This search began with receiving an email through the ncchoicesnews list serve (which you can sign up for: here) about the Piedmont Culinary Guild's Food and Beverage Symposium, March 13th, 2016 in Charlotte, NC.
I had never heard about the Piedmont Culinary Guild before, but I have found the event that they are hosting particularly interesting, regarding ethical meats. To look at their event website, click here.
Their featured lecturer will be Meredith Leigh, who wrote The Ethical MeatHandbook: A Complete Guide to Home Butchery, Charcuterie, and Cooking for the Conscious Omnivore. So I proceeded to download the preview of her book on my kindle to continue in my research, which I have read and very much enjoyed! I look forward to purchasing the book in the near future.
Specific Cuts of Meat
Then, in one of my classes at NC State, we learned the basics of how they determine the cuts of meat that consumers buy in the store. This is a standard system, for example if you order a certain cut of steak, it will come from a particular part of the animal. This further sparked my interest in wanting to learn how this is done.
Additionally, I was told that there are kosher meat markets in Raleigh, NC, and because I would like to invest in kosher meat, I must check into this. For literature on kosher slaughter, check out this article titled "Religious slaughter and animal welfare: a discussion for meat scientists", by Temple Grandin and Joe M. Regenstein, here.
Raising My Own
So all of the previous info got me thinking...I could raise my own market sheep to be processed in a kosher fashion at a slaughter house. The I could further process the meat by dividing the carcass into particular cuts to add to our freezer. Thus we could eat the kosher meat that I had raised!
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| Cabarrus County Fair |
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| NC State Fair |
I must admit that if I do implement this plan, it will take real emotional strength. I have raised market lambs in previous years, but have sold them after the county fair show season.
My main point in all of this is:
I feel as though eating the meat of an animal I have raised would better honor the system.
A system of carnivorous eating that I would learn to better appreciate.
An appreciation for the life of the animal, rather than the blind consumption of meat that most Americans experience today. #consciouscarnivore
The purpose of raising my own livestock would be to counteract the saying:
"I just thought that chicken came from the freezer isle of the grocery store".
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks!
