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Sunday, 28 February 2010 20:45 |
I stopped by my favorite meat producer's stand at the Dupont Farmers market this morning and learned some news that I have to share in hopes of others supporting the cause of the small farmer and small meatpacker.
Bev Eggleston of EcoFriendly foods is going to be testifying before a Congressional Subcommittee about the meatpacking industry this Thursday. Bev runs a small slaughter house that was mentioned in the best-selling book "The Omnivore's Dilemma". At the time the book was published Bev was still working through the red tape of getting a small, humane, slaughterhouse going. He got it running and now sells meat at markets and to a lot of high-end restaurants from VA to NY. His meat has been on the cover of Food and Wine magazine and he sells to the extremely popular Momofuku restaurant in New York City, to name just one.
I buy meat from Bev at the Dupont Circle and Arlington Courthouse farmers markets. Bev buys from a number of small farms in southern Virginia and processes the meat. He then does things impossible to find elsewhere, like grass-fed, grass-finished beef dry-aged for 90 days. His products are better quality than a lot of high-end butcher shops, but they certainly come at a premium price as well. A lot of the cost comes from actually paying workers livable wages at every step of the way. The animals are also treated humanely for their entire lives, so when it comes to the slaughterhouse that means killing many less animals per hour than the conventional slaughterhouse.
These efforts to be humane to animals and keep workers safe and healthy actually don't fit into the USDA's definition of how a meatpacking operation is run. It took Bev a lot of struggle to get the USDA to even come and inspect his facilities, implying that it was beneath them to inspect such a small operation. Without USDA inspection he can't sell his meat. His extremely high-quality meat sold at 4 star restaurants would basically be labeled as "pet food" in this country without USDA inspection.
Here is what EcoFriendly is asking people to do to support Bev and his cause of making the market more fair for the small farmer and small slaughterhouse since the laws are basically written with only the huge operations in mind:
Write an email to your representative and/or senator (find them at house.gov and senate.gov) explaining why this hearing is critical and what you want them to do.
Come to the hearing: Thursday March 4 at 2pm in room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building
Send a letter to the editor or call the assignment desk of your local news outlet and tel them that covering this hearing is important to you as a reader. |
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Saturday, 20 February 2010 19:39 |
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It seems that completing the Canonball Read may be impossible now, as this is my first book review and I'm three months into a year long contest to read 52 books. I'll ignore the fact that completing the contest in earnest is not going to happen and make sure that I get at least one book review posted. I started reading The End of Food by Paul Roberts in November to review as my first book for Canonball Read and I just finished reading it now. In that time I read one and a half other books(hopefully I'll post more book reviews soon). That in itself is a good indication of how dense and dry The End of Food is. For a book on a subject that I'm very passionate about I was surprised by how difficult it was to stay awake while reading The End of Food. If you can get past the readability issues of the book, The End of Food is well researched and packed with a lot of information on what is wrong with the food system today and opinions on what can be done to fix it. Unfortunately the scope of the book is so vast that Roberts seems to suggest that as only one consumer I can do very little to improve farming practices and food quality. The book reads like a manuscript intended for congress describing all sectors Roberts believes should be regulated in order to affect change in the US food system. I'd like to think that as a consumer the decisions I make, such as buying food from small, sustainable farms, can make a difference and support an alternative food economy. As for food policy, just leveling the playing field between small farms and megafarms would go a long way. Many laws are written with large farms in mind and aren't scalable; regulatory fees and costs apply similarly to a small family farms as to a megafarms that are in a much better position to absorb these costs. Paul Roberts implies that small sustainable farms can't support everyone, so he ignores the possibility of consumer choice to participate in a traditional or alternative food economy. Policies aimed at making the current food system more sustainable may be a step in the right direction, but also leave a lot to be desired. I'd rather use my consumer choice to support small farmers who are treating land and animals well right now. Maybe small farms using thoughtful practices can’t feed the whole world, but that doesn’t mean they should be forced out of the market by policies written with only large agri-business in mind. |
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Wednesday, 04 November 2009 00:18 |
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I've accepted a challenge from pajiba to read 52 books in a year starting now. In addition to reading the books I'll have to post a book review about each one here on my blog. It's a challenge that there's a good chance I will fail at. Currently I'm 32 pages into a 400 pager that I guess I'm supposed to finish by Saturday. In spite of the large potential for failure I'm hoping it will nudge me to post more often on redwattle. Some of the books will certainly be in line with the rest of the blog. I've even convinced the people at pajiba to let me read and review a cookbook every once in a while. But of course I'll also read some novels and books that aren't applicable to the rest of the blog. Let me know if you have any book suggestions! |
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Wednesday, 27 May 2009 02:21 |
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There's a great event in DC this weekend celebrating good food and heritage breed pigs. Cochon555 is a cooking contest between 5 of DC's finest chefs. Each chef is given a whole pig to cook. Pigs are provided by my friends at EcoFriendly foods, who I buy from frequently at Dupont circle and Arlington Courthouse farmers markets. Tickets are $125 apiece and that also includes wine from local wine-makers. 5 amazing chefs+5 well-treated pigs+5 wine-makers=a damn good time, in my book! |
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Saturday, 04 April 2009 20:19 |
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Eater NY recently ran a piece by Chef David Chang of the Momofuku restaurants commenting on foie gras protesters and why he still serves foie gras in his restaurants in spite of the foie gras controversy. (Thanks Sarah for sharing this story with me!). A quick internet search can bring up images of ducks being force fed with a tube jammed down their throats to produce the desired fatty liver. These vivid images have brought animal rights activists to protest several restaurants in New York and elsewhere, including a vandalism last month in a Maryland restaurant. The problem that I have with being blindly against foie gras is that foie gras production can vary greatly from farm to farm. I have a problem with labels. Just as organic meat doesn't necessarily mean humanely raised, foie gras and veal don't necessarily mean animal cruelty. Veal and foie gras have become buzz words that are supposed to be symbolic of animal cruelty as a whole. I buy veal at my local farmers markets from farmers that I know personally and who treat their animals with love and respect. I think it's possible to produce foie gras in a similar manner. Further research on Hudson Valley foie gras, the producer of the foie gras served by Chef David Chang, brought me to this story in the Village Voice. After reading an objective report of a visit to the farm my conclusion is that Hudson Valley is a responsible farm. Sure, I'd prefer for the ducks to spend more time outside, and I question whether it's not possible to feed the ducks the same amount of food without the force feeding. But it seems like the ducks do have enough space and don't seem in pain during or after the feedings, which reportedly take only fifteen seconds. Compared to cattle feedlots Hudson Valley foie gras seems completely humane. In cattle feedlots not only do the cows have very little space but they are fed a diet that they can't properly digest which can lead to serious health problems and even death. So why are people, sometimes violently, protesting foie gras with only a handful of relatively small farms producing in the US, instead of protesting the fast food restaurants and chain grocery stores selling this factory farmed beef from the about 35 million cows slaughtered each year? |
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