Well Preserved

Sustainable Table produced the following video in 2003:

There are two more videos available on The Meatrix – Canada is mentioned in the second video (I mention this as Well Preserved is Canadian based though we are fortunate to have many loyal followers in the US and UK).  I am a junkie for all things involving The Matrix, food or Keanu Reeves.

The comments on YouTube are eye opening and remind me of how divisive and emotional the subject of food, eating animals, politics and sustainability are.  Some find it funny, others find it offensive that some find it funny, some sing it’s praises and others criticize it for making light of eating meat.  I encourage everyone to challenge everything you watch, do your research and then make the best decision possible.  Communicating with each other will tend to open eyes rather than hitting people over the head and wondering why they aren’t being persuaded.

I lived more than 5 years without eating pork or red meat, raised on and continue to hunt wild meat (both were covered more fully in the article that was my introduction to hunting as a one-time “vegetarian”), supported, withdrew and re-supported our organic system, participated in food debates and briefly helped on farms.  My views change with the more I know and the more I learn.

I worked on a pork farm for about week in the late 1980′s.  There were almost 700 pigs in residence – I was visiting a childhood friend who grew up on the farm and was excited for a vacation and time to help out.  It was a fascinating time.

The family farm had raised pigs for 30 years.  They were second-generation farmers who also raised crops and a small collection of cows.  Their cows grazed openly in fields while the pigs stayed inside for most of their lives.  There were about 30 to a pen (less as they grew).  The pigs had room to run around the pens and keeping the stalls clean was an absolute priority.  The barn was well ventilated and pigs were rotated between pens and fed sour milk (and I believe grain though memory fades).

I learned that if you took pigs in one pen and put them in another pen with more pigs that a fight would ensue as they are very territorial.  If you took both pens of pigs and put them in a previously empty pen, everyone would get along.  I saw the sadness when a trusted sow passed and learned the commitment to cleanliness when my friend had to wade into the septic system (up to his chest) to unplug it so that the pens would not get clogged with manure.  It was clear that this was a priority and could not wait until after breakfast.

I was also there when the pigs were loaded into a truck and off to the abattoir.  It was a bittersweet moment of the completion of a cycle with the reality of what was ahead.

I’ve recently thought that it would be neat to go back and visit and examine with my new eyes just how good or how poor the pigs had it here.  They certainly didn’t have the run of the yard that is offered by family organic farms but they weren’t locked down under Marshall law and have visited other farms which have been much worse.

My theory these days?  Cooking food that was made (or raised) by people you know, including yourself, tastes better.  Get to know a farmer and their farms – a remarkably easy thing to do, especially in cities these days.

If you have a twitter account, you can follow Sustainable Table here.  If not, would love to hear everyones thoughts on the Meatrix – as long as we don’t beat each other up