Local Meat: The Responsible Choice

One way in which you can reduce your environmental impact as well as save money is to buy any meat products you consume from a local butcher.  Many people will tell you to cut meat out of your diet completely, and yes, that does reduce your impact significantly... but I'm not going to tell you to do that.

I will never, ever tell you to do something that I haven't done. 

While I'm not a big meat eater, my husband and my daughter are.  That being said, I want to ensure that they have the best, safest, and most delicious meat that I can get.

Naturally, I want it to be inexpensive, as well.


Local butchers can give this to me.  The nice thing about a butcher is that you get exactly what you want in the exact amount that you want.  If you buy ground beef at the grocery, for example, your choices are limited. 

At a butcher, you can ask for an odd amount and it'll be happily weighed for you.  I was prone to asking the people at Eastside Choice Meats in El Paso for 2.75 pounds of ground beef.  It made it much easier for me to separate everything for the week's dinners without worrying about having too much or too little in any given dish.  Indeed, if I wanted them to, they would have separated everything for me, but that could get complicated with the erratic planning of my meals, so I always passed on that benefit.

Because I had everything weighed out according to my own needs, I saved money.  I don't need one full pound of meat per meal in my household, so why in the world should I buy that much?  Just because that's the way it was packaged?  Sounds silly to me.

Another important aspect of buying local meat is that it tastes better.  No, really, it does.  I never really believed that until I began going to a butcher for my animal produce, and it was rather shocking.  It hasn't had to sit on a truck for days before finally arriving at its destination.  That makes a huge difference. It's honestly fresh, which is a welcome change after shopping at grocery stores.

Speaking of sitting on a truck, that's another reason that a local butcher is a better choice.  "Food miles."  Much less fuel is used to transport meat locally.  Reducing fuel use is an environmentally responsible thing you can do for the world, and all you have to do to make a significant impact in this regard is to eat local.

Amazing how easy it can be, isn't it?

And yet...

I still haven't gone to a local butcher in my new town.  I've been to a bike shop, but no butcher.  Shame on me!  I need to get to it!  I miss my old meat market in the desert southwest, and need to stop dragging my feet so I can find something wonderful here, as well!