I wasn’t always a foodie, but I have always loved food. Growing up in Russia, with its unique cuisine, taught my palette to appreciate meat jello, smoked herring with mayonnaise, chicken livers and cold beet soup. Now that I’m an adult living in Bay Area, an extraordinary mecca of culinary giants, and am fortunate enough to be able to dine at restaurants such as Manresa, French Laundry and Gary Danko, I am in food heaven.
Fast-forward to this February 2011 when I attended the MeatExpo in Las Vegas, an “all-things-meat” trade show. After being visually and audibly bombarded with information about food health, government regulations, cattle disease and best meat processing equipment I wondered why animal treatment or quality of life wasn’t mentioned even once.
So after coming home, I looked into it. It didn’t take long to figure out why farm animal welfare is an avoided topic. I mistakenly watched a few videos showing what most cows, pigs and chickens go through before they end up on our plate. Horrified, disgusted and traumatized doesn’t begin to describe how I felt. After I started breathing again and had no more tears left, I decided that I had to do something. I wasn’t going to become a vegan or a vegetarian, but I was going to stand up for the rights of these abused, neglected and battered animals.
So my plan is to start local. There are several grocers and restaurants that carry Animal Welfare Approved products (as I learned, AWA is the most stringent certifying program out there). My plan is to connect with these progressive companies to understand their story: why they chose to carry humanely-raised meat, what hoops they had to jump through, does it cost more and what I, as a consumer, can do to drive other stores to follow in their footsteps.
My hope is that grocers and restaurants will see that the consumer demand is out there for humanely and sustainably raised meat. My hope is that others will read this blog and will want to do their own research and hopefully will join me in my mission. My hope to connect with others who are and have already done so much to help make improvements to learn what I can do better. My hope is to make a difference, no matter how small.