Perfect isn't the enemy when it comes to making more conscious decisions about the food we consume. Although we aim to support through purchase only the respectful treatment of food animals and only the highest quality meat production, we unfortunately find ourselves in a world that has long since abandoned these values for convenience, profit and quantity. The process of changing our course to head back into the winds of change must be looked at in the same way that a sailboat tacks across an oncoming breeze.
A complete reversion overnight to consuming only humanely treated, appropriately fed, respectfully killed and/or self-harvested animal products proves impractical and frustrating to most folks living in our modern world. Incredibly, only a few generations have removed the majority of United States citizens from the reality of sourcing meat directly from the farmer or the natural habitat of wild game. Imagine trying to get around a modern city or suburb on horseback to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel. The current infrastructure renders this method of travel obsolete. However, the impracticality of this drastic resource-conserving measure should never completely discourage the concerned citizen from utilizing carpools, planning more efficient vehicle usage and routes, and choosing to walk up to the corner store instead of driving. These measures stop short of eliminating a person's reliance on petroleum, but certainly set a course against the common trend of an oil-dependent lifestyle.
We too can come about against the current trend and get back to a more historically normal respect of the source of our meat and the quality of food we introduce into our bodies. It doesn't take an instantaneous reversion to achieve the goal of living in tune with the primal conscience that tells us we should know the precise source of our meat and avoid the introduction of mystery ingredients, hormones and chemicals into our bodies. Unlike the products sold on mega-store shelves, there is no simple, packaged solution to the issue of responsible meat consumption. Yet, a step today and a few more next week in the right direction move conscious carnivores along a primal and more normal path.
Education also plays an important role in the evolution of a more primal carnivore, and is of course an unending process. Never accept the simple answer and always press yourself to scratch and dig for the truth behind glamorous words and simple answers. Folks are often surprised to find that the more expensive "cage-free" chickens they've been consuming may never have seen a ray of sunshine, or that the high-dollar "grass-fed" beef in their burgers came from a grain-finished cow bearing meat nutrients no different than the regular beef sold at two-thirds the price. The process can be frustrating, but always carries us toward support of the animal care standards and meat quality that we demand. As disheartening as it is to learn that the extra-money shelled out for feel-good tag lines padded the profits of deceitful, morally bankrupt food industry mega-corporations, the wise meat-eater should bank this newfound knowledge and seek authentically marketed pastured animal products.
Joel Salatin, the famous lecturing farmer who turns his sustainable, pastured-meat-producing farm operations inside out for all the world to see, has published several books on the subject of returning to closer proximity food sources and reverting from our disposable, commodity-based value of resources and living creatures. Like his father before him, Joel has devoted his life to demonstrating that this reversion can work in the modern world. He knows that modern inventions and know-how can help us more efficiently consume our resources, even though there are many more people living on the planet today than ever before. He also knows that changing the course of humanity is no easy task, particularly in the face of conventional wisdom and profit raking. There is huge money in disposable convenience--you'll always be back to purchase more! In his book Folks, This Ain't Normal, Joel offers kind advice at the end of each chapter to help readers achieve small victories against current trends. Steps like this are the necessary course we must take in order to change our meat consumption practices. And here's the kicker: once consumption has obviously shifted, production will have no choice but to respond. Producers follow the profits. That's their job. Consumers make demands. That's our job.
So start by making a small demand today. Order the wild caught salmon instead of the grilled chicken at your favorite restaurant, assuming the establishment sources chicken from factory producers. Then perhaps search for an eatery that sources its farm-raised meat from farms that allow inquisitive consumers to drop by for a tour. Begin to consider harvesting wild game for the table if you've never done so before. Permits, equipment and know-how must be obtained, but begin the process today by perusing your state's wildlife commission website. Maybe now would also be a good time to look up a recipe for the butcher-papered stack of deer meat sitting in your freezer since your uncle delivered it to you last season.
Factory-produced meat products permeate our lives to be sure, but you can bet that the companies profiting from treating animals like lifeless commodities would love nothing more than for a concerned carnivore to look around once, decide sourcing meat through responsible and humane means is far too difficult, and shove his head right back into the sand of ignorance. By taking small steps a day at a time, you'll eventually find yourself skeptically reading labels and recognizing misleading terms like "cage-free" and "free-range," shaking hands with local farmers as you stop by to pick up your side of beef the day after harvest, and making broth, stock and gravy from every part of the wild hogs you stalked, harvested and butchered with your own capable hands.
