I found this fantastic link on twitter…
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html
Titled: Dan Barber’s foie gras parable. It is about the dilemma of a chef trying to eat sustainably and ethically, but loving foie gras, and a farmer in Spain, Eduardo Sousa that has managed to make the best foie gras without the force feeding (gavage) of ducks or geese. The whole video is about 20 minutes, but I think it is well worth it.
Dan tells the story of how, with foie gras we have industrialised a natural process (yet again), and how by revisiting nature, we end up with a much better tasting, more ethical, more environmentally freindly and sustainable food.
He sums up by saying that the way we produce food now is an “insult to history, an insult to nature and an insult to biology”. Whether we are talking about Beef Cattle (in a feedlot) or chickens (in factory farms) or Broccoli (in large monocultures)…. and might I add pork (in factory farms)
I think that we often forget about the cost to the environment that we make even when we choose to go vegetarian, if we support the type of farming that is the standard today… monoculture, pesticides, herbicides, GMO’s, chemical fertilisers. Too many of us forget about that sort of thing because we cant see the suffering and cant connect with that living being (I myself have never hugged broccoli for example, or petted an earthworm, even when we grew organic broccoli, but I will Kiss a Pig… can’t help myself, they are a lot more cuddly.)
He also states that “The most ecological choice for food, is also always the most ethical choice for food, whether we are talking about brussel sprouts or foie gras. And it is almost always… I haven’t found it otherwise… the most DELICIOUS choice”
That is certainly what we have found on farm. Wild pigs actually try to come and live on our farm, they think life here is even better than what they have in the wild. The flavour of our pork is amazing as well. Even with our leaner pigs, the pork is sweet… Nearly everyone tells you that the sweet flavour comes from the fat, but ours is still sweet when it is really lean.
I keep telling people at the markets that I never used to eat pork until we grew our own… most people probably think it is a load of BS to get you to buy more, but it is true. Jack used to beg me to cook a pork roast, but I couldn’t. I could smell something wrong about it when it was cooking (a really dirty smell that actually made me nauseous (I have a similar thing with factory chooks… like they are marinated in ammonia or something)) and then the taste of it was very similar, definitely not an experience I wanted very often. I was actually worried about eating our own pigs, because I didn’t think I would like the meat… couldn’t have been more wrong. I could eat it every day, and did for about 8 months, but then Jack started asking me to cook beef…
