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Here is a good video on the subject: http://meat.org

let's not forget that killing vegetables is vegetable cruelty.

Spectator slaughter, "kapparos", "looking in the eyes of your dinner while "it" is still alive" are ALL sickening forms of ANIMAL CRUELTY.

This is another example of the barbarity.
"Spectator slaughter" is a form of animal cruelty.

New York State works against local meat and the small family farm. Take the tradition of the pig roast. In rural upstate New York the pig roast is a popular way to celebrate weddings, retirements, graduations, birthdays, and holidays. Until fairly recently one could go to a family farmer in the neighborhood and pick out one of the dozen or so pigs he was raising that year for just that purpose. He would slaughter it for you and you would pay him directly. You can't get more local than that! No one ever got sick from this meat. You knew the farmer, the farmer knew the pig, and cared about its health and your health. But this simple transaction is now illegal. The meat must be butchered in an expensive certified place and inspected by a certified inspector. The small farmer cannot afford that. People get sick from animals that are raised on factory farms and butchered by low-paid workers with no relationship to the animals. It is now almost impossible to find a small family farm with a few head of livestock for local consumption.

hold on, i wasn't kidding!

My parents are immigrants and when I was a kid, they used to go to a local farmer and order up a whole calf or lamb or pig. One week later, they would go back to pick up the animal, which would be slaughtered, skinned, and sliced open, but otherwise intact. They then spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon butchering it right there on the kitchen table, placing ALL the body parts into freezer bags (including organs) for use in the upcoming weeks. I used to love watching this. We were also friends with the local butcher.

16, 18 how interesting, thanks

I said that kind of backwards. I have a headache.

I meant there are a variety of reasons for being a vegetarian. Certainly, one of the advantages is greater food safety.

I think it's ridiculous that a large # of vegetarians would begin eating meat again just because the lag time from farm to table is shortened. The vast majority of vegetarians and vegans object to animals being killed at all.

Look at the newly opened Dickson's at the Chelsea Market.

The butcher there, Adam Tiberio is the real deal, not some fashion butcher. They've got first rate local meats and it is butchered properly. You'll find excellent product in Williamsburg but the poseurs hacking it give the term "butchered" it's derogatory meaning.

If you're looking for excellent product and excellent cuts, get to Dickson's.

I am from Argentina and I know a little bit about meat. It's irrelevant to talk about butchers in this way. We need to talk about what the animals eat and how are they treated. If people don't demand to know this things we are doomed. By the way, americans really don't get what food is about...they probably never will.

Caitlin from Jersey City - Jeffrey at Essex St. will get it for you. Call him a day or two in advance.

CJ -- can you extrapolate on your comment?

If more of the animal is being used, could that mean fewer animals would need to be raised? That would be helpful for environmental reasons.

Any discussion of this topic is incomplete without the inclusion of Jacob Dickson of Dickson's Farmstand Meats in Chelsea Market. He has democratized nose-to-tail eating in New York City and deserves his place in the butchery Hall of Fame.

My DAD is my butcher. Have you all talked about the millions of american hunters who kill and butcher their own meat?

What!?!?! Vegetarians don't "not eat" meat just because it might be slightly safer.

Chicken feet are readily available at any dim sum restaurant in Chinatown. They taste better than you'd imagine.

well, might as well ask this since it was my big connundrum of the weekend -- where can I find sausage casing not made from pig??

Any recommendations on where to find decent and not insanely expensive venison?

I know my butcher, but I'm not so sure about his meat...

Barbara - I love Jeffrey!

The other good thing about knowing your butcher is that you can request specific cuts that Whole Foods of Fairway doesn't have - like pork livers and cow hearts.

This is not some cool, hipster Williamsburg trend as the NY Times and NY mag frame this; Williamsburg is one of the few neighborhoods in the city that actually still HAS butcher shops, hence the interest.

That said, my old-school butcher (HI MARIO!) is right across the street and we have a line of credit there.

(Ribs, yes) ;-)

Given what I now understand from people such as Michael Pollan about the diets and so called life cycles of factory food cows and pigs prior to their butchering, I would consider eating their organs to be too risky. Whole Foods included.

To put it more succinctly -- I wouldn't eat the heart of a cow I never met!

Great LES third generation butcher ~ Jeffrey's at the Essex Street Market!