Eat meat responsibly

Over the past few years I’ve realised more and more just how essential it is to know as much as possible about where ones food comes from and to be guided by ones conscience when making choices. So when I started my artisanal charturerie it was a no brainer that I would source local free range meat. It takes time and I have to do my homework and sometimes I battle to get enough stock but I’m proud to say that everything I produce is 100% free range. I visit the farms and find out for myself that ethical animal husbandry is practised. It’s essential for all domestic livestock to be free range, treated with love and respect and not mutilated in any way: also that neither growth hormones nor antibiotics are used and that their slaughter is as painless and stress free as possible.

Some might say that this begs the meaty questions of whether we should be rearing animals for  slaughter in the first place, irrespective of how well they’re cared for, how healthy their meat or how humane their death.

I’ve given this plenty of thought and this is how I see it. Research confirms that humans have been carnivores since at least the Stone Age and the few remaining indigenous tribes who still live in close harmony with wild nature continue to hunt even today. As one of my favourite foodies, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall puts it, “For hundreds of thousands of years we have hunted animals and for tens of thousands we have farmed them so that we can eat their meat.” So all in all I’m satisfied that our eating meat per se is not doing anything that’s outside the natural order of things and that if done correctly, our killing methods are as, if not more, humane than those of other non-human predators.

Where things have gone horribly wrong is that we’ve become greedy and lost sight of the fact that these are sentient beings that deserve to be treated as such. Those of us who believe that there is a moral content to eating meat have to take the responsibility for changing this. That means saying “no more” to industrial meat production and the factory farming systems where the animals are seen as commodities and profit is the only goal.  Instead of encouraging businesses to produce bigger piles of bad quality cheap meat and poultry, we must stop buying these dubious products all together. Instead we need to take the time and trouble to seek out the ethical small producers and then be prepared to spend a little more and eat meat a little less often.

Become very particular about what you buy and make sure that every time you serve any kind of meat dish everyone can honestly say that it was so good and brought such pleasure to their lives that the animal who gave its life was honoured in the process.

You can find me at the Constantia Waldorf’s Organic & Biodynamic Produce Market from 11am to 3pm every Friday during term time and at the Earth Fair Market, South Palms, 333 Main Road, Tokai every Saturday morning. But if this doesn’t fit in with your schedule email me at martraubenheimer@gmail.com or call me on 072 240 8511 and I’ll deliver to you personally.

I'm out to cure the world.

Antibiotic feed additives

Adding antibiotics to animal feed started about 70 years ago when it was discovered that including this in the diets of simple-stomached animals, like pigs and poultry, increased their growth. At the time it was hailed as a real breakthrough in farming technology and over the next fifty years, the inclusion of antibiotics as feed additives in commercial pig and poultry production became virtually universal.

This not only enhanced performance by increasing growth but also improved feed efficiency, altered intestinal bacteria and reduced incidence of disease in factory type farming conditions. Post-weaning diarrhoea and mortality was curbed drastically and piglets took about 5 days less to reach a live weight of 25 kg. Obviously this was all good for the bottom line and initially it was easy for everyone to ignore those who warned that regular feeding with growth promoting antibiotics would lead to antibiotic resistant bacteria, germs and viruses developing in both animals and also in humans. 

But people can’t be fooled forever, and as evidence of this mounted it became more and more apparent that when pigs are fed low levels of antibiotics for extended periods of time, their intestinal bacteria becomes resistant to the antibiotics used. Then when they are slaughtered these resistant bacteria can enter the human food chain and cause illness in humans. These infections have also become more difficult to treat with antibiotics which are similar to those that were fed to the pigs in the first place. And so the vicious circle has spiralled and who knows where it will end.

In light of these concerns, many countries have decided that the risks are unacceptable to their public, and have placed heavy restrictions on or even banned the use of some of the antimicrobials assessed to pose a risk to human health. Some are taking an even more proactive stance and pressing for a comprehensive and complete ban.

Fortunately you don’t need to sit around waiting for this to happen. You have the choice of taking responsibility for your own good health and that of your family’s right now. All you need to do is only eat free range pork and pork products. There are a few morally responsible small producers who are prepared to look beyond the quick buck and who have made a conscious decision to adopt the correct combination of nutrition, housing and husbandry. They’ve delayed weaning, improved sanitation and general living conditions and are rearing and finishing their piglets very happily, without the use of any antibiotics what so ever..

Surely it makes all the sense in the world to support them and those of us who only use their pork and poultry in the production of our products.    

I’m out to cure the world.                                                                                                      

You can find me at the Constantia Waldorf’s Organic & Biodynamic Produce Market from 11am to 3pm every Friday during term time and at the Earth Fair Market, South Palms, 333 Main Road, Tokai every Saturday morning. But if this doesn’t fit in with your schedule email me at martraubenheimer@gmail.com or call me on 072 240 8511 and I’ll deliver to you personally.

Saving the planets bacon

There’s no doubt that the message about there being nothing new under the sun has particular relevance for those of us who live in this gloriously sun drenched country.  That’s why it’s so cool that more and more enterprising visionaries have reverted back to the age old concepts of free range and organic farming and they deserve our full buy- in. I definitely only use free range meat and poultry in my artisanal charcuterie.  It’s good for the planet, morally right, so much healthier and without a doubt the end product tastes miles better, even though it’s farmed close to home.  So get to the market mense, and buy my bacon, together we can definitely cure the world and enjoy doing it too!  

I’m out to cure the world.

You can find me at the Constantia Waldorf’s Organic & Biodynamic Produce Market from 11am to 3pm every Friday during term time and at the Earth Fair Market, South Palms, 333 Main Road, Tokai every Saturday morning. But if this doesn’t fit in with your schedule email me at martraubenheimer@gmail.com or call me on 072 240 8511 and I’ll deliver to you personally.