Meat is Meat

I raise meat as do several other farmers within the Central Farm Markets Family. Our philosophies differ from the run-of-the-mill industrial meat complex such as concentrated animal feedlot operations (CAFO)—both indoor and outdoor. We fuss about feeds—non-GMO, grass-fed, grass-finished, stocking densities (what our farms can sustainably support), and animal welfare which can run the gauntlet from the use of antibiotics to transportation. As livestock producers using sustainable farming practices and selling direct to consumers, we represent less than two percent of total meat production in the United States.According to the USDA, the average American was expected to consume 222.2 pounds of meat last year. Overall domestic meat production at the same time was expected to surpass 100 billion pounds. That’s a lot of steaks, chops, burgers and sausages.I don’t need to paint the picture of how most of that meat is raised and processed as most people who shop at farmers markets do so specifically because they do not want that type of mass-produced and often highly processed meats.Customers are continually inquiring about farming practices, breeds of livestock and human handling issues. A few weeks ago, I had a discussion with a shopper over the types of meat chickens I raised. He informed me that he would no longer buy my birds because they were Cornish Crosses, a standard meat bird variety that have been bred to grow fast. I tried telling him that a slower-growing heritage breed would take twice as long to produce the same size bird, thus bumping the price as high as $9. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that a fifty-dollar chicken is not going to go over well with my customers. He recited what he’d read on the Internet and I countered with experience. These are tough conversations when both parties are emotionally vested in the issue.But over the last few weeks, I have been repeatedly asked if I offered “veggie burgers” and if I have tried a “meatless” burger. This is were I find myself coming dangerously close to crossing the center line of civil discourse through face palms and gritted teeth.You know what’s impossible about the Impossible Burger? That you would ever get a self-respecting farmer who sells meat at a farmers market to eat one. Here’s what’s in them.Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% or less of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Soy Protein Isolate, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12.Compared to a four-ounce beef patty, the impostor has a similar amount of calories (210 vs. 240) and identical amounts of fat—14 grams. But the Impossible Burger contains 8 grams of saturated fat while the real deal has only 6 grams. And sodium, a whopping 370 milligrams, more than three times that which naturally occurs in beef. Let’s not forget the added sugar of which a patty that once mooed has zero.  Real meat also contains more protein. The only benefit one might claim is more dietary fiber, but I’d prefer to add my fiber to a burger in the form of pickles, lettuce, tomato and onion.I get it. Everyone points to the environmental impact of meat; the carbon footprint, climate change, global warming. As a former professional in the petroleum industry, I know what it takes to get a gallon of gas in my tank as well as burgers on our plates.From my point of view, it’s going to take a LOT more petroleum to grow, transport and process soybeans, sunflowers, coconuts and potatoes as well as synthesize the other highly refined ingredients.  I don’t know of any coconut farms in the continental United States. Let’s add all those food miles to the end product.While artificial and lab-cultivated proteins have become popular, the companies engaging in the production and promotion are multinational chemical conglomerates who are driven by shareholder profits, not personal passion and convictions. A 2019 study published in Global Food Security Journal by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), found that 86% of livestock feed is inedible to humans. When livestock utilizes marginal forage-based landscapes incapable of supporting crops, acres for acre more highly valuable nutrients, such as proteins, can be produced.Our diets have transformed from that of sustenance to political statement. As a firm believer in agreeing to disagree agreeably, especially when it comes to the meat vs. meatless debate, I don’t begrudge my vegetarian/vegan friends and respect their choices, treating them as I would any other individual belief such as kosher, halal and nut allergies.However, there is one aspect of the meatless movement that rubs me raw: quit naming your food to sound, look and taste like my food. Fake burgers that bleed beet juice, fake bacon a.k.a. facon, tofurkey, and my personal favorite, fleggs & sheese are some of the foods that have me wondering, mostly how to pronounce their ingredients. But my all-time favorite was the recipe for a meatless rack-of-lamb, complete with frenched rib bones made out of leeks.  As I like to say, my sheep turn sunshine and water into meat, what’s your superpower?