Ethical Meat? The (first lot of) findings...

I've been reading a lot of descriptions of visits to abbatoirs, like this one from The Age; I think, if I want to eat one more bit of meat that has been commercially processed, I will sign myself up for a tour.

If I'm to avoid being completely hypocritical, I'm going to have to own up to the same facts in the fishy department: no more fish eating until I have been fishing myself. I think I might head up to the trout/salmon ponds at Marysville (I'm not sure about the sustainability issues involved in fishing at recreational fishing ponds? I couldn't find much on the net anyway). I'm pretty nervous about the idea, but I guess if I find it too distressing I'll have an answer to the eat fish/don't eat fish dilemma I'm currently experiencing.

The next step is to find 'ethical' other meats for my partner and future offspring...

Bertie likes bacon and ham, so ethical (and local as possible, i.e. at least Victorian) pig meat may be on the menu: I found this Age article really helpful - it mentions Fernleigh Farm in Bullarto, near Daylesford. Apparently they sell pig meat at the farmer's market in Collingwood, where I buy my fruit and veg. Also selling at the Collingwood farmer's market is King Valley Free Range pig meat. As much as I hated looking at the pictures of pigs on these websites and thinking about them being turned into meat, I much prefer that idea to buying it from a stupidmarket. I also like the fact that they're using rare or heritage breeds of pig that would otherwise possibly become extinct. Hmm...

I also stumbled upon this butcher who's very local to us! It says on their site: "Our Free Range Chemical Free products are fed on a natural grain based diet free of additives, thus ensuring a flavoursome product. All of our Free Range products are grown with strict standards regarding animal welfare, with the animals able to roam free and graze. We try to support small individual growers and the organic industry as a whole."

Excellent :D

Well I feel that's a good start anyway. I can get pig products for Bertie at the Farmer's Market, and look for other 'ethical' meats while I'm there; then I'll speak to the people at Belmore Biodynamic Meats about their free range meat. If I like what I hear I'll get any meat I can't get at the farmer's market from them.

Next meat-related research project: kangaroo meat (the only non-fish meat I might consider eating).

Is there such a thing as 'ethical meat'? Why bother looking?

=

*sigh*

I have a love-hate relationship with meat: I love the taste, but hate where it comes from. As I've mentioned before in this blog, at ten years old I made the decision to go vegetarian. That was relatively problem free until I hit my late teens/early twenties, when I started craving and even dreaming about meat. Since then I've been on a rollercoaster of meat-eating/vegetarianism/pescatarianism. Inevitably, when I give in to the cravings and eat meat or fish, I feel guilt and even, occasionally, self-loathing - which is harder to bear than the dreams and cravings.

Right now I'm in a pescatarian "stage" (I often feel that anything but pure vegetarianism is wrong and therefore when I 'regress' to meat-eating, it feels like a 'stage' I'm temporarily going through). I'm trying to make the most ethical fish-eating choices I possible can, so I'm following the Guide to Fish by Hilary McNevin. However, I want to resolve the 'ethical meat' issue in my own mind, once and for all, so that if I ever do eat meat again, I can do it in a more informed and open-eyed way, as a person who knows where to find organic, free-range meat from as local a source as possible.

Besides, if I can do this research properly, I can buy 'ethical' meat for the much loved meateater in my life, and any little carnivores we may produce along the way...