Meat comes from animals - shocking but true!

[mickey1952]

I haven't hunted, killed, and dressed an animal since I was a teen, but I still remember where the delicious meat that graces my table every single day comes from. I have absolutely no problem with the concept, and in fact, am a proud member of PETA. No, not that one! I belong to the one that stands for People Eating Tasty Animals. I can't imagine life as a rabbit with nothing but lettuce on my plate. And besides, I sure as hell would rather have deer meat on my table than in the grille of my car!

[Krista]

I've always kept a nice vegetable garden when I lived at home and we had the space. I miss it terribly now that I live in the city and it is actually against the rules to have a garden such and such size.. a few strawberries and herbs is all that's allowed really. Knowing that really has upset me and each Spring is a bit depressing knowing that I can't tend my own garden, it's a very relaxing thing to do really. And that's just gardens. If I was to chop a chicken's head off in my back yard, I'd probably have the police called on me.. lol. I've not ever processed my own meat though, not even fish. It wouldn't bother me if someone else already killed it. Although, I'd likely not like plucking, it looks way too tedious and chickens stink. I've been around people who do pluck chickens, like my grandmother used to and there just isn't anything that looks more tedious and gross than pulling thousands of feathers off a dead chicken. 

 

Aaron calls me his bad luck charm. Ever since he's married me he's yet to kill a deer or a turkey. I wouldn't mind learning how to cut away the different cuts of meat form a deer, I know how to break down turkeys and chickens, even though I'm not a fan of deer meat myself. It's just too gamy for my taste. He doesn't think I would, even though I've told him. He should know by now that I pretty much do what I say. When I told him I was going to... ahh nevermind.    But yes, that should be proof enough.

 

Oh and I guess I should actually try to be on topic. People have lost the craft here as well.. in farm country. Not a lot of people are harvesting their own meat unless it is deer.. and even then they take it to professional butchers. Those are aging out of the practice as well though. Pretty soon the people that are going to raise and harvest their own meat are going to have to learn... or transition to store bought pre-packaged meats as well.  We're just a few steps away from not seeing anything but those little packages. Right now though most of the people I grew up with have been around a good hog, chicken, deer, fish, turkey, processing more than a few times. There are a few of my mother's neighbors that still do it, but like I said, once they are dead their children and grand children have never learned the craft.

 

A nice understanding from beginning to end would be nice. Although most people don't use it for educational purposes, but for shock value. Even trips to farms around here has turned into a glorified petting zoo. I don't think I would mind for the farmer to go into detail what it means in the winter when his pig is an adult and his steer is fat...  I probably wouldn't want him to cut a chicken's head off right there, but eh, baby steps.

 

Show a city person a Lion killing a Zebra and see what happens.. they look at you like you're the most ruthless person in the world and that's just natural animal behavior it has nothing to do with people... we're in a strange world when a cat can't catch a mouse without getting told off for being a nasty little evil killer.  

Edited March 8, 2014 by Krista

[Bill W]

I don't think this is about survivalists, Bill, it's about the growing disconnect between urban and country life. For all their cultural sophistication / urban lifestyles, city dwellers are as dependent on farming and agriculture as humans have ever been. The big change has been that they can now live their lives with no knowledge of how food gets onto their plate. And that's a bad thing all round

 

 

 

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Zombie, you obviously misinterpreted what I said.  I wasn't saying this phenomena had anything to do WITH the survivalists.  What I was saying was that at least the survivalists were teaching their kids where the food actually came from and were doing their families a service.  Unfortunately, not enough children understand this fact.  Therefore, they misunderstand many of the issues today and think ob cattle, chickens, turkeys and other food sources more as pets and expected them treated as such.  

 

They are also upset if they see a slaughtered animal.  I mentioned in another forum some time ago that a housing development was built across from an old farm near where I grew up.  Shortly after the first groups of people moved in, they started complaining about the farmer on the other side of the road, because he hung slaughtered cows and pigs from his barn to drain the blood.  They were offended and didn't want their children to see this.  What we thought of as a normal part of life whe we were growing up, they were offended by, yet they weren't vegetarians either.  Besides, what did they expect when buy a house in a rural subdivision across from a farm?  If some tragedy did strike, they would have no idea how to survive, because they don't know the basics generations of children had been familiar with.  

[hh5]

in jolly old england they hung various animals in the butcher window

 

in asian communities the hanging of a pig in the window was very typical

people get to see how well its cooked and invites customers to come in and buy

 

of course the non meat eaters dislike it but thats life

 

lol, here is an interesting article on the sale of horsemeat in europe being sold as 100% beef

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/12/world/europe/horsemeat-contamination-qanda/

In January, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found that 10 out of 27 hamburger products it analyzed in a study contained horse DNA, while 23 of them tested positive for pig DNA.

