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The Vegetarians Who Turned Into Butchers

Not exactly low carb, but an interesting read nonetheless:

Quote:

From the New York Times
August 6, 2019

The Vegetarians Who Turned Into Butchers

How several former vegans and vegetarians across the country came to see meat as their calling.

At Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe in Denver, Kate Kavanaugh trimmed the sinew from a deep-red hunk of beef the size of a bed pillow.

“Flatiron steak is the second-most tender muscle in a steer’s body,” she said, focused on her knife work. “This guy sits on the scapula, and I love it because it has beautiful lacy fat.”

After the meat was cut down into several smaller steaks, she wrapped one up, grabbed a couple of tallow cubes molded into the shapes of “Star Wars” characters, and headed to a nearby kitchen to cook us some lunch.

Before she was a butcher, Ms. Kavanaugh was a strict vegetarian. She stopped eating meat for more than a decade, she said, out of a deep love for animal life and respect for the environment.

She became a butcher for exactly the same reasons.

Ms. Kavanaugh, 30, is one in a small but successful cadre of like-minded former vegetarians and vegans who became butchers in hopes of revolutionizing the current food system in the United States. Referring to themselves as ethical butchers, they have opened shops that offer meat from animals bred on grassland and pasture, with animal well-being, environmental conservation and less wasteful whole-animal butchery as their primary goals.

It’s a sharp contrast to the industrial-scale factory farming that produces most of the nation’s meat, and that has come under investigation and criticism for its waste, overuse of antibiotics, and inhumane, hazardous conditions for the animals. The outcry has been so strong that some meat producers say they are changing their practices. But these newer butchers contend that the industry is proceeding too slowly, with a lack of transparency that doesn’t inspire trust.

“I’m basically in this to turn the conventional meat industry on its head,” she said, as Darth Vader melted in her hot cast-iron pan.

Read the article in full here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/...rian-vegan.html

Horray!!!!!!!

Ethical treatment is everything.

Definitely a trend I can support. I'm seeing grass fed meat available from small producers more and more in MA and VA.

Our local health food store expanded their offerings in that area, there was so much demand. It is my preferred way.

I try to buy ethical meat and eggs.

And for beef, it's 100% grass-fed because (1) it's good for the cows (2) it's better for the environment and (3) it's healthier for me.

Eggs I get pasture raised.

I don't eat chicken or farmed fish.

Bob

There are very few places where cows can graze 365 days per year.
In the northern states where it is very cold and snowing during the winter, they have to be brought into huge barns so they don't freeze to death.
In the south where it is warm most of the year, the grass stops growing when the days get shorter.
So either way, they're being fed.

Hopefully by more hay than grain.

There is/was a hog farmer in northern Vermont that raised grass fed pork. Took injenuity. A local farmer brought over hay for the winter. And the piglets got eggs from chickens running around, and adult supplemented with brewers grains, left over from beer companies.

Just takes some planning...

At the farmers market yesterday, the farmer told me that her farm was one of the few accredited for animals being 100% grass fed, no cereals at all. Whoopee! And she sells raw organic cheddar cheese, and bones for broth, and dripping. She also gives work to those with mental impairments. I feel lucky to have come across her.

Edited to add: should have mentioned, all the meat is organic too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meme#1

There is a farm in my town (hundreds thousands of acres) where the owner is proud of 100% grass-fed. The family have been good stewards of the land for years, and one of them is a superb nature photographer.

Up north they give the 100% grass-fed cows hay in the winter. And yes, hay is still grass and it's why you see those white rolls of hay on the farms.

Sending the cow to the feed lot to feed it corn is bad for the cow, bad for the environment and bad for the human who eats it.

Bob