True Life: Something Died for your Dinner

Before I begin on the writings I first want to say a very huge CONGRATULATIONS to Allison Martini and her new-fiance Evan!!!!!

Also, in case I don't write before Monday, good luck to all the Cohort 1s heading out for fieldwork . Have a blast- you will do great! The rest of us are right behind you. :0)

Getting back to the farm, the past couple days have held some serious excitement.
Waiting for sorting (Kate Fallon photo)

Shannon Dills caught Dave, baby Sierra and myself playing in the grass before sorting

Thursday, we prepared for the first spring farmer's market of the season by making mini-meatballs for samples and preparing cuts of meat for the jerky making process (yes, make no mistake, grassfed beef jerky.) This meant some of the interns were able to work the meat slicer. Scary and exhilarating, I'm glad I was able to learn to use this powerful machine.

Thursday afternoon held some low-key changes to the typical schedule; we were able to watch farm-managers Michael and Sara sort the herd of cattle. First Michael led them into the pen, using a call to which they are trained to respond. Then, he methodically released the cattle that were too small for this first round of harvest (read: slaughter). This morning, Friday, Michael and 3 interns (my turn is next time) drove the cattle to the processing facility (read: slaughter house). It was here, they were able to watch the entire process from death to evisceration. I am excited for my turn and can go into more details when I actually go myself. What is notable is that this small processing plant only does about 10 cows a day. 10 Cows. This is a big deal, let's talk about it:

Conversely, large processing facilities slaughter thousands of cows a day, even up to 300, 400 cattle an HOUR. Think about that, more cows = greater potential for the spread of diseases and more stress and pressure on the workers to move quickly and "efficiently". These men and women are handling sharp knives and moving fast, it is no wonder manure ends up in your meat. It is also in these kind of environments that ground beef is made, again, from THOUSANDS of cows. Just to really connect the dots, this is how we end up with the endless public health concerns regarding E. coli. Massive beef recalls are necessary (and generally not timely or effective) because when dealing with this extraordinary volume, who can really say where the contamination came from?

Cows that are going are all rounded up (Kate Fallon photo)

Anyway, I found a good blog post regarding small scale operations and the troubles they face when trying to compete with USDA legislation written with large scale operations in mind.

http://www.chewswise.com/chews/2010/05/notes-from-a-slaughterhouse-proposed-usda-rules-could-crimp-local-meat.html



On a lighter note, I pulled this awesome looking radish yesterday.
(Thanks to farm intern Julie and her NEW camera for these great pictures.)


Post carrot thinning, gotta make room for the big guys!!

<3 and thoughts,
Alisha