Happy meat?

NPR did a lovely story on Iberian Ham and that got me to thinking about the state of the American pig. These sad creatures are just not treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. The factory system of food production is just not focused on that type of thing. It is about VOLUME… not necessarily quality of life or even larger issues of nutrition and biodiversity. The New York Times ran an article about the Ugandan dairy cow industry and the fact that the indigenous Ankole cattle are more than likely headed toward extinction. If you have the time you should read it… VERY interesting. Anyway, they are breeding the local cattle with Holsteins to increase milk production. Which on its face does not seem bad. However the result is that we are losing the biodiversity offered by the Ankole who can survive very well in Uganda’s climate whereas Holsteins cannot. Not only that, but the milk the Ankole does produce has a special quality that is being lost. There is hope for them when considering them as a meat producer, but will that happen soon enough or will we humans breed them out of existence? Thereby jiping ourselves of a unique food product? Time will tell, but it is not looking good.

This article makes the case that we are being reduced to the most productive animals and the pool of biodiversity os quickly shrinking. We have the Holstein, the Large White Pig, Rhode Island Red and Leghorn Chickens… and if we keep it up that is all we will have. Which issues of ecology and the environment aside is a bad bad thing when it comes to the quality of the food we consume. Ask anyone who is in their 80’s or 90’s about the meat and produce they used to eat… You will always hear them mention the flavor… how much better it was. Alot of them ate meats we will never get a chance to taste. In addition to that their animals were living a life much more suited to the creation of a quality food product at the end. A chicken that can roam, and wander, cluck and scrabble for worms is a happier overall animal. THe quality of its meat is more flavorful, the eggs have a strong outer shell, a thicker more flavorful yolk, usually with more nutritive value as well as a strong white with lots of protein. Your factory chicken is pretty much an egg factory. Producing weak yellow yolks, runny whites with very little flavor. You can see the difference with the naked eye… The meat is bland and generic in flavor. Crack a truly farm fresh, free roaming, free nesting, hand gathered egg to a factory egg… you will see the difference. Factory chickens are weak, usually do live more than 18 months… where the natural life span of a chicken is anywhere from 7 to 12 years! I personally have issues with how animals are treated in general… but I want to focus on the thing that matters that most to the general food consuming population. These methods are getting us an increasingly terrible food product. Allowing these animals to thrive while they are alive gives us tremendous benefits. If you take care of something you will be rewarded! Farmers perforce must look at their livestock as a commodity. There is really nothing wrong with that. We are all wired differently… and all of us meat eaters really cannot judge until we have to go out and kill our own dinner. But we can judge the quality of the product we are receiving. I want to be able to choose from several types of eggs, I want to be able to buy flavorful meat, rich healthy milk… I want to get all the flavor out of the foods I consume that I can. Don’t you?

Tagged as: ankole cattle, eggs, factory chickens, farming, food quality, large white pig, Milk, organic food