How does livestock become food?
About 8 years ago, my wife noticed a sign at the Metcalfe Farmer's Market advertising meat Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes from Arc Acres and asked about buying some of their meat.
My response: "Ok, so what?"
Her family, being a family with farming roots for two generations, had always bought meat wholesale from a farmer. It made sense for them given their bigger family size, and despite the up front costs, cheaper overall costs.
Being a suburb boy, I had a very predefined frame for meat. You go to a supermarket, you buy small-ish quantities of meat stored on white Styrofoam trays with a sterile clinical smell and you go back when you needed more. So the thought of buying meat direct from a farmer had never crossed my mind. In fact, the idea of having direct contact with a farmer was foreign. Plus there were all of these other questions circulating through my mind . . . Where would I store this meat? Is this actually cheaper than buying meat from the store? Could I actually eat all of this?
After a lot of convincing from my wife (i.e. chest freezers are cheap, it is cheaper over the long run and we were freezing a lot of meals in the lead-up to my second child's birth), I plunked down the money. And ever since then, I have been a loyal customer (the taste of the meat was amazing) but didn’t think much of the overall product that they were selling.
In 2019 while I was doing my crazy trip around the world, I came across a protest against the treatment of caged chickens in Bologna, Italy. Four people in Anonymous masks, stood back to back, silent, as they held up TV monitors continuously playing video of chickens in horrendous conditions.
Despite the trip being three years ago and filled with various lows and highs, this experience has stayed in the back of my mind and begged the question . . . How does our food . . . become food?
Well, according to my youngest son, you just chop it up. But there has to be more to it than that.
This question stayed in the back of mind for a long time. I eventually asked Arc Acres whether I could document their animals as she raised them and as they went to the butcher. Thankfully, Amber, the owner of Arc Acres, agreed and we hashed out a plan for me to visit the farm to document the pigs and cows throughout the year.
Three things to note here. First is that I recognize that I am not treading new ground; there have been countless other portrayals of animals’ journeys through our various systems. Second is that as a regenerative farm, the experience for animals at Arc Acres does not represent the norm. Finally, I will admit that this project is a bit ad-hoc. While I did aim to document everything (including the abattoir), there are legal considerations that prevent me from documenting the entire journey. This project is also my first project taking place over a long period of time. As such, some parts of the project will be updated irregularly with various things out of order.
But if that doesn't deter you, then come along as I dive into the journey of the meat that we consume, from birth to butcher.
留言