The Memoir of a Vegetarian Meat Farmer

I don’t pretend to be perfect. I eat fast food, I occasionally forget my reusable shopping bags and bring home my groceries in plastic Kroger bags, I don’t own a hybrid vehicle, and my home isn’t off the grid. Oh yeah and I own a small meat farm too. I do my best. I don’t drive an SUV (who can afford to anymore), I switched all my lights to compact fluorescent, and I don’t buy or eat meat from confined animal feedlots.

Yup, the meat issue. I have struggled with that issue for a while. The labels and categories seem endless: vegan, vegetarian, locavore, etc. The reasons for the eating decisions are just as lengthy as the labels.

My belief has always been rooted in a very simple life principle, respect. Respect all those around you, including animals. Respect the land and the gifts it provides. Allow the animals that are consumed by people to live a healthy life with respect and dignity. I don‘t separate us from the food chain. I see humans as interwoven into the web-of-life just as a bird of prey is while hunting a rabbit. They don’t raise their food in small lots and pump them full of antibiotics and hormones!

Perhaps my need for raising my own meat isn’t as much as a search for healthy source of food as it is reminiscing of a life style, having grown up on a farm.

Over the years I became more and more aware of the short falls in our current US meat industry. I had all the knowledge, but kept making the wrong choices. Finally, I made the promise last year to stop eating all meat unless I knew that it was both raised and slaughtered in a humane and sustainable manner... in other words…..it was treated with respect. And so, to this day I have kept that promise. I know that my single choice to boycott confined animal feedlots, mistreatment of animals and poor quality food won't change anything within itself. However, I have been able to say for the last year that I played no part in a system that causes suffering of farm animals, environmental degradation, and toxic foods. And so I continue to hope for change and until then focus on the quote from Dr. Seuss’ Lorax , “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

I have become accustomed to eating out with family and friends and being labeled as a vegetarian since I won’t eat the meat. Eyebrows are always raised as people try to figure out why a farmer who raises goats, chickens, and hogs doesn’t eat meat. Hence, why I began calling myself the vegetarian meat farmer. This is always followed by a lengthy explanation of my eating practices that boils down to “I only eat animals I know".

Though for some it seems unthinkable to eat the very animal that you knew, fed, and raised. But to me it is the ultimate gift I can give to all livestock. I do morn the loss of each one of our animals, and the day I don't morn their loss anymore is the day I will stop slaughtering our animals. In sacrificing their lives, I put away my uncomfortable feelings and attachments to the animals and treat them with respect verses buying an animal off of the grocery meat market shelf that was in all practices tortured in both life and death. I refuse to be the proverbial ostrich with its head in the sand pretending not to know the injustices that these animals go through and the lies that have been literally “fed” to the American public. If only factory farms and slaughter houses had glass walls perhaps things would change.

And so, we raise our own meat in the manner that is agreeable to our family. As part of our farm, we raise two hogs a year on pasture. They are not kept in muddy pens and forced to wallow in their own feces. The hogs are free to roam the pasture and are supplemented with kitchen and garden scraps and some grain as they grow. They are given no antibiotics or growth hormones nor do we remove their teeth or cut of their tails (all common practices in confined feed lots). They enjoy their days on the farm and even receive baths with the garden hoses on hot summer days.

I will be honest; I never set out to raise hogs. In fact, the only reason they reside on my farm is because I love bacon that much. My husband is the one with the affinity for piggies. The story goes like this…a couple of years ago I received a phone call from Rick while I was at work. He asked me what I thought about buying a couple of feeder pigs. Before I could answer, I heard the squealing in the background and quickly realized that the decision had already been made.

I arrived home that night to see a small black and white Tamworth/Hamshire cross piglet staring back at me from the stall. Rick explained that one of the piglets had gotten out and was running feral in our pasture. He had tried in vain to capture the little guy. Though I have never been a hog farmer, I knew from growing up on a farm that grain is the equalizer to all animal/human disagreements. I grabbed a bucket of grain and sat out in the field. Soon the piglet was in my lap chowing down. And so began our exploration in hog raising………

This year has been no exception. We purchased two feeder piglets in the spring and in November we butchered both of them. One is transported to the local butcher shop less than two miles away where it is butchered and processed by hand and the other hog is butchered by Rick and a handful of friends in our barn.

Below are some pictures of our hog slaughter that took place in our barn in November. I hope these photos don’t offend anyone. Please remember that this animal was treated with respect and dignity from life to death. We thank our animals for giving their lives to provide healthy and nurturing food for my friends and family.