Carnivory by camille / The summer I was eleven, our family took a detour through the Midwest on our annual drive back from our farm in Virginia to Tucson We passed by one feedlot after another The odor was horrifying to me, and the sight of the animals was haunting: cows standing on mountains of their own excrement, packed so tightly together they had no room to walk All they could was wearily moo and munch on grain mixed with the cow pies under their feet Looking out the window at these creatures made my heart sink and my stomach lose all interest The outdoor part of the operation seemed crueler than anything that might go on inside a slaughterhouse Whether or not it was scheduled to die, no living thing, I felt, should have to spend its life the way those cows were When we got home I told my parents I would never eat beef from a feedlot again Surprisingly, they agreed and took the same vow I had another eye-opening experience that fall, in my junior high cafeteria: most people, I learned, really don’t want to know what their hamburger lived through before it got to the bun Some of the girls at my usual lunch table stopped sitting with me because they didn’t like the reasons I gave them for not eating the ground-beef spaghetti sauce or taco salad the lunch ladies were serving I couldn’t imagine my friends would care so little about something that seemed so important To my shock, they expressed no intention of changing their ways, and got mad at me for making them feel badly about their choice A very important lesson for me Nobody (including me) wants to be told what church to attend or how to dress, and people don’t like being told what to eat either Food is one of our most intensely personal systems of preference, so obviously it’s a touchy subject for public debate Eight years after my cafeteria drama, I can see plainly now I was wrong to try to impose my food ethics on others, even y o u c a n ’ t r u n away o n h a r v e s t d ay 239 friends I was recently annoyed when somebody told me I should not eat yogurt because “If I were a cow, how would I like to be milked?” At the same time, we create our personal and moral standards based on the information we have, and most of us (beyond grade seven) want to make informed choices Egg and meat industries in the United States take some care not to publicize specifics about how they raise animals Phrases like “all natural” on packaged meat in supermarkets don’t necessarily mean the cow or chicken agrees Animals in CAFOs live under enormous physiological stress Cows that are fed grain diets in confinement are universally plagued with gastric ailments, most commonly subacute acidosis, which leads to ulceration of the stomach and eventually death, though the cattle don’t usually live long enough to die of it Most cattle raised in this country begin their lives on pasture but are sent to feedlots to fatten up during the last half of life Factory-farmed chickens and turkeys often spend their entire lives without seeing sunlight On the other hand, if cattle remain on pasture right to the end, that kind of beef is called “grass finished.” The differences between this and CAFO beef are not just relevant to how kindly you feel about animals: meat and eggs of pastured animals also have a measurably different nutrient composition A lot of recent research has been published on this subject, which is slowly reaching the public USDA studies found much lower levels of saturated fats and higher vitamin E, beta-carotene, and omega-3 levels in meat from cattle fattened on pasture grasses (their natural diet), compared with CAFO animals In a direct approach, Mother Earth News hosts a “Chicken and Egg Page” on its Web site, inviting farmers to send eggs from all over the country into a laboratory for nutritional analyses, and posting the results The verdict confirms research published fifteen years ago in the New England Journal of Medicine: eggs from chickens that ranged freely on grass have about half the cholesterol of factory-farmed eggs, and it’s mostly LDL, the cholesterol that’s good for you They also have more vitamin E, beta-carotene and omega-3 fatty acids than their cooped-up counterparts The more pasture time a chicken is allowed, the greater these differences As with the chickens, the nutritional benefits in beef are directly pro- 240 a n i m a l , v e g e ta b l e , m i r ac l e portional to the fraction of the steer’s life it spent at home on the range eating grass instead of grain-gruel Free-range beef also has less danger of bacterial contamination because feeding on grass maintains normal levels of acidity in the animal’s stomach At the risk of making you not want to sit at my table, I should tell you that the high-acid stomachs of grain-fed cattle commonly harbor acid-resistant strains of E coli that are very dangerous to humans Because CAFOs are so widespread in our country, this particular strain of deadly bacteria is starting to turn up more and more commonly in soil, water, and even other animals, causing contamination incidents like the nationwide outbreak of spinach-related illnesses and deaths in 2006 Free-range grazing is not just kinder to the animals and the surrounding environment; it produces an entirely different product With that said, I leave the decision to you Pasture-finished meat is increasingly available, and free-range eggs are now sold almost everywhere Here is the recipe for one of my family’s standard, easy egg-based meals If you feel more adventurous, you can get some free-range turkey meat and freak out your kids’ friends with my parents’ sausage recipe y VEGGIE F R I T TATA Olive oil for pan eggs ⁄2 cup milk Beat eggs and milk together, then pour into oiled, oven-proof skillet over medium heat Chopped kale, broccoli, asparagus, or spinach, depending on the season Salt and pepper to taste Feta or other cheese (optional) Promptly add vegetables and stir evenly into egg mixture At this point you can also add feta or other cheeses Cook on low without stirring until eggs are mostly set, then transfer to oven and broil 2–4 minutes, until lightly golden on top Cool to set before serving y o u c a n ’ t r u n away o n h a r v e s t d ay y SPICY 241 TURKEY SAUSAGE 21⁄2 pounds raw turkey meat, diced, including dark meat and fat ⁄2 cup chopped onion ⁄4 cup chopped garlic ⁄2 tablespoon paprika 11⁄2 teaspoons ground cumin teaspoons fresh oregano (or teaspoon dry) teaspoons fresh thyme (or teaspoon dry) teaspoon ground black pepper teaspoons cayenne (optional) Hog casings (ask your butcher, optional) Combine seasonings in a large bowl and mix well Toss with turkey meat until thoroughly coated If the meat is very lean, you may need to add olive oil to moisten Cover and refrigerate overnight Then grind the mixture in a meat grinder or food processor You can make patties, or stuff casings to make sausage links An inexpensive sausage-stuffing attachment is available for KitchenAid and other grinders; your butcher may know a source for organic hog casings Download these and all other Animal, Vegetable, Miracle recipes at www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com 15 • WHERE FISH WEAR CROWNS September Steven came downstairs with the suitcases and found me in the kitchen studying a box full of papery bulbs My mail-order seed garlic had just arrived His face fell “You’re going to plant those now?” In two hours we were taking off on our first real vacation without kids since our honeymoon—a trip to Italy we’d dreamed of for nearly a decade My new passport had escaped, by one day, the hurricane that destroyed the New Orleans office of its issue We had scrupulously organized child care for Lily, backup child care, backup-backup plus the animal chores and so forth We’d put the garden away for the season, cleaned the house, and finally were really going to this: the romantic dinners alfresco, the Tuscan sun The second-honeymoon bride reeking of garlic “Sorry,” I said I put the bulbs back in the box I confess to a ludicrous flair for last-minute projects before big events I moved nine cubic yards of topsoil the day before going into labor with my first child (She was overdue, so yes, I was trying.) On the evening of my once-in-a-lifetime dinner at the White House with President and Mrs Clinton, my hands were stained slightly purple because I’d been canning olives the day before I have hoed, planted, and even butchered poultry in the hours before stepping onstage for a fund-raising gala Some divas get a manicure before a performance; I just try to make sure there’s ... beef also has less danger of bacterial contamination because feeding on grass maintains normal levels of acidity in the animal’s stomach At the risk of making you not want to sit at my table,... butcher may know a source for organic hog casings Download these and all other Animal, Vegetable, Miracle recipes at www.AnimalVegetableMiracle.com 15 • WHERE FISH WEAR CROWNS September Steven came... that the high-acid stomachs of grain-fed cattle commonly harbor acid-resistant strains of E coli that are very dangerous to humans Because CAFOs are so widespread in our country, this particular