Knowing me, knowing moo
Today's Strip had an interesting sidebar about a Canadian farmer who lets consumers choose their own cow. For eating purposes, that is. Given how large the meat industry has become, it's not surprising how novel this seems. But it certainly has an appeal. Many activists from the local food movement sing the praises of knowing your food and its producers as a form of accountability. Because of the recent pet food scare, this certainly makes sense. A few years ago, we bought a quarter side of beef--about 120 pounds, half of it ground. Our price was more in the mid $3s a pound, but it was still cheaper than most stores, especially for steaks. And we knew that there was only one cow in each pound of our ground beef, not one thousand (the number given by Eric Schlosser for grocery store ground beef).
Picking Bessie out from the crowd seems more of a gimmick, but there's definitely something to be said for knowing your meat before you eat it.
Image: http://www.dennisflood.com/2003/animals/leeds-athens-cows-103.jpg
Comments
Is this sort of like picking which lobster you want at nice restaurants? I think it's pretty cool.
Did the meat taste any different?
Posted by: brad wright | June 20, 2007 02:34 PM
Certainly there's a kind of lobster element to it--you can pick the cow that looks best to you. But I think it's more than that, too. You not only know which cow you're getting but where it lived and how it was raised.
That said, I'm not sure I noticed a big difference in the beef we bought, though many have sworn that it's much better. It was certainly quite beefy, but I'd have to do a side by side comparison for a real test. Hey, that's a good idea for a future blog... :)
Posted by: Self | June 20, 2007 03:12 PM