02261 Meats

Giant livestock farms, which can house hundreds of thousands of pigs, chickens, or cows, produce vast amounts of waste. In fact, in the United States, these “factory farms” generate more than 130 times the amount of waste that people do. — Natural Resources Defense Council

It takes the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to produce a pound of grain-fed beef in the United States. Some of the energy was used in the feedlot, or in transportation and cold storage, but most of it went to fertilizing the feed grain used to grow the modern steer or cow…. To provide the yearly average beef consumption of an American family of four requires over 260 gallons of fossil fuel. — Meat Equals War, web-site of Earth Save, Humboldt, California

The goal of kitchen permaculture is to support a food system that is just, humane, and more sustainable, where the permaculture ethics of caring for people, caring for the planet, and caring for the future are primary values.

When it comes to meat and poultry, that calls for an end to the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation system and the development of more integrated, holistic, humane, and sustainable systems of animal husbandry. For a good example of how this works in practice, see Polyface Farm and the work of Joel Salatin http://www.polyfacefarms.com/.

If we want a more sustainable, just, and humane system of agriculture, there must be a market for the products of more sustainable, just, and humane farms. That means people must be willing to pay the price.

Meats from sustainable and humane farming operations always cost more than the supermarket meats. This is, however, a case of getting what you pay for.

Unjust, inhumane, and unsustainable systems of agriculture produce the meats found at your local supermarket’s meat counter. One study found DNA from more than 100 different animals in a five pound chunk of supermarket hamburger. Every year we hear of recalls of hamburger due to food safety issues. With the consolidation of the wholesale meat industries, problems in one area may have national consequences.

Many supermarkets adulterate their beef with “lean finely textured beef,” also known as “pink slime.” Producers manufacture this food item by mechanically separating tiny bits of beef from beef trimmings and gristle. They disinfect the product with ammonia. As much as 15% of ground beef in a supermarket may be pink slime and the retailer does not have to declare the product on the ingredient list. Indeed, they sell meat plus pink slime simply as “hamburger” or “ground beef.” Originally this was used only for pet foods but it was approved for human consumption with 2001. In early 2012, researchers estimated that about 70% of ground beef sold in supermarket contained pink slime. Following widespread news reports, some grocers discontinued adulterating their ground beef with pink slime, but others continue to use the additive.

You get what you pay for and grocers sell what you are willing to pay for. Farmers produce what you want to buy. Every time you buy supermarket meats you send a message — “I want more injustice, more ecological devastation, and more unsustainable agriculture and I will pay you for what I want.” The only way to send a different message is to spend your money differently.

There are two issues for most of us: price and access. While the situation is much better than it used to be for access to local sustainably produced meats, it is not as good everywhere as should be the case. You will likely have to look. Start at your local farmers’ markets and go from there. Other possible places to find farmers selling meats directly to the public include:

  • county and state fairs,
  • local meat processing businesses (look for signs offering custom processing for deer and other wild meats).
  • Local Slow Food conviviums
  • Your nearest Sierra Club chapter
  • Food cooperatives
  • County extension offices
  • Word of mouth — ask around, even in cities, people may have connections with folks in rural areas who sell meats directly to the public.

There are also online national directory listings which may have farms listed for your area:

The Price Issue

Any way you look at it, humanely raised meats will cost more. The large corporations providing supermarket meats are able to externalize many of their costs. The farmers and ranchers selling into local markets can't do this. So the price people pay for local meats is a more just price that doesn't involve evading some of the important costs involved with producing the product.

There are two ways to finesse this problem:

Eat less meat. If you are more traditional, have a Meatless Friday. If you are more modern, go for a Meatless Monday — http://www.meatlessmonday.com/ .

Eat less expensive cuts of meat. We mostly eat ground meats (sausage, ground beef, ground pork), bacon, and locally-made sandwich meats. When using ground meats, I plan to feed four people most days of the week with one pound of meat per meal (about two ounces per person.) I make 8 patties per pound by dividing the meat into 8 portions. I put each ball of hamburger in the middle of a flat surface and then I press a sauce down on top of it so the bottom of the saucer flattens the meat. I then scoop the patty up with a spatula and plop it goes into the cast iron skillet.

