Grist - Turning cows into steaks: inside a mid-scale slaughterhouse

By Daniel Klein
February 11, 2011

"There are many levels of animal eaters, farmers, and processors in this country. Even among the green-minded, we have passionate vegans and rampant paleo-style carnivores. There are those who support large farms for their efficiency, and those who want every farm to have only an acre of produce, a cow, and five chickens. As for meat processing, nearly everyone is freaked out for one reason or another. Most of us hate industrial meat processing; others fret that small-scale operations are dying out..."

http://www.grist.org/sustainable-farming/2011-02-11-turning-cows-into-steaks-inside-a-mid-scale-slaughterhouse-video

Check out the video below featuring Lorentz Meats, a mid-scale meat processing plant in Minnesota. According to Klein, "the small-is-beautiful types think Lorentz is getting too big, but the company is touted as one of the most efficient, clean, and successful processing plants here in Minnesota -- widely used by small farms." This facility is a good example of finding a middle ground between unrealistically small operations and those that are factory-sized and therefore more difficult to monitor and maintain standards of quality and health.


The Perennial Plate Episode 14: Meat from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.