SUDDEATH: My beef with meatIf it were available on-line, I'd direct you to a column written for the old Sunday magazine of the Courier-Journal by the legendary John Ed Pearce, in which the writer introduced readers to the concept of Bowser Burgoo. If anyone finds this, please let me know.
When my grandmother decided she felt like chicken for dinner, she didn’t swing by the neighborhood supermarket and nab a few pounds of poultry.
Until then, I have only one tiny beef of my own about the meat-free column. Referring to what he sees as hypocritical public attitudes toward cruelty to animals, Daniel uses a recently opened Louisville gastropub, The Blind Pig in Butchertown, as an example:
I wonder how well received the restaurant would have been if it were perhaps named The Put Down Pound Puppy?If one feels that it's always wrong to kill an animal for human food, my point is of far lesser significance. However, I'll note that while the gastropub in question specializes in meat and riffs off of its location, it serves (to my knowledge) "locavore" meat, coming from small producers in the region more likely to treat their livestock in a fashion more in keeping with Daniel's overall theme of cruelty-free management.
Overall, The Blind Pig is a fine establishment. I believe that fast-food chains are a far better target for oppribrium in this sense.
7 comments:
Between the Blind Pig and other locavore establishments, farmers markets, regional Community Supported Agriculture groups, and other small, independent producers, it's actually fairly easy to avoid much of the corporate farming model and associated abuses, which include the abuse of land, energy, and tax dollars in addition to animals.
It's an important topic, especially to a region like ours with a strong and ongoing agricultural base. Good on Daniel for taking it up. I'd like to see more.
Thanks for the repost. To your point Roger, the dig was made purely based on the name. I've been there several times and I guess with the good service, good atmosphere and solid drink selection, the name The Blind Pig struck me as a little...redneckish.
Jeff, you're right. Plus factory farming is considered by many one of the leading causes of global warming. The Omnivore's Dilemma and Eating Animals are two good books on the issue.
The Slow Money Alliance
is an interesting group taking on the challenges of sustainable food.
Their goal? A million Americans investing 1% of their assets in local food systems...within a decade.
http://www.slowmoneyalliance.org/
Daniel, I'd also recommend to you the movie and companion book "Food, Inc" if you haven't already seen/read either. A documentary about a lot of what you talked about in your column. Very well, said, by the way!
Enjoyed your editorial, Daniel. Maybe the boss man could let you write about a few "slow food" farmers in the region. Not too difficult to find people in Southern Indiana who raise for-sale chickens and cows the old fashioned way.
Great article Daniel
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