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Here we have an example of everything which is wrong, and continues to be wrong with American Food Culture–How to mass-market Green (environmentally friendly) low-input Grass-fed Beef Hamburgers. The article talks about industrializing an artisanal product, how difficult it is, but how it can be achieved. I must ask, however–to what end?
In this telling paragraph:
For example, the food service company dictates that the patties must be cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit and the ebb and flow of business at many of the sites where the patties are used necessitates that the burgers must be par-cooked and held until there is a rush, whereupon they will be cooked the rest of the way. These are truly the worst-case conditions for a grass-fed beef hamburger.
. . .I find the solution to the problem–don’t do it! Why industrialize something which is the antithesis of industrialization? Why mass-market something to a fast-food, consumer could care-less what they’re eating situation? If this example represents a "worst-case" scenario for grass-fed burgers, than shouldn’t the model change, or shouldn’t it just be accepted that grass-fed meat will not fit into this mold?
It is once again the case of cramming a square peg into a round hole. Rather than provide a solution–hey, grass-fed artisanal meats need a grass-roots artisanal venue to display them at their finest: say, a local organic, or green, hamburger stand where they take pride in what they serve–the owner of this business wants to take on the big boys. But how "green" is it to ship your product around the country to serve customers meat that has been par-cooked and held for hours? What reputation does your product get then? Perhaps one which it deserves, to the detriment of grass-fed meat everywhere.
Whether you process the meat yourself into hamburgers or anything else really isn’t the point. I would hope we can get back to a situation in this country where artisanally produced foods are processed by the farmer who raises the raw-materials. The real question is what you do with the product once it is made. Where is it going, who is using it and how will it be shown to its best? And if the answers are not "locally", "Small-scale, quality sellers", "by providing the customers with fresh, and better foods" than there will be major snags. I wonder how many of those artisanally crafted burgers end up in the bin after being held for hours–how green is that? Where is the respect for the animal and environment shown in that? That is not the way forward.
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