In one sample from Tesco -- Britain's largest grocery chain -- the horsemeat accounted for about 29% of the burger.

 

 

The issue of horse meat is really the veterinary drugs that is not good for humans

 

Gosh imagine a horse slated for the glue factory instead gets put into beef??

Times change for that old joke

[Thorn Wilde]

I've never had problems eating meat, and I can't remember not knowing where the meat comes from or feeling uncomfortable with the idea of eating dead animals. What I feel uncomfortable with is knowing how badly animals are treated in modern farming. I'm aware that most of the supermarket meat comes from animals who have never seen sunlight, and who spent hours in tightly packed transport before being killed. That's horrible. Stressed meat doesn't taste as good, either. With that in mind, I would rather buy game and organic meat (from cows and pigs and chickens that have spent at least parts of their lives outside and who had a better time of it indoors as well) from a butcher than the stuff that's on the shelves in the supermarket. Unfortunately, I can't really afford that. I look forward to the day when I can.

 

For now, Magpie and I eat meat for dinner only on the weekends, and fish at least twice a week, often three times, and try to stick to responsibly caught wild fish. Sadly, nearly all the salmon you get in Norway is farmed, which isn't the best thing ever, but something's gotta give, and salmon is good. We're pragmatic people.

 

I've always loved fish. When I was 3 or 4 years old, we had a visitor from Northern Norway, a man I called uncle, though we weren't actually related. We were very close. Anyway, he went to the fish market and bought salmon heads (you could get wild salmon in those days), and came home and made salmon head soup that we had for dinner. In the middle of each bowl was the head of a salmon. So I look at my uncle and asked, 'Can I eat everything?' And he said, 'You can eat everything that's soft.' So that's what I did.

 

Best story like that I've got is from my brother's girlfriend, Tina. When she was 3, they were showing Bambi in the cinemas again, so her mum took her. It got to the point where Bambi's mother was shot, and Tina asked, loudly, 'Mummy? What's gonna happen to Bambi's mother now?' And Tina's mother, who's never believed in lying to children, said, 'Now the hunter is gonna take Bambi's mum home with him and cook her and eat her.' There was a long pause, and then Tina spoke up again. 'Mummy? I like that kind of meat.'

[Ron]

And besides, I sure as hell would rather have deer meat on my table than in the grille of my car!

Ah, but the one in my grill was also the one on my table, and in my freezer.   True, it was an inconvenience, at first, but something good came from the collision; I did not have to go traipsing throughout the woods to beat my father to a first deer kill. 

[Celethiel]

horse meat in dog food....

anyway i understand Horses don't taste that good so thusly i can't imagine people being fooled for very long by that...

 

Ah, but the one in my grill was also the one on my table, and in my freezer.   True, it was an inconvenience, at first, but something good came from the collision; I did not have to go traipsing throughout the woods to beat my father to a first deer kill. 

for a second i thought you said you still had the first deer you ever killed...

i was like erm... that can't be very good by now

[W_L]

horse meat in dog food....

anyway i understand Horses don't taste that good so thusly i can't imagine people being fooled for very long by that...

 

for a second i thought you said you still had the first deer you ever killed...

i was like erm... that can't be very good by now

 

He could have jerked the deer meat to make it last longer

 

Certain meats are good when it is jerked

[hh5]

Really horse meat don't taste that good?

I tasted deer meat, it was too gamey for me like chicken or fish is to other ppl

 

let me guess in jerky its the special sauce n marinating, right??

[Kitt]

Just as venison tastes different from beef, pork, and mutton, so does horse meat taste different. Would hardly be any point in harvesting a diversity of animals for consumption if it all "tastes like beef".

[Ron]

Just as venison tastes different from beef, pork, and mutton, so does horse meat taste different. Would hardly be any point in harvesting a diversity of animals for consumption if it all "tastes like beef".

Or chicken! 

[Zombie]

anyway i understand Horses don't taste that good so thusly i can't imagine people being fooled for very long by that...

 

Well evidently horse meat doesn't taste that different from beef because it was only uncovered in the recent UK horse meat scandal because of food testing by public trading standards officers. None of the punters complained - they were too busy stuffing more burgers down their throats The reason we don't eat horse meat is purely cultural. Provided the welfare of animals is assured and we are not misled about what we are eating then it shouldn't matter. The same argument could be made about cats and dogs. But I have a personal issue about eating dogs. They have been domesticated by humankind over thousands of years and dogs are capable of forming such close bonds of trust, loyalty - and, yes, love - with their owners that it just seems wrong to betray them and eat them