Solving a ‘Dilemma’: Book inspires omnivores to buy meat on the hoof

By Sharon Stello/Enterprise staff writer
In Carla Hunt’s barn, three grunting pigs race back and forth across the straw in their long pen. The sheep next door lets out a loud “baa.” Two doe-eyed steers munch on grass in their corral.
The 9-acre property is only a few miles west of Davis, but it’s a world away for a group of suburban moms — and one dad — who began raising their own animals for food after reading Michael Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” for the UC Davis Campus Community Book Project last fall.
In the book, Pollan explores the origin of several meals, following them from farm to table. The UC Berkeley journalism professor visits an Iowa cornfield, buys a steer that will one day be sold as beef, tries hunting and gathering, and examines an organic meal and one from McDonald’s. And he unveils how many grocery store products are made from corn.
Hunt’s book group read “Omnivore’s Dilemma,” which left members shocked by the details of industrial agriculture and led them to raise their own animals. This way, they could eat the meat with a clear conscience, knowing what the animals were fed and how they were treated.
“I thought, we could do this — we could raise our own meat for our own families … for one year,” Hunt said.
She sent out an e-mail suggesting the project, offering to keep the animals on her property in West Plainfield. Out of 15 in the book club, about half responded “yes.” The group includes seven women and one man, whose wife is in the book club, with occupations ranging from college professor to stay-at-home mom.
They held a planning meeting in late October and the next month bought seven ducks, two dairy steers and three pigs. Now, they’re preparing to add two lambs, two goats and maybe some chickens. Each person takes a shift to feed the animals, often bringing their children who range from toddlers to teens.
Last Saturday, the group met to feed the animals, muck out stalls and hang bamboo mats to create shade for the pigs. They also moved the cattle corral — electric fencing — to give the steers a new patch of grass to eat. They took a break to talk about the project.
‘What it means’
Hunt, who works as a store manager at Impossible Acres u-pick farm, said it became difficult to eat a store-bought steak after driving down Interstate 5, past the smelly livestock areas with cattle crammed together.
“I feel bad about eating meat,” said Hunt, who often buys locally raised meat at the Yolo County 4-H auction.
Jo Andrews, a political science professor at UC Davis, said Pollan’s book was really inspiring. She joined the group to “be more aware of what it means to eat meat.”
She also wanted better tasting meat, noting that pork bought in the stores doesn’t taste as good as it once did.
Romana Norton, who is working on her doctorate in counseling psychology through the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed that meat in stores is “tasteless.” She was shocked into change after learning how livestock is raised on commercial farms.
“Reading Pollan’s book and learning kind of the minutia of industrial farming was stunning,” Norton said. “I couldn’t live with the knowledge anymore. When the walls came down, there was no going back for me.”
Aside from the animals’ treatment and prevalent use of antibiotics, Norton was appalled by the amount of pollution produced by farms, not to mention emissions from trucking meat to the stores.
“It’s hard to change your pattern of buying, your consumption pattern, but we’re doing it I think,” Norton said.
Donna Dekker had similar reasons for joining the group.
“I wanted to thumb my nose at industrial agriculture because it’s ecologically unnatural, unsustainable and inhumane,” said Dekker, an adjunct professor who teaches biology and natural resources at American River College.
A lot of work
Cynthia Goldberg wanted to know more about the process of raising animals.
“I thought it would be an adventure. I’m a suburban girl,” said Goldberg, who coordinates junior high school career days and works with Pride Industries, which provides vocational rehabilitation for disabled adults.
“If I’m going to eat meat, I need to recognize that they’re animals. I liked the idea of knowing where it came from and having some control over it so it would be healthier,” Goldberg said.
She was surprised to learn how much energy goes into raising a pig or a steer.
“We were so distanced from it. It’s expensive and now I get why it’s expensive,” she said.
Others in the group include Audrey Haverstock and Jeff DeRopp. Betty Giles, a stay-at-home mom, was one of the last to join. She wanted to learn more about the farming lifestyle in which her husband was raised in Georgia.
“I am total ‘city’ and total ‘buy my food at the grocery store,’ ” Giles said. “It’s been fun, but it’s a lot of work.”
Emotional distance
Some of the group’s animals were not yet weaned when they arrived on the farm. The group bottle-fed the steers and gave the piglets milk in a bowl. Yet, group members say they haven’t grown attached to the animals in the way they would a pet.
“You really make a different connection than your horse or your dog or your cat,” Hunt said.
Goldberg said while the animals were cute when they were little, now the pigs are getting ornery, which makes it easier to accept their fate as food. But she realizes it still may be difficult to say goodbye.
“I think the last day that we feed them, that will be a hard day,” Goldberg said.
They jokingly call the steers Thing 1 and Thing 2, and the pigs Pork Chop, Bacon and Prime Rib, trying not to give pet names to the animals they will eventually eat.
The group already raised and slaughtered some ducks.
“They were quite delicious,” Hunt said.
However, the experience made the group decide to hire someone to handle the rest of their slaughtering. The duck killing day won’t soon be forgotten.
“That was really traumatic,” Hunt said.
Without going into too much detail, there was a tree stump and an ax.
“It was really hard to bring that ax down,” Hunt said.
“It was super emotional,” Andrews said. “It was really intense.”
Norton said the experience has made her more appreciative of meat. She has found herself eating it less often. But when meat is served, she makes sure to eat it all.
“After killing the ducks, I was very cognizant of food waste,” Norton said.
Dekker said killing the animal was “a challenging moment.”
“It’s given me a greater appreciation of what it means when you take a life and eat it,” she said. “I’ll think about these guys every time I pull a package out of the freezer.”
Antibiotics?
The project has generated discussion about whether to feed their cattle grass or grain and whether to give antibiotics.
The two dairy steers eat rye grass growing on Hunt’s property. The group also feeds the steers some grain — “sweet COB” which stands for corn, oats and barley mixed with molasses. They decided it’s OK to supplement the steers’ diet with corn because it will give the meat a better flavor.
The pigs are fed a grain blend called “commercial hog” and produce trimmings — lettuce, celery, turnips and apples — from the Davis Food Co-op.
Originally, the group decided not to give the animals any antibiotics. But then, one of the steers developed an infection after castration and a pig developed pink eye. So they opted to give antibiotics as needed, but not as a preventative measure.
Andrews is keeping track of their costs. It looks like the meat they raise will be “more expensive than Costco meat” but less expensive than buying grass-fed, free-range meat at a high-end grocery store.
Either way, group members said the experience is worth it.
“It’s not even about the money as much as the learning experience,” Hunt said.
— Reach Sharon Stello at sstello@davisenterprise.net or 747-8043.
Sunday, March 25, 2007