Section » Meat and poultry

Goats: An overlooked pasture-raised animal

By • on June 12, 2011

Goats grazing in Ethiopia (iStockphoto) Goat meat is already very popular around the world – the Washington Post claims that goat makes up almost 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally – and its popularity could increase in

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Tipping sacred cows: Reviewing “Meat: A Benign Extravagance”

By • on January 31, 2011

Mainstream culture and news abound with broad statements about our food system and the choices we make about what we put on the dinner table. Surely you’ve heard that if you want to save

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Hey USDA & DoJ: Ranchers want more competition in the cattle industry

By • on August 18, 2010

Big hats carrying small sticks: The CEO of R-Calf, which represents cattle raisers, has been criss-crossing the country, exhorting people to get to Fort Collins, Colorado, on Aug. 27th for a federal-level workshop about competition in the cattle industry. He wants 25,000 to show up and "send a message

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Chicken expert Gail Damerow answers newbie questions

By • on June 30, 2010

Cluck, cluck, cluck. Bwaak! These are not sounds I expect to hear on a stroll in my North Oakland, Calif. neighborhood -- the usual soundtrack is more like thumping bass, sirens, and the rattle of fast-food paper bags. And yet chickens are pecking in backyards on practically every block, in converted

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The first rule of farming: Be prepared

By • on June 3, 2010

(Steph Larsen photos)Everyone knows the Boy Scouts' motto: Be Prepared. While my immediate inclination is to ask "For what?", it's as good a command as any to live by. One at which I failed miserably last week. I came home from work and went out to the sheep paddocks to make sure they looked healthy

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Buyer beware this butcher’s bullshit

By • on May 16, 2010

It's a sad and telling sign of the SOLE food movement's popularity, when people use the movement's principles to market their beef and hide the bullshit behind the counter.  As Matthew Richter writes in "Mystery

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Strengthening the “weakest link” in the local meat infrastructure

By • on March 17, 2010

Friend of the Ethicurean Sam Fromartz looks at a new wave of small slaughterhouses that are appearing in Virginia. He focuses on True & Essential Meats of Harrisonburg, a new partnership of former landscape architect Joe Cloud, his mother, and Joel Salatin (of Polyface Inc., who was profiled in Omnivore's

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The “hourglass” problem of getting small-farm Vermont meat to Vermont consumers

By • on October 30, 2009

"Freedom and Unity" for sustainable meat!: Kudos to reporter Kathryn Flagg and the Addison Independent for their two-part series on slaughterhouses in Vermont. Part II looks at the growing market for local meats, the challenges facing small meat producers, and the ways farmers are trying to make meat

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Bill and Nicolette Hahn Niman on why they mourn a dead cow

By • on October 30, 2009

All about Eve: Moving piece by sustainable meat's power couple on why they cried when they found the daughter of one of their favorite cows unexpectedly dead. "After all, this cow was being raised for meat. How could we feel a genuine attachment for her?" they ask. "We can only say that we did. And that

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Pork prevention: What’s behind the NPPC bailout, or how the government keeps filling up Big Meat’s trough

By • on August 23, 2009

During the Iowa flood disaster in the summer of 2008, I proposed that there are winners and losers in moments of human tragedy — those who pay the costs of dealing with an unsavory situation, and those who are on the receiving end

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Mobile meat processing coming to Puget Sound

By • on August 17, 2009

Slaughter, Airstream-style: Livestock producers in Washington's Puget Sound region are pinning their hopes on a 45-foot mobile meat processing unit that will travel from farm to farm, eliminating the logistical nightmares (including a several-hour drive) associated with the few mega-slaughterhouses still

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Family farmers: No NAIS in our name

By • on August 12, 2009

NPPC doesn't speak for me: Rhonda Perry, a Missouri farmer and director of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, is tired of Big Meat purporting to represent her interests in Washington. NAIS, a controversial animal tracking program [that we've covered numerous

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Senate basically kind of halves funding for National Animal ID

By • on August 6, 2009

Say it again, with feeling: Senators John Tester (D-MT) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) flexed some legislative and moral muscle earlier this week with an amendment to the agriculture spending bill that halves funding for the USDA's controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS). The amended  bill 

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House debates whether we should sacrifice human antibiotics for meat industry gain

By • on July 13, 2009

Sharfstein socks one to Big Meat: In a hearing held today in the House Rules Committee, Deputy FDA Commissioner Josh Sharfstein threw the administration's weight behind a ban on feeding antibiotics meant for humans to healthy animals. The practice is common on industrial livestock operations, where low

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Houston Press tells, shows where fajita beef comes from

By • on July 6, 2009

Before hipsters discovered butchery class: Houston Press reporter Robb Walsh has a long but fascinating feature on his recent adventures in butchery, which "all started with a meat mystery — call it the case of the disappearing skirt." Walsh was developing fajita recipes for a grilling cookbook but

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