www.JackrabbitCheese.com
Barbara Kingsolver reads the first chapter of her fabulous book about her family’s quest to eat only local food. It’s available at libraries, both in print and on CD– I highly recommend it.
(DJ Mitchell Photo) Suellen & Annie
This picture is our East view. Obviously taken during a warmer time of the year. DJ is already getting spring fever and has ordered some seeds for the garden.
Americans eat an average of 222 pounds of meat each year. Though we only rank 17th in world per capita consumption (Denmark ranks #1, followed by the Czech Republic and Spain), that’s still a lot of meat– roughly 73 billion pounds per year, the equivalent of 146 million heifers or 18 billion chickens.
We eat more chicken than anything else (87 lbs.), followed by beef (66 lbs.) and pork (51 lbs.). Our per-capita consumption has risen over 50% since 1950, and continues upward.
Most Americans live in denial about where their meat comes from. It comes from animals– and the vast majority comes from Confined Area Feeding Operations (CAFOs), where they’re kept too close together and fed food they have no business eating.
The cow in the photo at top didn’t come from a CAFO– it was raised locally, in a pasture. It weighed 1,700 pounds on the hoof, and was slaughtered by a local butcher in someone’s backyard. It was raised humanely, ate naturally-occuring grass, and got plenty of sunlight. It never had to travel in a trailer or railcar packed with hundreds of other terrified animals on a trip to the slaughterhouse. And its environmental impact was far smaller than a cow raised in a CAFO because its manure composted natually rather than being slurried and turning to methane. It required little outside food, and no grain, so it made no contribution to topsoil erosion.
I don’t eat beef, but based on my experience with other locally-grown meat, this one will taste better than anything you buy at the store.
We are responsible for what we put in our mouths. If this disturbs you, perhaps you’ll seek out a local farmer and buy your meat directly from him or her. Know your food. Know its source, and how it was raised. If you can, meet it before you eat it. I’ve found this gives me more appreciation for the animals I eat– I eat less of it– and I’ve developed a greater appreciation for life in general.
It’s unavoidable: if you eat meat, you’re killing animals. And if you buy it at the store, you’re supporting the CAFO system– and getting inferior quality as well.
If you’re not comfortable knowing where your meat comes from, or if the photo of a slaughtered cow disturbs you, Vegetarian Times is available online for free.
LocalHarvest.org is a database of local food providers across the country. You can search by zip code or state for locally-produced foods and agricultural products. The database lists farms, farmers markets, CSAs (community-supported agriculture projects), and shops– and also lists farming practices (nartural, organic, etc.) as well as upcoming events.
And we’re now listed! We don’t have any events scheduled, but we do make deliveries.
B. F. Finnegan cooks a meal using all local ingredients. In Vermont in February with three feet of snow on the ground. In this fun video, she challenges us to cook local, too.
Time Magazine reports that Wal-Mart has a plan: to put as many of its remaining competitors out of business as it can. And financial writer Jeff Hwang at Motley Fool notes that Wal-Mart already exerts an emormous amount of leverage over its suppliers:
“Wal-Mart accounts for 28% of Dial’s sales, 24% of Del Monte Foods’ sales, and 23% of Clorox’s sales. If Wal-Mart has too much power over these companies now, what will happen when Wal-Mart’s share hits 50% at the end of this decade?”
That’s every corporation’s dream: to eliminate all the competition and dominate your suppliers. It’s also called a monopoly, and last time I checked it was illegal. Yet the Wal-Mart juggernaut apparently goes on without much concern from regulators.
What’s a consumer to do? Wal-Mart’s prices are tempting, even in the face of moral convictions.
When it comes to food, what my wife and I can’t buy at farmer’s markets, we buy at a locally-owned grocery store. The quality is far better, and we’re willing to pay the price. And we use another store’s pharmacy because we find the service better and the lines much shorter than Wal-Mart.
But for many items like toilet paper or soap, where there’s absolutely no difference between Wal-Mart and a more expensive chain store, it’s hard to justify paying more for the same item. When we just need one such item, we buy it at whatever store we’re at. But when we need to stock up, it’s off to Wally World.
Unless you’re motivated by an overpowering issue, such as unionization or environmental concerns (or unless you’re one of the few who doesn’t have a Wal-Mart close by), you probably buy some of your needs at Wal-Mart regularly. It’s hard to say you shouldn’t when my wife and I do ourselves, and when any impact on the community is indirect at best.
But for those items that are made or grown locally, there is a payoff for buying from a local source: local jobs and a more vibrant economy, which in turn means your job (whatever that may be) is more secure. So buy what you can locally, and feel good.
LocalFirst.org promotes Utah’s locally-owned businesses, and connects those businesses with local customers. Membership is free, and includes access to free logos like the one above. And, if you make a $5 donation or send them a self-addressed stamped enevelope, they’ll send you a free bumper sticker.
Do bumper stickers really work? I learned of this organization from a bumper sticker on a parked car!
Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, discusses the health dangers that industrial food has given us.
Are there health dangers with food from small farms? Certainly risks exist. But they’re not big news, because when they do occur, they are localized and not a national threat.
Does it make a difference when people know where their food comes from? Many folks, both farmers and consumers, think it does. It seems to me that people enjoy our cheese even more when they’ve met our goats. (And yes, you’re invited to come out and meet them, too.)
Nice presentation content, though sadly not well produced.
