You ever wonder why the local food movement is growing so big and fast??? Why there has been 2800 butcher shops open in the USA in the past 5 years. WATCH TILL THE END and see the price many pay for this
every thing is being pushed into big plants. closing down the small abattoirs, when i was a kid there was 3 abattoirs in our town all connected to butcher shops there are none now, A friend of mine has a shop in a small village he has his own land and cattle and a small abattoir out the back handed down from his father all done the traditional way, there is nothing like his beef and lambs . it just takes more time
We have to find a happy medium in all this. We cannot feed the world without these huge plants, but they will be the death of us I am sure. Imagine the recalls we have had in this country, millions, probably approaching billions of pounds of recalled meats. In the US I feel we are fortunate, blessed with plenty of protiens and really the safest food supply in the world. But there is a need for local grown smaller operations, if only our government will let us conduct our business! My guess is those huge plants were in China.
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I'm not a vegetarian, but have eaten many animals that were.
A short time ago a friend of mine who deals exclusively with local, grass fed beef and is considered an expert was talking to friends of his in the Grass fed industry. They were in Chicago The conversation was like this Chicago has 5 million people living in it If all the Grass fed steers in the Country were ground up and burgers were made There would be enough Burgers to only give each person in Chicago 2.5 burgers for 1 year That is amazing to me
In the last year I have learned so much about the local movement and the health benefits to eating Pasture Raised, Grass Fed Meats. We need to get more into our local farms and do more with them to encourage this type of production
We can never get away from the big companies Just too many mouths to feed
But the recalls are getting out of hand I, like some people in the meat industry, believe that the mass production is what is leading all these recalls We have strains of E Coli we have never seen before and they are resistant to antibiotics because we have bred them that way in the factory farms
The trend in my meat department and many others is our customers want to know what farm the meat came off of. They want to know if it was Grass Fed or Grain Finished. They want to know the story behind it We have the most educated consumer we have ever had.
I want to provide them with the best experience I can, as do all of you for sure!
It's time for the Butcher and the Farmer to join forces and Feed the people again
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Joe Parajecki
Operations Manager/ Partner
Kettle Range Meat Company, Milwaukee WI
Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild
