Sustainable Vocations

"It made me consider even more how important it is to know how the meat I eat becomes meat, from the food it’s fed, to the way it’s kept before and during the processing."

"Chicken Processing" -Whitney Bell

There’s a flock of chickens on the farm that are bred for meat rather than eggs. We learned about Brenton’s way of processing them from a living bird to being ready for cooking. Brenton brought the bird over to the station in his hand and was very calm. I was feeling really nervous and anxious because I didn’t know how I would respond! The station was made out of a table and a long, flat piece of metal that funneled into a construction cone that was turned upside down and attached to the end of the table and metal. The opening was widened so that the birds’ head could fit through easily. He gently placed the bird upside down in the cone and attached its feet to the top so it would be comfortably suspended. He explained that position made the bird confused, and that the blood would go to its head and would make it almost unconscious after a couple of minutes. He sang a harvest song as he held his hands over the birds’ eyes to make it feel comforted, and after a couple minutes he cut around the birds neck and it died. It was upside down so the blood mostly left the body and we plucked it and took out the organs afterward.

            I was amazed to watch this happen, and most of us in the group cried a little, some a lot. We talked about the conditions and treatment that most birds and other animals experience in slaughterhouses, and I realized that each piece of meat I have ever eaten meant that an animal had gone through this, but probably most in a much less respectful way. It made me consider even more how important it is to know how the meat I eat becomes meat, from the food it’s fed, to the way it’s kept before and during the processing. The way Brenton honored the lives of the birds was moving, and I know that it is very rare. Warren said that many of the people he knows who process their own animals leave about a month in between each time so that they don’t lose emotion and compassion. It was amazing to watch the bird transform from full of life to lifeless. When the head and feet were taken off, suddenly I recognized the chicken as something else…nothing like the breathing animal I had just seen. Since the chickens sold in stores  are missing the elements that we associate with living creatures, like the eyes, it’s a lot easier to forget that it was once alive. So much to think about…