9 Nasty Truths About The Meals You Eat

[mainer]

4. Here's why small farmers can't make it as meat growers:

USDA slaughtering rules make it impossible. Yes, I know that the USDA is here to protect us, but sometimes they just get in the way of organic farms. In order to sell your meat on the market, the animals must be trucked to the nearest USDA slaughtering facility. That stresses the animals. It's expensive for the farmer. It adds to the price of the meat. And it degrades the flavor of the meat because of the stressed animals.

There has to be a way for small farms to be able to slaughter their animals in familiar surroundings, without the stress of transport.

For those carnivores among us, it truly makes a difference how your animals is killed. If it's led gently behind the barn, to an area it's familiar with, and killed with a bullet to the head, that is the kindest way it can go down. The meat tastes better. The animal never knows it's doomed. And the consumer knows that animals had a good life without emotional trauma.

We have to have a way for the USDA to certify humane-slaughter farms, and allow the farmer to do his own killing. I don't see how it could be any worse than the horrible farm-factories we have now.

The organic farmers I know can only survive by selling CSA shares, and then they're allowed to kill their own animals. But you can't buy this meat at your local grocery store.