Via The Ethicurean this morning I followed a link to the following…

In his Meat Manifesto, Fearnley-Whittingstall corners the reader: “Are you,” he demands, “among the millions of consumers putting pressure on farmers to produce mountains of cheap meat of dubious quality, by dubious means?” I thought I had perhaps passed this test, as I try to buy organic meat whenever possible, but I flat-out failed his next question. Have the animals you’ve consumed “lived well? . . . Have they been cared for by someone who respects and enjoys their contact with them?” Guilty, I read on. His argument is one we all know but perhaps don’t always adhere to: buy locally, know the farmers, visit their farms, ask questions, be involved, change the landscape of meat production one demand at a time. And best of all, cook well.

You should never taste a dish and feel like shouting: “You mean an animal died for that?” Failure to cook meat well, it would appear, is an unforgivable sin. Moral intimidation is undeniably part of Fearnley-Whittingstall’s plan. But it’s his almost academic thoroughness on everything from animal husbandry to curing meats, from hanging beef to skinning a rabbit, from stuffing a turkey (don’t) to finding the

“tremulous, slow simmer” when making stock that’s more convincing.

Source:Food – Recipes – Cookbooks – Dining – Meat – New York Times

They also pointed the way to this article in The Columbia City Paper where I though the money quote:

The smell of manure is the smell of mismanagement.

That pretty much sums up the problem with all forms of “industrial agriculture”.

Emile DeFelice seems to ride the fence in some ways when it comes to the new organic push by big business. For one, he says he can’t stand the term “agribusiness.”

“Agribusiness replaced agriculture. Agrarianism is a true concept of the real meaning of farming. It’s a blending of art and science,” he says. “Agribusiness makes it just science and capital. It obliterates culture.”

Source: Agriculture Wars By Todd Morehead – Columbia City Paper

I see Fred First’s meme Unplanted Gardens: America’s Roadside Bloomery has grown legs and run (which could explain the run of traffic coming from Fragments From Floyd the past day or so). Sounds fun so I need to go through my catalog.