It is hard to think of cattle as a pollution risk out here - 20 cows per square mile. I don’t know many who are opposed to methane reduction, just kind of hard to think it is anything more than a hoax … but if Purina would stick it in the range cubes, I would be happy to feed it.
Keep in mind: mass production is about feeding the masses. Grain finished beef has higher yields. Cattle are being fed longer/to higher weights to account for/offset low cattle inventories. I’ve tried grass feeding beef and it just doesn’t produce as much … it’s about yield as well as taste.
Feedlots may not be pretty but I don’t think of them as cruel. The “chained together” photograph appears to me to be what’s called “bunker broke”.
Thank you for taking the time to provide another perspective. It's a highly complex issue so the more information people have to form their opinions the better.
Reading this, I'm rather glad I live where I do! Fish is wild-caught, either trawled or (if you're lucky), line-caught; the butchers can tell you which farm your bit of meat came from, and what they were fed; I grow a little, due to lack of space, but at the top of the hill, there is a farm where I can buy vegetables, fruit in season, and eggs from 'scartin'-aboot' hens. Happy New Year, and may 2025 be good to you and yours.
How lucky you sre! How sad it is that the explosion in population means that fewer and fewer people get access to locally or naturally grown and raised food but have to feed themselves off fertilized or factory-farmed veg, fish and meat that has so much less nutritional value than did that of our grandparents. And that more and more of the population struggle to eat enough at all. I hope in 2025 and beyond we find a healthy affordable way to feed the world. Thank you for your good wishes - and the best to you, too.
The recipe is a good winter cuddle - and any cheese, like Taleggio or Fontina, would work just as well. Nancy Harmon Jenkins makes a good point in her Comment above about it not being easy to source every kind of cheese.
So much local advice depends simply on where you are in the world. Where I live, it has been well below freezing for a week and there are no fresh vegetables--stored local potatoes, onions, cabbages, maybe dried mushrooms, but that's about it. As for the crottin or rocamadour, they come from a far distance, probably transported by carbon-risk air. It isn't easy being green, even with the very best of intentions.
You're so right. When I lived in Moscow, there were no salads or tomatoes from the beginning of October to the beginning of April at the earliest. Balconies were used as freezers. When stores of onions ran out around the end of January, cooking really became a struggle. Potatoes began to rot. Eggs dried up, milk became scarce. Eating reasonably depended on how much effort had been put into canning vegetables during the summer.
This was terrific, Julia! You’re speaking my language — and I also appreciate your recognition of the complexities in what I call “radical eating.” You can’t just shut your eyes and open your mouth — you need to eat with the realization that your food comes from somewhere and has effects up and down the consumption chain. Here’s to a year of eating with your eyes wide open!
Also — we need a recipe for something “chocolate-gin-fried” immediately, because that sounds wildly intriguing!
Thank you so much. You'd suppose doing the right thing food-wise would be clear. But it seems to get more and more complex. Diving into plant-based meat replacements is even more complicated - though I hope to unearth enough about that to write on it at some point. Almond milk as a dairy milk substitute? The trees require polluting by bees trucked across the US, a high percentage of which don't survive the journey. Plus the trees need inordinate amounts of precious water...No, it's not easy doing The Right Thing.
It is hard to think of cattle as a pollution risk out here - 20 cows per square mile. I don’t know many who are opposed to methane reduction, just kind of hard to think it is anything more than a hoax … but if Purina would stick it in the range cubes, I would be happy to feed it.
Keep in mind: mass production is about feeding the masses. Grain finished beef has higher yields. Cattle are being fed longer/to higher weights to account for/offset low cattle inventories. I’ve tried grass feeding beef and it just doesn’t produce as much … it’s about yield as well as taste.
Feedlots may not be pretty but I don’t think of them as cruel. The “chained together” photograph appears to me to be what’s called “bunker broke”.
Thank you for taking the time to provide another perspective. It's a highly complex issue so the more information people have to form their opinions the better.
Reading this, I'm rather glad I live where I do! Fish is wild-caught, either trawled or (if you're lucky), line-caught; the butchers can tell you which farm your bit of meat came from, and what they were fed; I grow a little, due to lack of space, but at the top of the hill, there is a farm where I can buy vegetables, fruit in season, and eggs from 'scartin'-aboot' hens. Happy New Year, and may 2025 be good to you and yours.
How lucky you sre! How sad it is that the explosion in population means that fewer and fewer people get access to locally or naturally grown and raised food but have to feed themselves off fertilized or factory-farmed veg, fish and meat that has so much less nutritional value than did that of our grandparents. And that more and more of the population struggle to eat enough at all. I hope in 2025 and beyond we find a healthy affordable way to feed the world. Thank you for your good wishes - and the best to you, too.
I recently made this recipe. It’s delicious.
That's so good to hear!!
Thanks for another great article. Kermit (and you) got it right!
I'm tickled pink you should say so. (But striving for Green...)
I couldn’t agree more! Delicious looking recipe.
The recipe is a good winter cuddle - and any cheese, like Taleggio or Fontina, would work just as well. Nancy Harmon Jenkins makes a good point in her Comment above about it not being easy to source every kind of cheese.
So much local advice depends simply on where you are in the world. Where I live, it has been well below freezing for a week and there are no fresh vegetables--stored local potatoes, onions, cabbages, maybe dried mushrooms, but that's about it. As for the crottin or rocamadour, they come from a far distance, probably transported by carbon-risk air. It isn't easy being green, even with the very best of intentions.
You're so right. When I lived in Moscow, there were no salads or tomatoes from the beginning of October to the beginning of April at the earliest. Balconies were used as freezers. When stores of onions ran out around the end of January, cooking really became a struggle. Potatoes began to rot. Eggs dried up, milk became scarce. Eating reasonably depended on how much effort had been put into canning vegetables during the summer.
This was terrific, Julia! You’re speaking my language — and I also appreciate your recognition of the complexities in what I call “radical eating.” You can’t just shut your eyes and open your mouth — you need to eat with the realization that your food comes from somewhere and has effects up and down the consumption chain. Here’s to a year of eating with your eyes wide open!
Also — we need a recipe for something “chocolate-gin-fried” immediately, because that sounds wildly intriguing!
Thank you so much. You'd suppose doing the right thing food-wise would be clear. But it seems to get more and more complex. Diving into plant-based meat replacements is even more complicated - though I hope to unearth enough about that to write on it at some point. Almond milk as a dairy milk substitute? The trees require polluting by bees trucked across the US, a high percentage of which don't survive the journey. Plus the trees need inordinate amounts of precious water...No, it's not easy doing The Right Thing.
I need to introduce you to my friend Matt who runs North Bridger Bison… I imagine you two would have much to talk about!
Also, I shall work on a chocolate-gin-fried food recipe...Is a chocolate Martini with a dish of fried nuts cheating?