There is an interesting article here on a former rancher that has returned to the business to raise really good healthy, happy, and high-quality goat meat. The kicker to the story is that his partner is a vegetarian and yet helps in the ranching.
I find the changes taking place in the agriculture business to be really promising. I, too, am a vegetarian and couldn’t fathom eating goat, but I think diversification of the American pallet and a focus on producing really high quality small scale products is a good thing.
I am excited to see where all of this goes. Part of this whole economic conundrum that the world is going through is due to the fact that manufacturing and production (even physical labor in general) has been dying off as knowledge workers take over, and yet the bulk of knowledge work has been built around manufacturing and production (all those white collar jobs that the car industry is currently cutting). One of two things are going to happen (or more than likely both): we are going to change the way we think about paying for things and what we are willing to pay for no longer tying value only to a physical object, and there is going to be a return to craftmanship and a willingness to pay more for items that are well-crafted and thoughtfully produced. It seems that the food industry is on the leading edge of the latter as people are pushing back on mass produced and chain restaurants and focusing on fresh, small, and local.
The numbers of well-educated, former knowledge workers who are heading to the fields and workshops to focus on creative production work are increasing and I think that is a good thing for the well-being of our nation as a whole. This is a subject that deserves a lot more attention than this post and is something that I hope to revisit soon.
Addendum: There has been no bigger advocate for reforming the food that we as Americans grow and eat than Michael Pollan. In particular, he points to the fact that agriculture is currently more dependent on oil than sunlight. Jason Kottke raised the question recently as to whether either of our presidential candidates were aware of these issues and what their intent would be in addressing it. Today, he points to an article that indicates that it is in the very least on Obama’s radar. Pollan’s concerns may be found here and I highly recommend his books The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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