Comments on: Conscientious Consumers

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:53:31 +0000

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article “Conscientious Consumers,” but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

By: Leah Greenstein

Leah Greenstein — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:18:01 +0000

Thanks for the link, Nik! I just plugged in my zip and it’s great to see a few places in my neighborhood that I hadn’t even known about!

By: Nik Basque

Nik Basque — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:11:04 +0000

for the conscientious meat eaters among us, check out the Eat Well Guide for a fabulous directory of humane livestock producers. you can punch in your zip code (or area code for us Canadians) and find sources in your area! http://www.eatwellguide.org
Happy eating!

By: Leah Greenstein

Leah Greenstein — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:50:05 +0000

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Jen, and the link to the Ethicurian site, too. Change starts at home and continues with every forkful.

By: Jen (Modern Beet)

Jen (Modern Beet) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:34:01 +0000

I’m (I guess) what one would call a flexitarian — I have no problems with consuming meat IF (and only IF)it’s been ethically produced. This means I buy from ranchers at farmer’s markets, ask the butcher 20 questions before I’ll buy meat, try to find things as locally as possible, etc.

It can be hard to find ethical meat too — even some places that claim to be ‘natural’, aren’t all that different than factory farms (Judy’s Family Farm Eggs, anyone? http://www.ethicurean.com/2006/05/18/judys-eggs/)

And on a side note, I recently picked up ‘The River Cottage Meat Book’ by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and it has one of the most thorough, thoughtful discussions about sourcing ethically raised meat — it basically boils down to to a statement I’m in full agreement with — if you can’t trace its origins or its origins aren’t humane/ethical, then you simply shouldn’t eat it. Also, it discusses eating ‘head to tail’ so that very little of the animal goes to waste

And one final note — one thing I might suggest to people is to consider buying a 1/2 or 1/4 cow/pig/lamb etc direct from the rancher — it’s economical, the food chain is short, and it helps to ensure the future of ranchers with ethical practices

By: Foodwoolf

Foodwoolf — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:00:06 +0000

Here here! I, too, was thinking about stepping back to the Vegetarian side of things after seeing/hearing the report. It’s horrifying that such terrible conditions STILL exist after all these years since The Jungle.

Thank you for such a well written, passionate and insightful piece.
Brooke