NZ lamb is 100% pastured, lamb in UK is indoors in winter. The energy costs are enormous and are offset by lower ones in NZ.
But the question of this study did not go lfar enough. I maintain that reductionism is used often to distort the big picture. So instead of looking at a lamb chop or a leg etc, I think the entire lifecycle of the meat business in NZ and AU must be looked at. The NZ and AU meats you see are typically high-value cuts that account for a fraction of the animals… typically under 33%. So to make the economics of raising a lamb or cow, you have to sell the rest of the animal and here it goes largely to fast foods. So the economic benefit of the high-value stuff being greener might be offset by the costs of the latter. It is very complex to parse out the lifecycle costs of large scale production.
High tunnels are enclosures that go on a wheeled frame that can be moved up and down rows. They are designed so a tractor can work under them, so they are pretty big things. They let light in and hold the resultant radiated heat from escaping. They allow an early crop for farmers int he short seasons we have here in the Chesapeake/Mid Atlantic. Incredible quality in good years but short and difficult.
Oh, I didn’t know about the indoors thing. Interesting, thank you.
I was a manager of a meat CSA for many years where the premise was members received cuts from every part of the animal (although you were spared getting tongue, organ meats, etc unless you wanted it) in an attempt to ensure the farmer had demand (and a fair price) for everything. I learned how to cook and enjoy many cuts I had never had before, that’s for sure.
I like to cook low on the animal. And a shoulder chuck has incredible steaks in it. Denver/ventralis, huck flap, etc. Same thing with Sirloins: Pichana, center cut sirloin, baseball steaks and more. You can get a reasonable sized Sirloiin for half the individual prices of just the steaks you can get from it. Then you have the flank and skirts.
I rarely eat ribeye or NY strip because I like the more pronounced flavors of these lower cuts.
That is a small one that would not allow a tractor. Larger farms have much bigger ones. And there are several types of covers so you can collect heat and protect from too much sun etc. They are incredibly easier on the environment than green ouses which are energy hogs. One farmer I know who grows tomatoes has told me she wonders why hot houe grown tomatoes don’t just come with an electricaL CORD BECAUSE THEY USE ENERGY LIKE AN OLD WORN OUT APPLIANCE.
Outside of a farmer’s market scenario, my local supermarkets that use the local designation often have the city named too (Wegman’s sometimes names the farm) which is helpful. While there is some consideration to the environmental costs to the logistics of shipping, for me it’s driven more by supporting a smaller, local farm vs the big industrial farms. It’s not even necessarily based on an assumption they might be more organic, but that the produce can hopefully be picked closer to maturity and with better taste. For salad greens, every day counts before that darn red lettuce starts to turn into that disgusting mess in my salad mix.
The main reason people eat NZ lamb in Canada is that it’s much cheaper than local lamb, it’s easier to find, there’s more of it, and it’s available frozen.
Some local lamb is a lot better than others. I happen to cook lamb around once a week, and I recently bought some local lamb that was awful. It probably wasn’t stored properly before I bought it. Into the trash. I think some people don’t cook or eat lamb often enough to know better lamb from okay lamb. Some of the meat department staff where I live don’t know much about meat. As soon as I see any sign of oxidation, I don’t buy meat. The lamb is more expensive than beef or pork, and at the butcher counter, the local lamb often is a little more oxidized than it should be. I can see someone choosing NZ lamb that’s frozen immediately, over fresh local lamb that isn’t at its best because it’s old.
I don’t like the taste of the frozen NZ or Aussie lamb that’s exported to Canada. If I ever visit NZ, I will try the local lamb there.
Same here in PNW. And while there is plenty of local lamb to be had, I don’t think people around me eat much lamb. Judging by my local market, consumption is increasing but it is usually NZ that is being sold unless I go to a specialty store. I agree that domestic lamb can sometimes not be very good. Sometimes it is more like eating mutton. Mutton that has been sitting in the freezer too long. But that is the exception. Most is pretty good.
We used to eat lamb at least once a week. Before they got so popular and expensive, I used to buy up whatever shanks they put out at our local chain market(safeway). Other cuts were generally only available during holiday seasons. There were usually only 2-3 shanks out at a time so the guy behind the counter was used to me asking if he had more. One day, with confusion in his voice, he asked, “what’s up with the lamb?” He seemed to find me quite odd. If only he knew that most of the lamb we ate was bought elsewhere. So we were eating more lamb than he was aware of. Sorry to get so off topic.
There have been many articles about the fairy tale of local sustainable food. Many years ago I was visiting my parents in Florida and there were a couple of stories in the local paper that got some good buzz going. Basically even in a place where the climate is conducive to year round agriculture, much of what you are being fed (pun intended) is BS.
My personal view is that no one really wants to eat local and seasonal. Its just a fiction we tell ourselves. Otherwise why would coffee or tea be the drink of choice first thing in the morning for so many? In January in many parts of the country where the ground is frozen, we have salads with greens. Not mealy potatoes.
to make blanket statements – ‘no one really wants to eat local and seasonal’ – extrapolating from hyperbolic, cherry picked ‘exposes’ is intellectually dishonest and delusional. while pretty damning of the tampa bay food scene, i find it hard to believe that there aren’t some chefs there that have integrity. even if the conclusions of the authors were fully defensible, they have little bearing on other regional food economies where it’s demonstrably not the case.
apparently when i see my local chefs at the congested farmer’s markets every week, it’s all for show, an elaborate ruse.
Local and seasonal is intellectually dishonest. I challenge most anyone in America to eat exclusively long term on food that is grown and sourced within the typical definition of local of 100-250 miles of where you live, unless you happen to live near the central valley. Many so called farmers markets are not run by farmers. Unless you happen to be in a place where the farmers markets are regulated, like NYC. Having the locally sourced in housed candied cherry on top of the sundae that came with ice cream made with sugar from the Caribbean, vanilla from half way around the world, chocolate from Africa and dairy from the midwest while sitting in the oh so precious farm to table restaurant is the reality.
Even if you live near the central valley you would have a very limited diet much of the year and/or be eating lots of canned/frozen food. I suppose some do. Most people do not.
I don’t really want to agree with you but I pretty much do.
Eating at a restaurant that does its best to keep to local foods can be disappointing in winter and early spring. I really never need to eat pickled unripe strawberries again. I would have preferred to eat some ripe ones from CA which while would not have been at peak season, might have been available (this was in PDX). They would have been more local than ones from Mexico but not by much. It was a nice try though. I suspect they got tired of roasting carrots and playing with beets.
I shop local and buy local-ish because I awant to keep the money in my community. I shop at an orchard shop, I buy lamb from an indie butcher and he lists the name of the farm and County. I know the farmers at the farmers’ market where I shop from May to Oct. I know where their farms are located.
I obviously don’t buy everything locally. Our growing season is June to October . I focus on American and Canadian produce because I’m not sure I trust the pesticides used in Mexico and Chile. I don’t buy meat or produce from some countries because I don’t trust their systems.
I have run into more hives from frozen Asian seafood, and the preservatives they use are listed on the back of the packages. If I buy frozen seafood, I seek out what is processed or frozen in North America and Europe.
