I came across this article that might be a fun read for some. Good examples of another benefit of organic meat & veggie farming. I am, and always have been, a devout omnivore.
HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?
What next? Cats and dogs living together in perfect harmony?
farmers like these deserve subsidies, not the agribusiness combines, if subsidies are to exist at all.
[quote=“Jack Burton”]farmers like these deserve subsidies, not the agribusiness combines, if subsidies are to exist at all.[/quote]No, they don’t. And farm subsidies are not the topic of this thread.
Sure they do. As your article says, these small farmers provide grass-fed meat that is healthier, and better for human consumption, and produce less waste, less use of chemicals, less required production of corn thus freeing up production of other goods, less crowded conditions ie less disease as opposed to an agribusiness combine. I would much rather see my tax dollars help support these small farmers. But the problem with farm subsidies is that they reward money by the acre, and thus, this predominantly advantages large agribusiness, which, in turn, makes it harder for the small farmer, such as the one the article talks about, to compete on the market. So, yeah, farm subsidies are very much relevant to this farmer, this kind of farming.
Almost all beef and lamb in Australia and NZ is grass-fed free range, so it’s much less of a revelation. That’s why Aussie beef tastes so different to the USA factory product from intensive feedlot cattle fed corn. Or Kobe beef… while the American palate may enjoy all the fatty marbling in the meat, the American waistline doesn’t.
I wish I could say the same of Australian pork, which is unfortunately still from pen-raised pigs, but I can’t. Still, their life is probably more fun than many of the pigs raised here in tiny boxes and fed sewage and scraps. Unless you’re a pig on Orchid island. That’d be the life!
Uro -
The American palatte has undergone some major changes in the last 20 years or so. And with that the cattle raising business, as well as pg farming and fowl farming, has had to adapt to the changes in preferences.
ost of the beef today is much leaner both on the hoof and when it reaches the consumer.
Also, their is a return to local butcher shops in many neighborhoods. Here the selection is usually greater and the quality is higher. Health conscious consumers are asking for and getting less fat and non-hormone meat.
Also, it not all that unusual to see wild game meats, along with buffalo(bison), venison, and beefalo and some other ‘exotics’ quite widely available.
I’m glad to see the change.
Interesting article.
I have been watching Gordon Ramsay’s “The F Word” and in each season he raises Turkeys and then Pigs to educate his kids (and the viewers) about healthy farming options.
We’re eventually returning to a block of land in NZ, and the plan is to grow a fair bit of our own food. Until recently the plan was to not grow meat, but buy that from the supermarket…or reduce meat consumption significantly.
It certainly is worth thinking about organic/healthy meat growing instead of buying from a supermarket. I’m not sure if I could handle the emotions of raising an animal to eat, but when I think about the alternative of buying factory meat it puts another light on it.
I find it pretty difficult to find decent tasting beef here. Even the US imported stuff tastes weird compared to what I am used to, and it really gets you wondering about how the life of the animal and it’s diet affects the taste.
I used to ive with a guy and his sister whose parents had a hereford stud farm. they would raise a calf in the home paddock each year, and then get it butchered in the local town (village I suppose: Dungog, if you want to look it up). great tasting meat, BTW.
the kids were quite alarmed at first apparently, but by age 10 or so they said it was just normal to see a new Daisy each year, and have some excellent meat cuts for Christmas.
I miss the local butchers, and the trend for local identification of meat’s origin. “these chooks came from that new farm down by the bridge, these lamb chops come from Moree” etc. But i have occasionally bought a live chook here, and you KNOW that its healthy from watching it peck and claw the lower ranked birds in the cage!
exotic meats are harder to get here. I do miss kangaroo, which is a superb lean meat with a strong flavour a little like venison. Plus, the Aust countryside is far more productive at churning out 'roo than beef: about five times more meat per hectare than for beef, at less water and soil cost, and far less methane output too. which leads me to another non-sequitur: Why oh why did California just ban adidas from selling soccer boots when the meat and leather are much better than beef, and when roos are killed far more humanely than a cow is killed? PETA has ugly tentacles of persuasion, sorry, propaganda, in too many places.