Friday, I had my first experience processing an animal for food.
Prompted by the Omnivore’s Dilemma, both the book and my own realizations, slaughtering a chicken is an essential step for me and I think a pretty huge life lesson. And, Michael (wwoofer) had asked Rob about slaughtering chickens. We had too many roosters and they were stressing out the egg-laying hens, so we all agreed we’d learn how to slaughter a chicken.
My thought is that everyone who eats chicken needs to experience this process at least once. Everyone should at least know how their food is raised (whether it’s meat or veg) and ideally where their food comes from. See all the steps it goes through between farm and plate. We’ve been so far removed from the process, most people are completely unaware what makes a chicken a chicken - how they live and die, and how they are treated in both.
I think if we all were willing to make this commitment to knowing and doing this, commonly referred to as “eating locally” or “buying local”, it would solve a lot more problems than most people realize. Actually, solving isn’t really the right term, a lot of the problems we face right now wouldn’t exist, so there simply wouldn’t be as many issues in general and therefore less to solve. Problems like high food* and energy prices, loss of farmland and farmers, poor health and nutrition, a completely non-secure food system, etc. Problems that everyone is facing (whether they realize it or not!) and that people in positions to do something about those problems (i.e. politicians, you, me, everyone else) are largely ignoring this idea that would revolutionize and thoroughly reconstruct our economy.
None of this is my original idea. And, at the moment it is prominently in my thoughts because I attended a talk last Wednesday by Joel Salatin on this very thing. He’s much more in-tune and practicing this idea than I am.
So getting back to the chicken slaughtering … having been a vegetarian for years, being on this farm is changing my views on what I eat. Partially because doing physical labor like this, I didn’t feel like I was getting what I needed nutritionally from the vegetarian diet I was eating. And, I just had a huge craving and need to eat meat again. For sure, there may have been things I could have altered in my veggie diet to increase my protein and calorie intake.
However, from my farm perspective, to have the experience I want to have here - what really started to change my mind is how important animals are to the small, sustainable organic farm. Animals like chickens and cows are pretty much economically vital to a farm - if they are managed right. If they are, the farm is pretty much self-sustaining. The animals not only nourish the farmer, they nourish the land. Chickens eat pests (bugs, worms, etc.) and scratch out weeds in the pasture and fertilize with their droppings. Cows are hugely beneficial to grass pasture (cows naturally should ONLY eat grass!) if their grazing is managed right, and their manure is invaluable. I haven’t taken the step of eating beef again, and I won’t be slaughtering a cow anytime soon, but if/when one of the beef cattle are ready from Plum Forest, I will definitely nourish myself with the meat.
Anyhow … we’re planning on making a great batch of chili tonight, using one of the Plum Forest Farm chickens. I’m looking forward to it!
I realize a lot of the food and politics related thing I post or will post probably turn some folks off. And that’s too bad. I’d rather people comment and ask questions and educate themselves and turn what they might see as negative into positive learning! I’m certainly not depressed by the reality of things, but am driven to live a different and better life for myself and the planet. I just hope that if nothing else, if anyone actually reads this they will at least think about how they are living and eating and change at least a little something for the better if they realize the habit and unconsciousness of it all!
* I will say this: food prices in typical supermarkets have historically been ridiculously low due to goverment subsidies to large-scale, unsustainable monoculture industrial farms. Look into the “true cost” of food and you’ll find what people think are “high” organic food prices is really closer to the truth.
I admire what you are doing tremendously! Someday, I hope to live in the mountains (probably North Georgia) and grow my own food and maybe have some chickens for eggs. I really don’t see myself being able to kill any animals - that would probably turn me into a vegetarian real fast!
I guess I missed how you came to be living on this farm. Did you buy it? Are you living here full-time?
Also, it’s great that you are able to do consulting work to fund all of this. I am still in a cubicle (albeit a large one) every day while I pay off my student loans. I’m actually very lucky because I love the job AND the people/company I work for. And, eventually I will be able to work from home because everything I do (Instructional Design) is done with a computer and not much interaction with people required.
Hey Melissa-
As far as killing animals - I was a pretty strict vegetarian for several years. I definitely had the thought of not being able to kill an animal for food. It goes without too much mention that there are many moral dilemmas regarding killing animals. But I think we’re mainly just so alienated from our food sources and from doing such “real” things as raising or foraging for our own food, we make killing animals a bigger deal than it really is. This is a huge simplification of the issue, but one of my main conclusions having been on both sides of the fence now.
Think about how many millions of years man has been eating meat. Vegetarianism is a very new thing … as new as eating meat at every meal. If you haven’t, I highly recommend reading the Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s a great book about food and he covers the whole animal for food thing very thoroughly.
I ended up on this farm after searching for an internship on an organic farm. I didn’t buy it! I definitely couldn’t afford land like this so close to Seattle. I am living here full time in a great little cabin that I helped the farmers build. I wanted to do an intership to experience the entire growing season (May - November) and farm full-time. I had some great experiences wwoofing while I was in Europe, but it was small glimpes of a much bigger picture. Being on this farm all year gives me a better perspective of what it’s like to grow food on a small, sustainable scale. It’s been a great experience so far, and I’ll just say that I’m remaining optimistic about farming myself some day. But like the farmers here say: “Farming is hell.” But also, “It doesn’t get any better than this …”
And, as far as consulting/freelancing - I’m not doing very much of it and can’t say that it’s funding a whole lot. The season is still young and we’re finally over a big hurdle where we’ve done all the early-season work that we’ll build on for the rest of the year, which means in a nutshell that I might have a little bit more free time and energy to freelance, but not much.
Good to hear you love your job. Not many people truly do …