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Empirically, Giant Eagle (the crap chain supermarket in PA) beef tastes like crap, and local butcher beef tastes really good. Locality is a good proxy for peopl

Empirically, Giant Eagle (the crap chain supermarket in PA) beef tastes like crap, and local butcher beef tastes really good. Locality is a good proxy for people caring about food tasting good, and for not going through enormous horrible disease-ridden meat-packing plants. The latter tends to produce meat that tastes bad and periodically makes you sick.

wooster 17y ago
AFAIK, there are only 4 cattle slaughterhouses in PA: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/downloads/slaughter_list.pdf http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/downloads/slaughter_... Only one of the 4 is not owned by Cargill or JBS. Unless your beef vendor is taking delivery on whole carcasses and then packing it themselves, the beef is probably packed at the slaughterhouse, as well.
- ecuzzillo 17y ago
  Heh. The local butcher whose very happy meat I ate actually was in the Ferry Plaza in SF. But really, I don't know if the goodness in non-Giant-Eagle meat has anything to do with the meat packing industry. I just was trying to convince ars that food people aren't being totally dumb when they say that local is often better than GEagle equivalents.
- bmj 17y ago
  The beef we purchased directly from a farmer (all cows are 100% pastured and grass-fed) are processed and packed by Cheplic in Finleyville, PA. Of course, the farmer isn't processing an obscene amount of cattle each year, either, and he only sells directly to consumers, face-to-face, so a small butcher can actually handle that sort of volume.
- tptacek 17y ago
  I haven't looked into buying local beef (I'm in Chicago and have good sources for high-quality beef), but I have done the legwork on pork, and all of the farms I can order from outsource "processing" and add a couple bucks per pound to the cost of the meat to cover it. I don't think slaughterhouse ownership is any kind of smoking gun.
  - cynicalkane 17y ago
    I live in Chicago. What are your sources of high-quality beef?
    - tptacek 17y ago
      Fox & Obel, Paulina - first two that come to mind.
- wooster 17y ago
  Since I can't actually respond to any of you directly (thanks HN commenting code!)... [ugh. now the reply links are there, my bad?] It's illegal to resell beef to consumers which wasn't slaughtered at a facility with a USDA inspector. If you buy the whole animal, like bmj does, then it can be slaughtered by anyone who knows what they're doing and packed (cut and wrapped) by any competent butcher. You then cannot resell that meat (and, in fact, all of the packaging should have not for retail stamps on it). Now, personally, having actually toured a slaughterhouse (the one in Fresno, CA), I've got no problem with them. I definitely take issue with the "enormous horrible disease-ridden" characterization. Most of the food safety problems have been artifacts of the high volume hamburger production process. If you buy steaks, or even hamburgers made by butchers from whole cuts of meat, you should be in the clear. I was merely trying to point out, somewhat obliquely, that unless you're slaughtering an animal you own and then buying all of the cut and wrapped meat, any beef you buy in the US was slaughtered at a huge slaughterhouse. That's just the reality of the situation, and it's a combination of regulations intended to keep you safe (having a USDA inspector on site is really, really expensive) and the continued consolidation of the packing industry (enabled by the government, NIMBY organizations, environmental groups, etc). At the same time, as an Nth generation cattle rancher (where N > 4), I don't want to discourage anyone from buying locally raised beef. ;-)
jsolson 17y ago
Hah. If you think Giant Eagle is crap, you should step into a Kroger sometime. I grew up around Pittsburgh, then moved to Atlanta for school ~9 years ago. Talk about a substantial drop in supermarket quality...

wooster 17y ago

AFAIK, there are only 4 cattle slaughterhouses in PA: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/downloads/slaughter_list.pdf http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/downloads/slaughter_... Only one of the 4 is not owned by Cargill or JBS. Unless your beef vendor is taking delivery on whole carcasses and then packing it themselves, the beef is probably packed at the slaughterhouse, as well.

ecuzzillo 17y ago
Heh. The local butcher whose very happy meat I ate actually was in the Ferry Plaza in SF. But really, I don't know if the goodness in non-Giant-Eagle meat has anything to do with the meat packing industry. I just was trying to convince ars that food people aren't being totally dumb when they say that local is often better than GEagle equivalents.
bmj 17y ago
The beef we purchased directly from a farmer (all cows are 100% pastured and grass-fed) are processed and packed by Cheplic in Finleyville, PA. Of course, the farmer isn't processing an obscene amount of cattle each year, either, and he only sells directly to consumers, face-to-face, so a small butcher can actually handle that sort of volume.
tptacek 17y ago
I haven't looked into buying local beef (I'm in Chicago and have good sources for high-quality beef), but I have done the legwork on pork, and all of the farms I can order from outsource "processing" and add a couple bucks per pound to the cost of the meat to cover it. I don't think slaughterhouse ownership is any kind of smoking gun.
- cynicalkane 17y ago
  I live in Chicago. What are your sources of high-quality beef?
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Fox & Obel, Paulina - first two that come to mind.
wooster 17y ago
Since I can't actually respond to any of you directly (thanks HN commenting code!)... [ugh. now the reply links are there, my bad?] It's illegal to resell beef to consumers which wasn't slaughtered at a facility with a USDA inspector. If you buy the whole animal, like bmj does, then it can be slaughtered by anyone who knows what they're doing and packed (cut and wrapped) by any competent butcher. You then cannot resell that meat (and, in fact, all of the packaging should have not for retail stamps on it). Now, personally, having actually toured a slaughterhouse (the one in Fresno, CA), I've got no problem with them. I definitely take issue with the "enormous horrible disease-ridden" characterization. Most of the food safety problems have been artifacts of the high volume hamburger production process. If you buy steaks, or even hamburgers made by butchers from whole cuts of meat, you should be in the clear. I was merely trying to point out, somewhat obliquely, that unless you're slaughtering an animal you own and then buying all of the cut and wrapped meat, any beef you buy in the US was slaughtered at a huge slaughterhouse. That's just the reality of the situation, and it's a combination of regulations intended to keep you safe (having a USDA inspector on site is really, really expensive) and the continued consolidation of the packing industry (enabled by the government, NIMBY organizations, environmental groups, etc). At the same time, as an Nth generation cattle rancher (where N > 4), I don't want to discourage anyone from buying locally raised beef. ;-)

jsolson 17y ago

Hah. If you think Giant Eagle is crap, you should step into a Kroger sometime. I grew up around Pittsburgh, then moved to Atlanta for school ~9 years ago. Talk about a substantial drop in supermarket quality...