Saturday, May 31, 2008

You say CAFO, I say IFAP...

The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Union of Concerned Scientists have published reports that say that our current animal husbandry system is inhumane, inefficient, and disgusting.

Yeah. We already knew that, but it's nice to have confirmation from people with recognizable names!

Yesterday I went to the Rutgers Farmers' Market (I'm not really sure what to do with that apostrophe, by the way; anyone have a suggestion? If multiple farmers are selling things, it goes at the end like that, right?) for the first time. The produce selection was limited, but one item was in abundance: meat. There were bison steaks and burgers, chickens -- whole, deboned, sausaged -- quail, maybe even lamb, I don't remember exactly. Locally and humanely raised, the whole lot of it. I wish it were as simple as "stop eating meat" but if that's not really the way you want to go, check out your local farmers' markets; you might be surprised at the variety of non-vegetable foods available to you. (I'll get some links to the NJ ones up soon.)

2 comments:

Joshua Tauberer said...

My reaction to the Times editorial was the same: "Thanks for catching up to 2006."

I've found that the weekly farmers' (<---) market near me (and even nearer after I move!) is so-so on meats. Ground beef goes fast, and the Chicken lady (as I call her) isn't always there. There are a few cuts of beef available, and I don't think I've ever seen lamb there. So I guess that's good for me since it makes me eat less meat than I otherwise would.

And I'm psyched- the market is today and I'm going right now!

Unknown said...

Changing the habits of large groups is like moving a glacier, but I think many people are changing their buying/eating habits.

Btw, you have the apostrophe in the right place; it's more than one farmer and it is their market, ergo "farmers' market".

mama, a.k.a. the grammar mama