The question: How do we move restoration into the private sector, creating “an economy that restores”?
You’ve heard of heirloom tomatoes? Well, today, I’m talking to you about heritage pigs.
It’s a topic related to “Farmer in Chief” by Michael Pollan but mentioned only indirectly in that article (as in the opposite of “feedlot meat”).
I have not spent much time in my life thinking about varieties of animals. Buying locally raised meat at the supermarket or farmer’s market was the extent of my involvement. But the other day, I heard from Culinary Colorado about a fire at a farm in South Dakota that raises rare breeds of pigs and other animals. And I thought, how many of us who aren’t farmers or ranchers ever consider the breed of animal we’re eating? For most of us, it’s chicken or turkey or beef or pork. Occasionally duck or goose. Or bison, though bison aren’t really domesticated per se.
How is this restoration? I can think of two ways:
1. People who love animals and want to raise them for food or to provide milk or eggs would enjoy learning about the different breeds and ensuring they’re around for our children and beyond.
2. People who want to eat different breeds of pork or turkey might be willing to provide financial support for a local venture. (By the way, is it correct to say “breed of pork”? Seems like “breed” applies only to the animal, not the meat.) Depending on the availability of breeding stock, a group could set up a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm for animals.
I have never heard of a CSA farm that provides meat, however. Eggs, yes, but not meat. There are farmers and ranchers in Colorado who sell free-range chicken and beef (Wisdom’s Natural Poultry and Lasater Grassland Beef come to mind), but they don’t offer shares. Perhaps because they can slaughter year-round, they don’t need to boost their income in the off-season?
So I believe that number 2 above would be a new kind of venture in farming and ranching.
To find out more about rare breeds of animals, read the website of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Their website says, “These traditional breeds are an essential part of the American agricultural inheritance.” (Yes, but most of all, they profile a breed of turkey called “Chocolate.”) And you might also visit the website of Maverick Heritage Ranch and help them recover from the fire.
There’s more to all this than creating an economy that restores or finding the best-tasting meat. By breeding these varieties, we’re actually improving Nature. I’m not a big fan of most types of “improving” Nature, but I think this one is both creative and harmless. Do you agree?
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Please note that I’ve decided to drop the stuff about “enriching the few.” It’s a little premature at this point to be deciding who can do or get what.
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I just bought a copy of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. What a tome—more than 1100 pages of small type! I’m not foolish enough to promise I’ll read it within a certain time, or even finish it, but I am making my way through it, slowly. I don’t think I could skim it. It was published in 1776, and the language and long sentences require a great deal of concentration.
From what little I have read, it seems that Adam Smith was not an elitist but deeply concerned with the fate of the common worker.
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I try to pretend Im not eating an animal otherwise the guilt does me in
Well, I can understand this subject might not interest vegetarians or those who limit their consumption of meat, but there’s not really any other way to preserve these animals than on farms.
Just earlier this week I read a blog article somewhere from someone who participated in fractional cattle ownership. Basically, the author owned 1/4 of a cow, paid for 1/4 of cost of its care, and got 1/4 of the meat when the animal was slaughtered. That’s basically a CSA for meat. I wish I could remember where I read about it, but I know it exists.
That’s good to know. I’m not aware of any programs like that, and when I wrote to New Moon Farms about it, no one responded. I wonder if it was on Treehugger?
Wow, this was pretty darn fascinating. I LOVE what a wealth of knowledge you are turning this blog into!
Thanks, Amber. I like finding out about under-the-radar stuff like this.
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