Part of animal
agriculture is providing food for consumers. While this may be a controversial
topic for some, it is part of life. As I’ve discussed in some of my previous
posts, many people are becoming much more disconnected with agriculture. In the
past few years the new term “harvest” has been pushed to be used by producers
instead of slaughter or going to market. Now part of agriculture is producing
animals for human consumption. People need to know the market process because
it is just part of the life cycle and it should not have to be mellowed out to
make it seem nicer.
Now when animals go to
market there are several rules that are followed to make it less stressful for
the animal. When loading turkeys on trucks they go in the early morning when it
is dark yet and use blue lights. Turkeys can’t see in the dark so they have
less damage to the birds because they are calmer. Before animals go to market they should be
off feed for 12-24 hours. This is a done because then the meat will be safer to
eat. If they have had feed before processing there is still feed in the
digestive tract and this often can lead to contamination and food born
illnesses. 
Meat packing plants are designed to make it the
most humane for animals. Dr. Temple Grandin has been a huge influence on plant
designs and I have had the privilege of hearing her talk at two different
events. I would highly recommend a person to watch the video “Dr. Temple
Grandin explains beef slaughter process in video tour” to understand processing
a little better. This video can be found at: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Dr-Temple-Grandin-explains-beef-slaughter-process-in-video-tour-167549335.html
She has a very good
point at the end of the video where she says she does not convince people they
are wrong if they don’t eat meat, but that it is important to understand where
a person’s meat comes from. The video also is an excellent tour of the plant and its design.
When meat is being
sold the USDA has laws that require certain labeling. COOL requirements or
country of origin labeling is one area that the department regulates. Sellers must have meat labeled by country of
origin and this allows meat to be traced back to anywhere it was produced in
case of an outbreak of some sort. More information about COOL labeling can be
found at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/cool
Having been on two
different national poultry judging teams I have had experience at judging
chicken and turkey carcasses. The USDA has different qualities that whole birds and parts are
judged on to determine the grade. Bird with more than 1/3 of the flesh being
exposed because of missing skin, 2 broken non-protruding bones, 1 broken
non-protruding and 1 disjointed, or any broken protruding bones are
automatically a C grade. A grade can have 1 disjoint and flesh no more than ¼
of a square inch showing. B grade carcasses are somewhere in the middle and
some qualifications vary depending on the weight of the carcass. Missing meat
and bruising are also factors that are considered. In the end marketers try to sell the most desirable product to consumers while getting the meat in the most humane way.
C Grade due to more than 1/3 skin exposed on drumstick
C Grade because of missing meat
