The Shorter The Chain…
“The shorter the chain between raw food and fork, the fresher it is and the more transparent the system is.” -Joel Salatin
I was thinking about this quote recently and the blind trust that we place in our food system. If I buy a pack of pork chops from the store, there are many questions I can’t answer:
Where was this animal raised?
Who raised this animal?
What did this animal eat?
How old was this animal?
Was this animal in optimal health?
What drugs/medications did this animal receive in their lifetime, even if out of the withdrawal window?
In what living conditions was this animal raised?
Now, this isn’t an exhaustive list and you could probably find some of the answers with a little digging, but through that digging you may end up with more questions than what you started with. I’m not going to pretend everyone is an animal welfare activist; I happen to be an animal lover and enjoy giving my food a good life, but I know this isn’t everyone’s reality. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that while most people don’t not care, they also don’t really care… follow me?
Here is the beauty from buying direct from a small farmer: we can answer every single one of these questions! Not only that, but we’ll be HAPPY to answer them (I’m not kidding, I don’t get out much, we can talk about pork and chicken all day!) Now, as I mentioned above, perhaps you fall into the category about not really caring about the answer to any of those questions, and that’s fine, but that’s also not really the point. Would you want to go to a doctor who could prescribe a medication to you but couldn’t explain the mechanism of it? Sure, you may not actually understand or even care how it works, but you’d probably feel more confident in that doctor if he or she could answer you question.
All of this to say, do your research, meet your farmers, ask your questions. You’ll be glad you did!