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This discussion is about industrial food processors making food products at-scale in factories. > you implying that Frank the Farmer down the road making balon

by AyyEye 2y ago

This discussion is about industrial food processors making food products at-scale in factories. > you implying that Frank the Farmer down the road making baloney in a bathtub The farmers almost never do the processing, Certainly none of the farms I have seen do. But that's a nice misdirection and mental picture you tried to paint there. Let me try doing the same thing: Do you think the Thiel and Vc funds slopping bulk meat paste around a factory with underpaid temp workers who don't even all know each other is more sanitary than a second generation butcher with only a single room and no large factory equipment to maintain? Do you think a bunch of animals fed bulk food waste of unknown origins while kept in sunlight free boxes and bred to grow so fast they have heart attacks are healthier than animals that can wonder around outside and eat what they like? > "Buy local" has zero relationship to food safety or quality. "Buy industrial" absolutely has a negative relationship to quality. Both the animals and the processing are done with as many corners cut as they can get away with because something thats simply not worth doing for a local farmer becomes extremely valuable when done at factory scale.

efrggdrgg 2y ago
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gamblor956 2y ago
The farmers almost never do the processing, Certainly none of the farms I have seen do. Which defeats the point of buying the foods at issue from a farmer, unless you are suggesting that everyone buy the equipment they need to make deli meat at home from the quarter-cow they just purchased. Both the animals and the processing are done with as many corners cut as they can get away with because something thats simply not worth doing for a local farmer becomes extremely valuable when done at factory scale. This discussion is about processed meats, primarily deli meats. You are not buying deli meats from a local farmer, because as you have also stated, they don't do the processing. But if you meant to say, buy from a local butcher then yes, by all means do that because they will buy from the local farmer and process the meat for you.
- AyyEye 2y ago
  > Which defeats the point of buying the foods at issue from a farmer, unless you are suggesting that everyone buy the equipment they need to make deli meat at home from the quarter-cow they just purchased. Most farmers have a butcher that they will bring the animal to so you don't need to handle it. I have never had to process any animals myself or even bring them to a butcher. Considering your whole post is based off that faulty assumption I'll end replying to you directly there. This was already mentioned in the first post. Why are these commenters building these straw men and seemingly being purposely obtuse? This whole comment chain is so weird and kind of surreal. People who have zero idea of what local agriculture actually looks like in practice have such strong opinions on it and are willing to talk so condescendingly to those of us that actually care about how food is made. One of the site rules is 'assume good faith' but we have one comment talking about bathtub bologna and another implying that anyone who buys meat outside of a grocery store needs to process the animal themselves. Despite the propaganda portraying local agriculture as some hick operation the reality is it's far safer and more modern than industrial ag. My local food co-op has a website with an order form that delivers fresh food (dairy, produce, and meat, including deli meat!) In an insulated refrigerated cooler to my door. And because apparently it needs repeating for some reason: no you don't need to process the animals yourself. Simply pick the meat you want, just like how you do it now.
  - AStonesThrow 2y ago
    Perhaps these small local suppliers are better, because they can charge boutique prices to the kind of discerning person who doesn't ride the bus to Walmart, but drives out to the roadside stand in their SUV and 5 kids and a husband help load the stuff in their coolers. Or they can sell mail-order, or to the suburban farmers markets nearby. The local co-ops are a perennial cult favorite and appeal to epicurean aficionados, but they're not getting equal shelf space at Safeway or enjoying economies of scale and amazing subsidies. Yet.
  - gamblor956 2y ago
    I have never had to process any animals myself or even bring them to a butcher. Considering your whole post is based off that faulty assumption I'll end replying to you directly there. Consider yourself lucky. I grew up in cow country. Most farmers will provide you the meat itself and leave it up to you to process the meat or find a processor. Having the meat sent to a processor (or butcher) is an extra service that you pay separately for. So yes, there's a strawman in your comment but it's not mine.

by AyyEye 2y ago

efrggdrgg 2y ago

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gamblor956 2y ago

The farmers almost never do the processing, Certainly none of the farms I have seen do. Which defeats the point of buying the foods at issue from a farmer, unless you are suggesting that everyone buy the equipment they need to make deli meat at home from the quarter-cow they just purchased. Both the animals and the processing are done with as many corners cut as they can get away with because something thats simply not worth doing for a local farmer becomes extremely valuable when done at factory scale. This discussion is about processed meats, primarily deli meats. You are not buying deli meats from a local farmer, because as you have also stated, they don't do the processing. But if you meant to say, buy from a local butcher then yes, by all means do that because they will buy from the local farmer and process the meat for you.

AyyEye 2y ago
> Which defeats the point of buying the foods at issue from a farmer, unless you are suggesting that everyone buy the equipment they need to make deli meat at home from the quarter-cow they just purchased. Most farmers have a butcher that they will bring the animal to so you don't need to handle it. I have never had to process any animals myself or even bring them to a butcher. Considering your whole post is based off that faulty assumption I'll end replying to you directly there. This was already mentioned in the first post. Why are these commenters building these straw men and seemingly being purposely obtuse? This whole comment chain is so weird and kind of surreal. People who have zero idea of what local agriculture actually looks like in practice have such strong opinions on it and are willing to talk so condescendingly to those of us that actually care about how food is made. One of the site rules is 'assume good faith' but we have one comment talking about bathtub bologna and another implying that anyone who buys meat outside of a grocery store needs to process the animal themselves. Despite the propaganda portraying local agriculture as some hick operation the reality is it's far safer and more modern than industrial ag. My local food co-op has a website with an order form that delivers fresh food (dairy, produce, and meat, including deli meat!) In an insulated refrigerated cooler to my door. And because apparently it needs repeating for some reason: no you don't need to process the animals yourself. Simply pick the meat you want, just like how you do it now.
- AStonesThrow 2y ago
  Perhaps these small local suppliers are better, because they can charge boutique prices to the kind of discerning person who doesn't ride the bus to Walmart, but drives out to the roadside stand in their SUV and 5 kids and a husband help load the stuff in their coolers. Or they can sell mail-order, or to the suburban farmers markets nearby. The local co-ops are a perennial cult favorite and appeal to epicurean aficionados, but they're not getting equal shelf space at Safeway or enjoying economies of scale and amazing subsidies. Yet.
- gamblor956 2y ago
  I have never had to process any animals myself or even bring them to a butcher. Considering your whole post is based off that faulty assumption I'll end replying to you directly there. Consider yourself lucky. I grew up in cow country. Most farmers will provide you the meat itself and leave it up to you to process the meat or find a processor. Having the meat sent to a processor (or butcher) is an extra service that you pay separately for. So yes, there's a strawman in your comment but it's not mine.