Is A Lack Of Slaughterhouses Killing The Locavore Movement?
source: http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/are-overbooked-slaughterhouses-killing-the-loca...
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- bethbot
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You are what you eat.
People have used this adage for decades, but it's only been recently that its wisdom has been taken to heart, inspiring a reconnection with the land that produces their food, and the people that have dedicated their lives to growing and raising it.
However, attempting to assemble a diet comprised entirely of locally raised foods can be quite challenging, both for would-be locavores and independent farmers. Small-scale meat producers especially are becoming frustrated with an agricultural structure that is ill-equipped to process their wares.
Despite the growing number of locavores across the nation, the imbalance between local meat producers and the number of facilities in which they can safely process their animals is making it hard to make local foods available to a larger audience.
As commercial giants like ConAgra and Tyson continue to tighten their grip on an already consolidated meat production industry, the number of slaughterhouses nationwide declined to 809 in 2008 from 1,211 in 1992. At the same time increased interest in the local food movement has caused the number of small farmers to increase by 108,000 in the past five years.
Although it's easy for a farmer to say that he's going to raise chickens or hogs for consumption by his own family, the instant that farmer attempts to sell that meat to customers, he is forced to comply with a bevy of food safety regulations- some of which are far too expensive and rigorous for a small-scale farmer to comply with.
Keep Reading: http://ow.ly/1uHUV
People have used this adage for decades, but it's only been recently that its wisdom has been taken to heart, inspiring a reconnection with the land that produces their food, and the people that have dedicated their lives to growing and raising it.
However, attempting to assemble a diet comprised entirely of locally raised foods can be quite challenging, both for would-be locavores and independent farmers. Small-scale meat producers especially are becoming frustrated with an agricultural structure that is ill-equipped to process their wares.
Despite the growing number of locavores across the nation, the imbalance between local meat producers and the number of facilities in which they can safely process their animals is making it hard to make local foods available to a larger audience.
As commercial giants like ConAgra and Tyson continue to tighten their grip on an already consolidated meat production industry, the number of slaughterhouses nationwide declined to 809 in 2008 from 1,211 in 1992. At the same time increased interest in the local food movement has caused the number of small farmers to increase by 108,000 in the past five years.
Although it's easy for a farmer to say that he's going to raise chickens or hogs for consumption by his own family, the instant that farmer attempts to sell that meat to customers, he is forced to comply with a bevy of food safety regulations- some of which are far too expensive and rigorous for a small-scale farmer to comply with.
Keep Reading: http://ow.ly/1uHUV
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- groups:
- Green, FOODIES: UNITE
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- tags:
- Food, Agriculture, Farmers, locavore, 1 more
