Photo by thebittenword.com/Flickr CC
Chefs and farmers gathered recently in Chicago to exchange ideas about making the food system healthier and more environmentally sustainable. The summit was hosted by Chefs Collaborative, a Boston-based non-profit (of which Nicolette is a board member). Panels and workshops ranged from butchering whole hogs to food production's role in global warming.
Nicolette led a discussion focused on meat. Because there seems to be a growing perception that meat is inherently bad for the environment, she posed the question: Can meat be part of a sustainable food system? She led off with her own answer, an emphatic "YES!" It all depends on how and where animals are raised, and how meat is used. "Environmentally beneficial farming mimics natural ecosystems," she said. "Healthy ecosystems involve plants and animals functioning together."
Sustainable cooking means using meat that was raised using traditional methods and cutting back on portion sizes. "Eat less meat. Eat better meat."Moreover, environmental statistics about meat production are often misunderstood. Take global warming. Because the greatest portion of meat's global warming contribution comes from deforestation in Latin America, India, and Asia, domestically-produced meat is unconnected to those emissions. Additionally, livestock raised without being fed fertilized crops are unrelated to another large part of the global warming equation: fossil fuel-based agricultural chemicals.
Nicolette also suggested that some animals are more easily raised in an environmentally benign way. Goats, for instance, can be raised entirely on naturally-occurring vegetation. Even better, goats prefer to eat woody brush that other grazing animals don't like. Thus, a cattle ranch can raise goats and cattle on the same pastures, making more efficient use of the land and naturally occurring vegetation.
She also urged that sustainable cooking means using meat that was raised using traditional methods and cutting back on portion sizes. "Eat less meat. Eat better meat," she encouraged.
Tony Maws, chef and owner of the Cambridge, MA restaurant Craigie on Main, and Matt McMillin, inventor of the big bowl concept, added the chef's perspective to the discussion. Tony talked about cooking with the whole animal, which makes it possible to purchase directly from smaller farms and puts every part of the animal-from nose to tail-to good use. Tony said that he and his sous chefs spend much of their time honing their butchering skills.
As a consultant to restaurants and former partner in the restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You, Matt has spent much of his career helping restaurants make their menus, especially their meat, more environmentally friendly. Greening menus will not succeed without a commitment to "telling the story," Matt said. "Educating the front of the house is absolutely essentially," he emphasized.
The panel was rounded out by Will Harris, a fourth-generation cattle farmer from Georgia. Will Harris described his own transformation from commodity beef producer into grass-fed organic farmer. Meat from his farm costs more now, he explained, because he no longer relies on the short-cuts of hormones and antibiotic feeding.
The meat session's lively dialogue was typical of the Chefs Collaborative conference, which was infused with a palpable enthusiasm. It was a heartening to know that chefs are returning to their communities energized with new ideas and inspiration for sustainability. The Chefs Collaborative board has decided to make the summit an annual event.
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One of the best, least costly, and easiest things anyone can do to eat a more environmentally friendly diet, meat or otherwise, is to buy and consume foods produced locally. Shipping foods across country - or around the world - is far more damaging to the environment than not raising animals "organically", or raising those that aren't considered "environmentally benign" - a term I don't find much use for anyway. Flooring Options
Shipping animal products is only a small portion of the total resources used to raise chickens, cows, and pigs on a corn fed diet. Cows are remarkable in their ability to turn grass into biomass. However, they are extremely inefficient. So, when you feed them corn, they eat a lot more corn than the end result provides humans. We as much as 20 times more efficient if we eat the corn ourselves.
Our meat and dairy products, organic or not, come from corn. They do not come from old fashion grass farms like they used to. Almost everyone in the western world eats CAFO meat, and the few who try not to are forced to rely on government regulations for food labeling which are extremely lax. You end up eating CAFO meat whether you want to or not. Unless you drive to the farm yourself and buy it a half cow at a time! (Government regulations prevent the farmer from selling you a steak)
The only way you can be sure not to contribute to the massive deforestation of the rain forest is to eat ethically. Choose not to participate in increasing the massive demand for meat that's leading companies to deforest our planet.
Excellent article.
We just recently watched the documentary 'Food Inc' which was fascinating and horrifying at the same time. We left the theatre dismayed that we can never eat chicken, pork, beef - even soybeans! - ever again.
Since the intial overwhelming shock has worn off, we have found that a bit of sleuthing in our community markets and butcher shops has resulted in traditionally raised cows, pigs and chicken right in our own community. These cost a bit more, of course, but it's a trade-off instead of facing a life without chicken ever again!
Maybe one day we'll go completely vegetarian in our family - but for now we're making small, important changes. As the documentary says: "We
vote three times a day for the kind of food we want to eat."
Carolyn Thomas
http://www.ethicalnag.org
I think the key phrase in the entire article is "Eat less meat. Eat better meat," which could also apply to other animal products. Eating pastured animal products still has its problems - over grazing in many places, deforestation in others, and pound-for-pound greater emissions than industrially produced - but the key is to cut back. That's not to say we need to go whole hog (cold tofurkey?). Just as we strive for healthy moderation in gasoline (getting a fuel efficient car, taking public transportation, walking and biking more) we can do the same with animal products by eating more plant-based foods in general and using meat and whatnot in supporting roles.
Bernard Brown
The PB&J Campaign
As a producer of grass fed beef for direct to the consumer marketing, I have to wonder why grass fed beef is so expensive. If the goal is to get more people to eat healthy and to change the larger picture of cattle production, why are farmers charging so much?
Take ground beef as an example:
The average grass finished product costs approximately $6 a lb.
My ground beef costs $3 per pound.
Grass fed beef is leaner than grainfed and is high in Omega 3,CLA, and unsaturated fats.
We can't talk about sustainable anything without first talking about what a sustainable human population looks like. The solution is not to encourage universal vegetarianism, the solution is to encourage responsible management of our own population. The problem isn't eating meat, the problem is there are too many of us to feed. I wonder if we will wake up to this fact in time to avert disaster? I wonder if we'll soon be eating soylent green?