Meet Your Meat

In Spring 2009, Agrariana organized a series of tours, panels, and workshops on good, clean, and fair animal husbandry and meat production.  The series, called Meet Your Meat , was a portrayal of the local meat economy in the Bay Area and how that model can be improved and spread.  The idea was to show how animals can be part of a vibrant and diverse agricultural system and some part of our diet as responsible omnivores.  Meet Your Meat was offered as a counterpoint to the brutal industrial meat system and the rightfully appalling PETA video of the same title. 

The series metaphorically followed a single animal from farm, to slaughter, to butcher, to cook, to plate in the following events:

Visit to Devil's Gulch Ranch and Clark Summit Farm

Saturday, February 14, 2009, 8am-4pm, Marin County

With Mark Pasternak (Devil's Gulch Ranch) and Liz Cunninghame (Clark Summit Farm)

Marin County Farm Tour Clips from Agrariana on Vimeo.

Local Slaughterhouses, Local Meat

Thursday, February 19, 2009, 7pm, 10 Evans Hall, UC Berkeley Campus

With panelists Sallie Calhoun (Cutting Edge Meat, Inc., Paicines Ranch), Sam Goldberger (North Coast Meats), Mac Magruder (Magruder Ranch), Mark Pasternak (Devil's Gulch Ranch), Paul Canales (Oliveto), Marsha McBride (Café Rouge), and journalist Heather Smith as moderator.

Our panel discussed slaughterhouses situated within the Bay Area and surrounding counties as a vital component of a local meat production system. They talked about the current state of bringing meat from farm to plate and what changes, if any, are required to make the system work better for producers and consumers.

 

The Art of the Butcher

Hosted in collaboration with Meatpaper

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Reception at 6:45 pm.  Lecture starts by 7:30 pm sharp.

105 North Gate Hall, UC Berkeley Campus [directions]

No tickets necessary!  Suggested $10 donation at the door.  No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

With panelists Ryan Farr (Ivy Elegance, CHEFS Program), Nate Appleman (A16, SPQR, Urbino), Melanie Eisemann (Avedano's), David Budworth (Marina Meats, Avedano's),  Mark Pasternak (Devil's Gulch Ranch), and Marissa Guggiana (Sonoma Direct, Secret Eating Society, Meatpaper) as moderator.

Our panel discussed how butchering whole animals delivered from local slaughterhouses stands in stark contrast to the plastic-wrapped grocery store steak.  They talked about the retail component of the local meat system and how this changes the relationship of chefs, home cooks, and diners with meat.

The discussion was followed by a demonstration by Chef Ryan Farr on how a whole carcass is broken down into cuts of meat. Meat CSA shares will be available the night of the panel.SOLD OUT! Rancher Mark Pasternak was available to coordinate more CSA shares of his delicious, Marin County-raised pork.

Art of the Butcher from Agrariana on Vimeo.

A working visit to Soul Food Farm and a tour of Meridian Jacobs Ranch

Saturday, March 14, 2009, 8am-4pm, Solano County. Limit 50.

With Robin Lynde (Meridian Jacobs), Alexis Koefoed (Soul Food), and Samin Nosrat (Eccolo)

We helped with chores at Soul Food Farm, then had lunch in the farm kitchen with Samin Nosrat, Sous Chef at Eccolo Restaurant in Berkeley, who discussed using Soul Food Farm products.

Hide Brain Tanning Workshop

April 18-19, 9am to dark both days.  Limit 16.

Ghost Town Farm in Oakland

Cost $100

With Tamara Wilder (Paloetechnics, author of Buckskin: The Ancient Art of Braintanning ), and Novella Carpenter (Ghost Town Farm)

Braintanned leather is a beautiful, soft, durable, and washable material which is made using the same natural, non-toxic, and biodegradable methods employed by most Native American groups. In this two day class, participants learned the whole process using using goatskins and/or deerskins—from scraping the hide to smoking the softened hide.

Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms

Co-presented by The Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology and UC Berkeley Energy and Resources Group

Nicolette Hahn Niman reading from her new book Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms

Thursday, April 2 , 7:00 pm

105 North Gate Hall, University of California Berkeley (directions)

"Nicolette Hahn Niman has combined her past experience as an environmental lawyer with her present work as a rancher to offer a searing, and utterly convincing, indictment of modern meat production. But the book brims with hope, too, and charts a practical (and even beautiful) path out of the jungle."--Michael Pollan, author, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food

Nicolette Hahn Niman is a former attorney, a writer, and a rancher. In addition to working on the ranch, much of her time is spent speaking and writing about the problems resulting from industrialized livestock production, including three essays she has written on the subject for the New York Times and her new book, Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms. Previously, she was the Senior Attorney for the environmental organization Waterkeeper Alliance where she was in charge of the organization's campaign to reform the concentrated livestock and poultry industry, and, before that, an attorney for National Wildlife Federation. Nicolette served two terms on the city council for the City of Kalamazoo, Michigan (pop. 80,000), during which time she served on sixteen community boards and commissions including the Environmental Concerns Committee. She received her Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Michigan and her B.A. in Biology and French from Kalamazoo College. She lives in Bolinas, California with her husband, Bill Niman.