The way we eat seems to be in constant flux: eat no meat, eat lots of meat, everyone has their opinion. But when a family that actually raises sheep for meat suggests we change our meat consumption, that's pretty interesting. Such was the case at Magnolia Farm where Elissa raises her sheep with such love and attention that each death is a challenge. And the price of this coddled meat makes it a treat for all but a few. We filmed this short video on our way across Oregon. Usually episodes are comprised of a couple days of filming, this was just an hour. But the beautiful setting and inspired words made this into a special episode. Watch for a unique farm as well as a recipe for lamb chops.
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And I hate to have to be the one to inform you, but virtually all commercially grown plant foods are either grown with animal inputs (organic agriculture) or toxic and completely unsustainable chemical inputs, largely derived from petrochemicals (industrial ag). It is not some magical coincidence that animals are essential to every major form of sustainable agriculture!
It's great that you visited a farm over the weekend and got to see how cute the goats were. Now maybe you can take the time to actually learn something about sustainable agriculture instead of spouting off misinformed, polyannish nonsense about how unnecessary you think animal agriculture is and how much more you think you know than sustainable farming than the farmers because you visited one on the weekend.
http://www.grist.org/sustainable-farming/2011-08-15-grass-is-good-natural-meats-benefit-the-economy-and-family-farms
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/swastika-kids-meal_n_924925.html#s327679&title=Disemboweled_Mouse_In
If you want to respect the life of humanely, sustainably raised animals, the last thing in the world that you should be doing is cutting back out of misguided guilt. The single most powerful thing that you can do to help more animals to be raised humanely and sustainably is to support humane and sustainable farms. The stronger the market is for humane, sustainably raised meat, the more meat will be raised that way. There is no shame in eating sustainably raised meat.
Conversely, cutting back on perfectly healthy, humanely, sustainably raised meat out of some sort of misplaced guilt actually takes demand away from that market, which weakens it, leaving more animals to be factory farmed. Eating meat with guilt rather than enjoyment and appreciation is not respecting the animals. You only hurt sustainable farms. Abstaining from sustainably produced animal foods has a negative impact on sustainable farming, but it has absolutely no effect whatsoever on factory farms. That is a fact.
As for blaming meat for diabetes, that is more than a bit absurd. Meat has virtually no effect on blood sugar. Meat consumption has been somewhat static for decades, and diabetes has been skyrocketing! That is because the consumption of simple carbohydrates from plant foods has greatly increased.
The country with the most vegetarians in the world, India, also happens to be both the heart disease and diabetes capital of the world, so the notion that if we all just became vegetarians our health problems would vanish is utter nonsense.
Hey Laura...look at this link and see how many creatures live in the soil...what do you think happens to all these little guys when land is cleared and plowed to grow crops?
When ruminants are raised on pasture, all these soil critters are safe! When land is plowed, they're dead meat.
In fact, more than a million creatures can live on a single acre of perennial grassland. When that acre is plowed for rows of the shallow-rooted annuals of plant ag, the habitat for all of those creatures is obliterated, with many of them dying horrific deaths in the process; being crushed, plowed under, and ripped apart at the seams, and the trillions of microorganisms in the soil are annihilated by oxidization. Conversely, if that same acre was used to sustainably pasture a ruminant, soil vitality and biodiversity can actually increase, resulting in a significant net gain of life!
You pay plant farmers to obliterate the habitat of a million+ creatures per acre for you, so get off your high horse.
Yes, absolutely, the life of a farm animal is to be profoundly respected and taken seriously. And the lives of all of the creatures whose habitat is obliterated by plant agriculture are to be taken every bit as seriously, so turning it into another "meat bad, vegetables good" diatribe is a severely misguided mistake.
There are several posters here who raise sheep, who don't think that reducing the percentage of sustainably raised meat in one's diet is more healthy or environmentally responsible. So why is Daniel always trying to put a guilty meat spin on the issue? Maybe he should interview some of the people who raise there own sheep who post here. The vast majority of sustainable farmers that I know feel that you should eat a balanced, healthy diet of meat and vegetables, and many of them would be financially devastated if their customers started treating meat as a condiment or an occasional indulgence.
I have repeatedly defied those pushing the notion that "eating less sustainable meat helps for less animals to be industrially raised" to provide a cogent argument to back up that absurd claim, and even the most visible public figures pushing that argument have failed miserably. That's because there is no cogent argument for it! Eating less sustainably raised meat most certainly does not help to keep animals from being raised on factory farms. To the contrary, eating more sustainably raised meat has a huge effect on the market, and is the single most powerful effect that anyone can have.
Please stop demonizing meat. Respect the lives affected by the production of all of your food, animal and vegetable, and stop feeding the misguided polemics that are part of the problem, not the solution.
We can talk about whether there are, or aren't, any benefits to eating less meat - but let's at least not resort to exaggerations. The average meat consumption in the U.S. has barely budged over the last several decades.
What has increased dramatically is the consumption of refined carbohydrates, sweeteners (HFCS consumption is up 4000%), and added oils, primarily of vegetable origin.
1. "Livestock's Long Shadow" has been thoroughly debunked. Even one of the authors has admitted that the report contained some serious flaws.
2. The number of ruminents on the planet have remained the same during the last 1,000 years, if not longer. Only the type of ruminents have changed (i.e., more cattle, fewer bison).
3. Rice paddies produce more methane than all livestock combined. And unlike ruminents, rice paddies are a new source of methane.
4. Most of the land on this planet can only be used to raise livestock. There isn't much in the way of arable land on Planet Earth. Only 18% to 25% (depending on the source) of the land can support large-scale crop production. And most of that arable land can't produce crops all year long because of climate.
5. People don't go hungry because there is a lack of food. People are hungry because they don't have money to buy food. There is more than enough food for every person on Planet Earth.
If you are personally put off by the idea of eating meat, that's certainly your own business. But there's no need to project your likes and dislikes onto other people.
We should eat less meat because farmers say we should.
Why should a farmers suggestion about dietary habits be taken more seriously than say, a doctor? Because farmers raise animals for food? Why does growing food automatically make someone an authority on what to eat? If this were a farmer saying "eat more meat", then everyone would just say "they only say that because they have a financial stake in your meat-eating habits".
On another note, love The Perennial Plate!
"...which as someone who is involved in local food productionÂ, makes her more than qualified to offer a critical analysis of the system."
The logical fallacy is not that a farmer is qualified, but that a farmer is more qualified than anyone else.
You should also take note that I never said a farmer is not qualified.