Campaign to Save Small Abattoirs in Ontario

Here's an important side note on my trip to Stratford last Saturday that arises from a question I asked pig farmer Fred de Martines, who raises the wonderful walnut-fed wild boars, and whose son raises the Tamworth and Berkshire pigs that so many food lovers around town rave about.

The photo shows one of his Iron Age pigs, a cross between wild boar and Tamworth. When I look at the expressive and intelligent face of that animal, it confirms my feeling that any thinking person has only two choices: either to eat a vegetarian diet or to endeavor to cherish every ounce of meat as a precious gift to be eaten sparingly and treated with care at every stage. So raising the animal with kindness while he's alive, using safe food handling techniques after he's been butchered, being willing to pay more for pastured meat and being careful not to waste any are all part of the same continuum.

This cheerful porker gets a chance to run around in the sun, root in the mud and eat non-GMO grains grown a stone's throw away using sustainable agricultural methods, unlike many "factory-farmed" pigs. When the time comes to be eaten, de Martines explained, he (she?) will be trucked to the single remaining abattoir in Perth County. Upon arrival, this pig and fellow porcine travelers will be nervous and tense, and that will make their meat tough. They're allowed to relax overnight, and in the morning they'll be among the first through the slaughterhouse, which is about as good an end as a food pig can hope for.

Like many farmers, de Martines is worried that small local abattoirs – already a rare commodity – are about to disappear entirely. He points out that in a small meat processing plant, smaller machines are used, so it's possible to dismantle them entirely every night for cleaning. Therefore, he believes, the chances of contamination by listeriosis or similar bacteria is much smaller than in a big processing facility where you simply can't get inside the machinery to clean it properly.

If this is something you're interested in, you can find out more about the National Farmers Union campaign to save small, locally owned and operated abattoirs in Oxford and Perth countries. If you feel as convinced it as I do, you can print out a letter to Ontario's Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Carol Mitchell. I will be sending one.