I love animals and the environment, but I still like eating meat, so this section explores how I try to support the folks who are raising happy animals in an environmentally conscious way and slaughtering them humanely, instead of supporting the mass-market meat industry.
To preface, I am going to talk about the fact that meat comes from animals. If this bothers you, go ahead and skip to the next part. It may sound silly that I am saying this, given that your interest in ethically sourcing meat clearly means you’re an omnivore. But the truth is that people can get really weird about the fact that meat comes from animals. For example, I roasted a whole lamb on an iron cross for Greek Easter and posted a picture of it cooking on Instagram. I picked up the lamb from the local farmer who raised it, slaughtered it, and sold it. I grew up seeing whole lambs roasted on Easter, so it wasn’t at all unusual to me. But the Internet disagreed. I received a lot of comments about how “disgusting” and “disturbing” it was, but what I found most disturbing was that some of these folks were meat-eaters themselves, with photos of burgers and pork chops in their own feeds. How did that disconnect happen? Why is it okay to eat meat, but not see the whole animal the meat comes from?
When you go to the grocery store, you see cuts of meat lined up in neat little packages all ready to go. It’s easy to distance yourself from its origins, and the fact that it was once part of a living thing. But to be a responsible meat-eater, you must come to terms with the fact that anytime you eat meat, an animal has to die. That’s just how it works, folks. If you can’t handle that fact when faced with it on a visual level, then perhaps you should reevaluate your stance as a carnivore. But just because an animal is destined for slaughter, that doesn’t mean it should live a miserable life confined to a dirty pen with hundreds of other animals. Aside from the obvious animal welfare concerns of the current commercial meat market, there is also a lot of environmental damage caused by animals raised in these mass “meat farms.” Then, there’s the preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, and additives that many of the mass-produced meats contain, and that’s another rabbit hole entirely. (There are many thick books out there on each of these subjects alone, so I won’t attempt to chip a cube off the iceberg here. If you’re interested, though, see Recommended Reading on this page.) So if you want to have good, clean, wholesome meat that’s raised ethically, these are my two tried-and-true methods.
1. Purchase a whle animal directly from the farm. This means that you buy either a whole or a part of a large animal direct from a farmer that has it slaughtered for you, and then you pick up all the cuts of meat at once and store them in a large freezer, where they will remain until you eat them all. Most farms allow you to buy a quarter, half, or whole cow and a half or whole hog. I source my beef and pork from Champoeg Creamery here in Oregon, and I love it because Charlotte (my meat lady) has me call the butcher who will be working on my order, and I get to decide what cuts I want, any organs I want to keep, or bones I might want for stock. I also love it because I can ask Charlotte all sorts of questions about how the animals are raised, and she actually knows the answers. I know that she moves her cows to fresh pasture every twelve hours, that they’re grass-fed, and that they supplement with hay in the wintertime, when the grasses aren’t as prolific as they are in the summer. There is no way I’d be able to get this information buying a pack of meat at the grocery store. As far as the freezer goes, I have a 32 by 37 by 21-inch (82 by 94 by 53-cm) chest freezer that fits a quarter of a cow with extra room to spare. If you don’t have the space for a chest freezer, you can definitely fit it in a normal refrigerator freezer if you go in on an order with friends and split the quarter cow or half hog between you. Cost-wise, buying an animal this way ends up being about the same cost per pound as purchasing organic ground meat (the cheapest cut) at the supermarket. But this way, you have delicious tenderloins and ribs and roasts in addition to the ground stuff, and it ends up being a much better deal to cut out the middleman and buy in bulk directly from the farm itself.
2. Join a Meat-buying club or CSA. I am currently a member of a poultry-buying club through Marion Acres—a poultry and hog farm in my hometown of Hillsboro, Oregon. I filled out a form on their site telling them the number of chickens I’d like to pick up, selected a few pickup dates off their calendar, and that was it! I simply show up to the pickup point, and they have the number of chickens I requested ready for me. I know that the chickens I get from them are pasture-raised and enjoy having the sun on their backs and eating all the little bugs and green grass they can find. I also know Geoff and John by name and that I’m supporting their families by purchasing from them.
I also highly recommend visiting the farm that you’re going to be buying from. Pretty much every farm that is raising animals in an ethical way will be fine with it, if not excited about the fact that you want to see the animals in person. Ask them about it first, of course (farmers are very busy, and they need a heads-up!), but most of them will be happy to meet you in person.
And one more note: Some of the recipes in this book, namely the ones for stock, call for animal ingredients that you may not be familiar with using, like pork feet or chicken heads. I know it seems scary at first, if you’re not used to handling these things, but know that you are helping put good, quality ingredients to use that are often otherwise discarded. Yes, at first, it is kind of weird seeing a little chicken head look up at you from a pot of boiling water. But once you taste the stock, and see all the flavor it can impart into a dish, you’ll be pleased that you took the dive. As far as sourcing these odds bits of animals, many farms that raise animals for slaughter have lots of these kind of less-popular pieces on hand, and many smaller, more artisanal butcher shops will be able to source them for you, too. I recommend finding a source that has several pounds of whatever it is that you’re looking for, buying a big batch of bits once or twice a year, and keeping them in your freezer, where you can pull them to replenish your stock, as needed.
