The loss of consumer contact with a local butcher whom they know and trust is one of the most damaging aspects of the rise of factory farms. The “butchers” of today are really not even butchers – they are simply specialty grocery workers who receive prepackaged and precut portions of meat off a delivery truck and arrange them in a desirable manner in the meat cooler section of the store.
Most consumers have never even met a old fashioned local butcher, someone responsible for the respectful slaughter and traditional meat processing of locally raised livestock. USDA approved slaughterhouses have put an end to all that with the processing of animals located as far away from the consumer as possible so that the horrific practices of factory farming of animals can be kept hidden.
Farmstead Meatsmith aims to change all that.
A personal, small scale livestock processor in the Seattle area, Farmstead Meatsmith is seeking to produce a series of free, instructional videos on the lost art of home meat provenance and traditional butchery.
Livestock harvesting is clearly a missing link in the chain of sustainable agriculture.
Farmstead Meatsmith, owned and operated by the young and passionate Lauren and Brandon Sheard, is motivated by the empowerment this kind of old-world knowledge promises to deliver to burgeoning agrarian communities and traditional family kitchens alike.
Lauren and Brandon’s goal is to lay one more step on the path towards a new food culture by reviving homestead meat provenance, but they need your help to help spread this campaign to a vast audience through social media and email.
They are also seeking donations, no matter how small, to fund this project. They are currently 1/3 of the way to their goal of $10,000 to fund the webisode production with 37 days to go in the campaign.
Their project is close to my heart as my own grandfather was a butcher and I have often been saddened that the lifelong career of which he was so proud has become nearly extinct in recent decades.
The Weekly Comment Spotlight 7/1/2011
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