What is up with this?  No activity here for two months and now all of a sudden three posts in two days?  What gives? 

I don’t know what to tell you…I just felt motivated.  Don’t get used to it though.

Cows & Oaks by friend Mitchell Franz. Used by Permission.

Humane Slaughter-This is the last step that no one wants to know or talk about.  They’re fine with the picture of pastoral harmony in their heads of happy cows on green grass and then seeing the faceless cuts of meat, wrapped up neatly in the supermarket.  A lot happens between that scenic field and the butcher’s case.  The slaughter part of the process is something that cannot be ignored.  When it does get ignored (as it is currently in our society), people get away with unnerving atrocities.  Humanely slaughtering animals should be a huge priority that needs to rightfully capture our attention.  It doesn’t matter how good the farmer or rancher is or how “humanely” he treated his animals when they were with him, it can all be messed up in an instant at the slaughterhouse if the process is handled poorly. 

The typical cow, pig, or sheep that has been on pasture for its whole life will immediately show signs of stress when their schedule gets altered (ie. loading them on a trailer, driving to the slaughterhouse, and being dropped into a new and foreign environment).  When the animals are stressed, their body releases hormones that can absolutely wreck their meat.  It becomes important for farmers to find a smaller slaughterhouse at which to take their animals.  At a smaller facility it is easier to develop relationships with the people that are going to be handling the animals during the last stage of their life.  Smaller facilities are also more apt to do things the right way or according to your own detailed instructions. The closest slaughterhouse to my hometown, is a small butcher shop that processes to one’s specifications (as long as those specifications fall within the broad set of rules outlined by the USDA).  Once the slaughter and evisceration process is complete, it’s also important to hang the carcass in order to let it age or cure (the curing process enables the lactic acid to dissipate and tenderize the meat).

The process is different for cattle, sheep and pigs.  Here is a link for the not-so-faint-of-heart, with pictures and descriptions of the humane  slaughter process of cattle.  The most commonly accepted way to slaughter pigs for example, is to stun them from behind without them knowing, rendering.  When done correctly, the pigs are reported to not feel a thing.  Then they’re hung and bled out.  No stress, no pain, tasty meat.

In conclusion I want to reiterate the importance of not taking everything for face value.  What better environment to learn about the food we put in our bodies than at the farmer’s market, with the people that actually grow it.  Consider it for a moment.  These farmers and ranchers are selling at a venue in the middle of inner-city Houston.  Many of them got up very, very early to get the morning farm chores out of the way, then pack a few coolers full of meat, and drive an hour or more to set up at the farmer’s market by 8:00am.  Then they sit in the ridiculous heat of a Houston summer, selling you their product.  To put themselves through that week after week, they obviously have some passion about what they do. Every farmer I have ever gotten into a conversation with at the market is always more than happy to tell me what type of beef I’m buying, how old it was at slaughter, what it was finished on, etc.  More times than not, they’re just delighted to know that you care and appreciate them and what they do.  I cannot think of any better system.  That, in the end is what gives me peace of mind.

*See USDA Regulations on acceptable uses of synthetic substance for cattle bound for the food chain.  CFR 205.603. Look at this, I’m even sweet enough to give you a link to see for yourselves.  In full disclosure there are certain vaccines that can be given to beeves, but they cannot be used in cattle that are bound slaughter, only dairy productions.