pollution problem.  So just by making something Big, we dishonor the animals, create pollution, lower the nutrients in the resulting meat.  All to make meat cheap.

The meat is cheap only because you look at the grocery story flyer which says: "Ground Beef: $2.69/lb".  What other items would you buy with so little information??  "TV: $500"  "Car: $8,000/tire"  Beef is beef, right?  Eggs are eggs?  Actually, no.  But let's just say that they are anyway.  What is not included in the price per pound is the subsidized No. 2 corn which is literally killing our farmlands. What is not included is the huge pollution cleanup problem which is subsidized by big AgriBusiness.  What is not included is the amount of foreign oil we use to process the food (anywhere from 14 to 87 oil calories to 1 single food calorie). What is not included is the cost to our health from the ridiculous amounts of antibiotic-resistant bacteria present on the food (70% of grocery store chicken tests positive for Salmonella or Campylobacter.  Eat up!).

Our cheap ground beef is subsidized with our future.  It's really not cheap.  It is, in fact, ridiculously expensive.

The non-bleached poultry I buy from the guy down the road, whose manure fertilized the fields and who was never fed antibiotics or other "supplements", is a freakin' bargain at $3.50/lb.  All the costs are upfront and paid directly to the farmer.

I am all about Smallness.  That "inefficient" small farmer has no waste, and actually builds soil and the environment instead of raping it.  Factor in all the hidden costs and Bigness loses.

We have to break the addiction to Bigness when it comes to agriculture.  And it is happening, all over.  People are getting educating and saying, "No more!"  During my research, I stumbled across a blog that is absolutely spot on: Honest Meat.  In particular, please read this entry on antibiotics in our food.  I was able to correlate all the statistics cited.  This blog is Honest.

So let's be honest about our food.  Have your "cheap" ground beef but be Honest about where it comes from and the ramifications of producing it.  If every food item was packaged with how many pounds of antibiotics were used, how many gallons of bio-toxic waste, how many barrels of oil were used to bring it to you, people would change.  No more hiding behind the curtain of big Agribusiness.

Honest change.

A Lucky Diet

We found another great local farm. The farmer was very gracious with his time, answering a myriad of questions during the 45 minute visit. He prefers Jersey cows, in case you are interested. He sells raw milk, raw honey, self-processed (non-chlorinated) chicken, lamb, pork and occasional beef. We signed up for all of his food and scored some honey, milk and chickens today.

Dinner Tonight? Glad you asked.

Locally raise and processed whole roasted chicken (beer can style)
Baked organic acorn squash smothered in butter and raw honey
Roasted Maine potatoes
Organic Brussels Sprouts
Tall glass of fresh, raw milk (dated Jan 12)

I am in nutrient heaven. If we get lucky and get to the top of the waiting list, our meat will travel a total of 5 miles from his farm to ours. We'll have the opportunity to look the man responsible for our sustenance in the eye and, more importantly, thank him. We'll get fresh milk, non-toxic chicken and humanely slaughtered pork and my money goes directly into a farmer's pocket.

Despite my incredible diet, or perhaps because of it, I am now down 11 pounds since the move to the farm on Nov 1, ten weeks ago. We're getting three eggs a day, and the hens are picking up. I eat fresh eggs in the morning and leftovers for lunch and then incredible, gourmet dinners. (Have I failed to mention that the SO is also an accomplished chef??? Yes, I know how lucky I am.)

There is no margarine. No white flour. No refined sugar. No High Fructose Corn Syrup™.

Oh and plenty of sleep. Studies have shown that lack of sleep leads to coronary problems and obesity. I get at least 8 hours a day. Since the move from Austin, my thrice yearly tonsillitis/sinus infection has not appeared. The last time I felt ill was when I caved and drank a soda.

I am just so happy. It is all working out.

Tastes Like Swimming Pool

I have been going back and forth about whether to raise our own meat birds for human consumption next year. I would love to be responsible for more of my food and to also ensure the birds had a decent, pastured life before processing. However, there is little chance of me finding a processor near me who would process the birds for me. What USDA inspected processing plant cares about 30 broilers? So I either process them myself or forego. I mean, I want to "do the right thing", but I love my layer hens and I think there is quite a learning curve to processing your own poultry. I don't hunt and although I am not opposed to it, it's quite a mental leap for me.

What to do?

Then one of my dogs got sick when she ate chicken. And another dog. This is store bought "Manager's Special", boneless skinless chicken breast. Not even their usual disgusting discarded poultry frames. This is chicken meant for people to eat, and now my dogs, which have been fed poultry for, oh 8 years now, are getting sick when they eat it.

I did some research and found out that humans have an intolerance for store bought poultry, too, because in the US they dunk the carcasses in a chlorine solution after processing. Residual chlorine survives cooking (of course, cooking does not remove chemicals) and people ingest it and viola, they get sick. In fact, the EU has been banning the import of US poultry since 1997 and just recently voted to keep the ban. The reason? The chlorinated poultry.

It turns out, the solution they use to clean the carcasses is the same chemical they use to sanitize swimming pools. It is NOT the solution they use to sanitize municipal water supplies, which is, um, more palatable?

I've never been happier to be on a well.

Anyway, I don't know if my dogs are sick because of chlorinated poultry. In fact, it's probably a stretch. But they ARE sick from human-grade chicken breast I bought from the store. And when I have cooked up eggs (even store bought eggs) for them to eat instead, no sickness. Instant cause and effect.

So the decision has been made. I will be raising and processing my own poultry next year.