Local Good Meat

The food we have traveled farthest from, and have the least control over, is the meat we now eat.

Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Local Good Meat

In fact, four of the nation’s largest meat packers now control over 80 percent of the beef we eat.  The trend is the same for chicken and pork as well.

The reason offered for the consolidation of the meat industry is the economies of scale advantages that can be gained by growing and processing many animals instead of a few.  These economies are especially evident when it comes to the costs of complying with government food safety regulations.  Given these economies, and the consolidation they engender, most all of us now eat meat grown and processed with chemicals we can’t pronounce and would rather not eat.

This consolidation of the meat supply chain has also led to lower prices being paid to farmers and higher prices being paid by consumers.  It also results in consumers having very little control over what is actually in their meat.  Everyone loses, except the consolidators.

There is a solution for those who would like to eat what they believe is a more ethical meat.  The solution is being proposed by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, which is located in Virginia’s Shenandoah River Valley.  Joel says, “What we need is a ‘Food Emancipation Proclamation’, and a marketplace in which there is no government bureaucracy to stand between farmers and the consumers of their meat.”

Salatin’s Food Emancipation Proclamation leads us to ask…

Tune in here, for the syndicated Michael Olson Food Chain Radio Show #1402 October 25, 2025 Saturday 9AM Pacific