Another possibility with ground meats is to extend them by adding in some bread crumbs or rolled oats. You can increase the volume by about 1/3 with this method without anyone really noticing. Add an egg when you do this.

Less frequently we have ham, roasts, brisket, or tenderized round steaks.

By “less frequently” I mean once a week we have something other than a ground meat in our meal. One week we might have ham, the next week a pork or beef roast, the third week brisket, and the fourth week tenderized round steaks. We also buy soup bones, which are large bones with chunks of meat attached, which are very inexpensive even when bought directly from farmers. We make stock for soup, sauces, and gravies, and use the meat in casseroles and we make a sandwich spread from them.

How to buy meat directly from a farmer.

If you can’t find a farmer, food cooperative, or other retail store that sells packages of grass fed meat from local farms, you can buy meat “by the steer” from a farmer. A thousand pound steer will yield 350 to 400 pounds of meat, which is a year's worth of beef for the average American family (average annual consumption per person is about 67 pounds). A whole pig will yield you about 150 pounds of meat.

Most families can't buy a whole year's worth of beef at once. They would have a double problem of money and storage. I suggest recruiting some friends or family and split a beef up to 8 ways. Most butchers will be familiar with this kind of deal and will cut the meat and pack it according to your specifications. You can specify how you want the beef cut (thickness of steaks and roasts, size of frozen packages, how much roasts compared to how much ground beef, etc.) You can also have the bones packaged for soup stock.

Some of the butchers sell beef by the half, quarter, or eighth beef, so you may be able to get less than a whole beef directly from the butcher, or the producer may have other customers who want to split one with you.

There are different methods of pricing beef (or pork).

Sometimes the price is quoted “live weight” — this is the weight of the live animal. The second type of price is “hanging weight” — this is the weight after the animal has been butchered, skinned, and the internal organs removed. It is about 2/3rds of the weight of the live animal. The third type of price is “dressed weight” — this is the weight of the actual “meat in your freezer”. It is about one third to 40% of the weight of the live animal.

Besides the purchase of the animal, you will pay processing charges to the butcher. This might be around forty to fifty cents per pound. Be sure to inquire whether that is based on the live, hanging, or dressed weight. Curing meats carries an additional charge per pound for the cured meats (hams, bacon, sausage, etc.) It usually pays to shop around when it comes to processing charges.

After you buy it, the producer takes the animal to the custom butcher, and then later you pick up the meat from the butcher, frozen and wrapped in good quality butcher paper or a heat sealed plastic film.

How do you find a custom butcher? Look in the classified ad section, in the Yellow Pages under "Butchers" or "Custom Butchers", "Wild Game Processing". Watch for roadside signs, especially during hunting season. Ask around. A good custom butcher can help you develop your family's food security.

Seitan

Here’s how to make a pretty tasty meat substitute. It’s called “Seitan.”

Seitan is a Japanese word for what we might call “gluten meat”. You start with flour. I recommend using organic whole wheat flour.

Mix the flour with water to the consistency of bread dough.

Soak in a bowl of water for about one hour.

Wash it under running water so that the bran and the starch wash out, leaving behind only the wheat gluten. To do this, you need a bamboo steamer, which is a round circle with screen, and a colander. I put a pot in the sink (so I didn’t have to bend over), the bamboo steamer on top of the pot, and a colander on top of that. I put the dough in the colander and start the water running.

Hold the lump of dough under the water, and break it into ever smaller lumps, and the bran and starch wash away. The bran collects on the bamboo steamer screen, and the while milky-looking starch water collects in the pot. After about ten minutes, the dough seems to be on the verge of disintegrating completely, but then it begins to stick together. When no more bran and starch is washing out and the lump of raw seitan holds together nicely, form it into loaves. Steam it for about 45 minutes.

Prepare in any way that you like to eat seitan. You could cut it into to cutlets and fry with onions, garlic, and peppers. You could cut it into cubes and add to tomato sauce and serve it over spaghetti. You could smother it with a vegetarian gravy.