Eating locally and organically doesn't mean avoiding meat

By Caylan Davis
12/10/10

It's commonly thought that most Slow Food members advocate vegetarianism, but meat isn't frowned upon within the movement as long as it follows the Slow Food ideals of being locally and organically raised.

Slow Food encourages buying local and organic foods, a practice generally associated with produce. But that doesn't mean the movement limits a consumer's options to fruits and vegetables alone.

Willow Blish, one of Slow Food Boston's leaders, said "Slow Food in no way pushes any particular 'diet' or eating pattern. We merely ask people to make the best choices within whatever constraints they themselves choose to establish."

Blish herself is a vegetarian with vegan leanings for several reasons. She has some digestive intolerances, a general distaste for meat and she objects to the way that animal products are produced in the industrial food system. However, she still buys some meat products for her family.

"Since my husband is an omnivore, we do have eggs from free-range chickens and ground beef from pasture-raised, grass-fed cows in our refrigerator," she said, "both [are] from local farmers who I know by name and entirely trust."

There are several ways to obtain meat from local farmers in Boston. Some Slow Food enthusiasts purchase shares of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), while some choose less formal ways of supporting local farms.

Personal chef JJ Gonson is a self-proclaimed locavore, using mainly fresh and local ingredients in the meals she prepares. She is the co-sponsor of an unofficial event called a "Meat Meet" along with Stillman's at the Turkey Farm. Meat Meets bring a variety of local, organic meat to meat-lovers in Boston.

Three years ago, the event started as an impromptu meat purchase between Gonson and Stillman's Farms. It has since grown into a popular, semi-regular gathering. Roughly once a month during the winter months, Stillman's drives a selection of meats out to Cambridge and sells it out of the back of a truck in a parking lot for anyone who's interested.

The benefit for patrons is easy access to farm-fresh meat that they wouldn't have otherwise had.

Mathieu Lalonde, science safety officer in Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, belongs to Chestnut Farms' CSA in Western Massachusetts and attended his first Meat Meet in October. He said he's passionate about the health benefits of meat when it's raised properly.

"I like to shake the hands of the farmer, ask some questions, see the ingredients and know that I'm encouraging small farms that are going back to the old way of doing things right," Lalonde said, "and getting higher-quality meat as a result."

Lalonde eats a large quantity of fresh meat as part of his daily diet.

"I eat about a pound of meat per day. So my CSA share is 20 pounds per month.That lasts me three weeks," he said.

Buying large quantities of local meat can be expensive. That's why Rosemary Melli, regional governor of Slow Food in New England, suggests buying small amounts at a time.

"When you first look at that meat you'll say, 'Oh that's too expensive,'" Melli said. "But don't buy a lot of it, sometimes I just use it as a condiment."

The Meat Meets provide convenient access to local, organic meat but also a place to socialize with other like-minded eaters, and to share experiences and ideas.

"It's an opportunity for people to all come together and share an appreciation of something that they want," Gonson said. "So you don't just get meat, you also get that moment where you realize that you're not the only person that will stand in a cold parking lot and it kind of gives you that 'Okay, I can keep doing this because I'm not alone.'"

Justin Powers, a local-meat lover, said he participates primarily for the nutritional benefits.

"I think that raising meat this way with grass-fed animals is a safer way to raise it," Powers said. "Without having it in this factory-farm kind of environment you don't have animals getting sick, you don't have them pumped with hormones. And also being grass-fed, they get omega-3 fatty acids which is something that's really missing from a lot of people's diets."

Powers said that socializing with fellow Meat Meet goers was also a big part of the fun.

"You come out here and you talk with people about what they're getting, what they're gonna make with it," he said. "It's a good way to chit chat, you never know who you can meet. You can make friends, maybe find a date."

Along with buying fresh and local, Slow Food emphasizes the enjoyment of food in a community setting as one of its core values.

Co-organizer and Harvard Law student Nate Rosenberg said the communal aspect of the Meat Meets is a crucial part of why they're successful.

"People who like food tend to be social," he said, "food is kind of a common denominator."