What a Local Alternative Is Really Like.

[GeneralCarlosQ17]

What a Local Alternative Is Really Like.

Blood smell filled the shop on a recent winter afternoon. It was unmistakable, metallic and musky. A family friend, Mike, was elbow deep in meat when my husband, Glenn, and I arrived to process a steer from our farm.

I learned that this meant we were working together to make this animal into food for our families. We were doing it ourselves because the few local meat processors have been completely booked since the covid crisis began and remain booked for the next two to three years.

I had been hearing this same story from farmers all over the country.

#organic #notoxins #health #openrange #freerange

https://brownstone.org/articles/what-a-local-alternative-is-really-like/

[roamer_1]

Welcome to rural America, and my everyday life.

Regenerative farming is something I happily endorse - A new old thing, hearkening back to a time before chemicals governed farming and ranching...

But, here I am, in the middle of cattle country, and I have never seen a feed lot that raises cattle - That part of this article is an exaggeration, at least around here... Cattle here grow up on the range, or smaller cattle ranches, and are sold into the system through auctions... Feedlots act as a buffer or regulator, balancing supply and demand, and 'finish' the cows on grain to plump em up and create marbled fatty meat... It is rare in my experience that cows spend more than 3 months finishing in a feed lot, and often way less that that.

Even on small farms, it is not uncommon to finish cows and pigs on grain, using onsite paddocks to do the same thing feedlots do.

But the description of small-farm rural America is true. As is the description of family and friends getting together to butcher, be it cows, chickens, venison, elk... all of which I have participated in doing many times. This is a pleasant, even fun time, as odd as that might be to city folks.