• A peek behind the curtain….

    If you feel the meat you’re eating isn’t as tasty as it was when you were little, you’re right.  Studies show that the percentage of meat qualifying for “Choice” and “Prime” has dropped way down.  It’s the result of hurrying the cattle with hormones and grain. But time is money, and Industrial Ag, and their handmaidens in university research, keep coming up with ways to grow beef faster if not better.  Dr. Sue Beal sent us this story on the latest wonder drug in your supermarket beef. http://chronicle.com/article/As-Beef-Cattle-Become/131480/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en Dr. Allen Williams, the university professor who blows the whistle on the conflict of interest in “scholarly research” in this article is…

  • Schadenfreude – Part 2

    It’s been a bad week for the “better eating through chemistry” folks.  The first animals approved for human consumption are not going to make it to your table…at least not yet.  So-called”Enviro-pigs”, cloned in Canada, have not worked out after more than 10 years of experimenting.  Scientists have lost their subsidies and so it’s back to the drawing board. http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-04/thats-all-folks-genetically-engineered-efficiently-pooping-pigs Some day we’ll get so educated we’ll discover that raising animals the natural way avoids all the unpleasant side-effects; such as manure lagoons and E.coli.  Earlier this week we reported that techno-beef, A.K.A. “Pink Slime”, was being pulled from supermarket shelves because of a consumer revolt. There’s hope for us…

  • The good guys win one…

    Normally I try to be charitable and not rejoice over another’s misfortune, BUT….that doesn’t mean a little “schadenfreude” isn’t appropriate. Some time back we told you about the special meat scientists had developed that compresses all kinds of noxious stuff and then is sprayed with ammonia so you don’t get sick and maybe die.  Other scientists who have investigated the stuff calls it “pink slime” but nevertheless the government is buying millions of pounds of it for school cafeterias and will serve it under the label “hamburger”. You can read the earlier post by scrolling down to “Another helping of slime, kids?” on March 7th. But the words got out…

  • Dinner with Sylvie….

    We finally had our long-anticipated dinner last night at the Inn at Mt. Vernon Farm near Sperryville featuring local celebrity-chef Sylvie Rowand.  We can only say “wow”. As the local chief of the Daube Police, I can report that she does indeed know what she’s doing.  Of course, it is a distinct advantage if you’re French and it may taste better if you’re French, too. Sylvie makes her Daube with lamb instead of beef (which is authorized) and she also substituted bacon for salt pork as a base.  That would have the approval of famed British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.  And it took advantage of the pork raised at Mt. Vernon.  All…

  • Another helping of slime, kids?

    We thought it kinda funny-sad-outrageous recently when the Fed Food Police confiscated some school lunch boxes and substituted cafeteria meals instead.  The contents of the lunch boxes were deemed “unhealthy” but when we read what the Feds proscribed—starting with chicken nuggets—we concluded Mom’s cooking may not have been perfect but it was a whole lot better than Michelle’s Menu. Now comes word that a decision back in the Bush administration perfecting a school lunch burger—something scientists that investigate the project call “pink slime”—is being implemented.  The Feds are buying millions of pounds of the stuff—made up of meat trims, connective tissue, and “you best not ask”—for your local school cafeteria. …

  • Not all food is created equal….

    A good friend has written an article on food production that we think deserves wider dissemination than we offer here…..but we’ll do our bit. Organizations such as Weston A. Price are stout advocates of what is termed “nutrient dense food”.  It’s a phrase that is beginning to find its way into popular literature and Bill Roberts, of 12 Stones Grassland Beef, offers his take on it below.  We think he’s right and spend a good deal of money each year trying to improve the mineralization of our soil.  We also spend about 10 times what the average farmer does on natural, organic mineral supplements for our cows. America’s soils were…

  • First they came for the raw milk farmer…

    …and eventually it will be locally-grown meat.  (In fact, it’s already started.) The unholy alliance of Industrial Agriculture and Big Government are engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation targeting the small farmer who sells his products directly to the consumer.  It’s all under the guise of protecting consumer health, but in fact the real danger to the consumer is that food in the fancy wrapping in the supermarket. This isn’t political, though Michelle is the only one closer to the President than Big Ag’s lobbyists.  But this campaign to discourage local food production has gone on through several Republican and Democrat administrations.  It seems to be intensifying now…

  • Better living through chemistry…

    More and more, I find myself wondering how long man can continue playing with Nature before we pay the ultimate price.  Experiments with that ultra-flu virus make me think that way.  So does reading that scientists in the Netherlands have developed a glob they think is artificial beef.  The first hamburger will be ready to serve in the Fall. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9091628/Test-tube-hamburgers-to-be-served-this-year.html There’s a somewhat limited market for a $400,000 dollar hamburger but mass production will kick in and take care of that.  But what would be the real price of such a burger?  And I don’t mean all the un-calculated real costs in energy and transportation and minerals involved in production.  I…

  • First, let’s be clear…..

    …Prince Charles is not one of my favorite characters on the international scene.  But he is a farmer and raises Devon.  He and I attended the Royal Cornwall show a few years back.  (Full disclosure:  he arrived by helicopter; I came in a bus.  BUT THAT IS NOT ME IN THE COW HAT!) I digress.  The point of this post is that we’ve just seen a copy of the speech the Prince made on “food” at Georgetown University last year.  It is one of the best treatise I’ve read on the subject and, if you’re new to the subject and this blog, grab a cup of coffee and settle down for…

  • You should know….

    ….that all the big producers are patting themselves on the back for their humane treatment of animals.  McDonald’s has joined Chipotle in campaigns to get their suppliers of pork to stop keeping their pigs in gestation pens.  They’re crates really, about two feet wide, so the sows can’t even turn around.  From the Wall Street Journal: McDonald’s Corp. is pushing its pork suppliers to stop confining sows in small pens known as gestation stalls, moving to address concerns raised by animal-welfare advocates—and catch up with some competitors. The burger giant on Monday said the pens are “not a sustainable production system” and there are alternatives that “are better for the welfare…