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Thursday, March 04, 2010

This is terrific news:
Nine people had paid $100 each to learn how to raise, kill and butcher the animals. One was a woman hoping to start a farm in the Bronx. Another was considering a move to family land in Montana. A couple dressed in black had traveled from the Upper East Side with their knives and cutting boards in an Abercrombie & Fitch bag.

...

As the pre-slaughter lecture in Brooklyn began, Ms. Carpenter prepared students for the moment.

“Today is a somber day because we are going to be killing rabbits,” she said. “But I am always psyched after slaughter because I’m like, now I’m going to eat.”

The rabbit events appealed to the kind of adventurous cook who signs up for weekend sausage-making classes, in part because rabbits are an especially good way to learn basic home butchery.
Don’t Tell the Kids (New York Times)

The Korean always thought Americans were too divorced from the process through which their food came to them, which led to -- among other things -- confusing the relative placements of humans and animals, being disrespectful of their food, etc. Killing the animal that you will eat (or, in the very least, seeing it die,) certainly gives you a heightened appreciation for the food that you eat. This should be a required course at school.

9 comments:

  1. The American Salaryman in Korea had a related discussion with the Korean Girlfriend who Spent Lots of Time in America the other night a chicken restaurant. The ajumma-in-chief running the place told us it would be a few more minutes because they had to defeather the chicken. The KGwSLoTiA remarked that there were young city folk at her office who probably didn't even know chickens had feathers, let alone that they had to be removed.

    Basically, my point is, I'm not sure that the current generation of Korean youth is any less separated from their food than their American contemporaries. Given their consumption of cup ramyeon and time spend with noses in books, unfortunately it may be even more the case.

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  2. I commented on this here, but I think you hit all the points that I was going to try to hit.

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  3. So many people in the comments of the NYT were saying things like, "Would you eat a dog? Then don't eat a rabbit." Unfortunately, nobody replied, "I do eat dog." Nobody understands that because some members of a species have one purpose, others of that species can have other purposes. I owned pet rats while working with and decapitating lab rats. Rather than confusing me, the things I learned from each type of experience enriched the other.

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  4. One word: hassenpfeffer ;)

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  5. Do you think it has anything to do with the actual state of the economy. That more people would consider having rabbit for meat?

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  6. tellos,

    Do you think it has anything to do with the actual state of the economy. That more people would consider having rabbit for meat?

    I could understand the sentiment but some how I find it unlikely that NYers in large numbers will go out and start a rabbit farm in their apartments to save money on dinner. They certainly won't be saving money if they buy them from a butcher.

    From the NYT article:
    And despite its reputation as a staple in frugal times, rabbit isn’t cheap these days. A seven-pound live rabbit might weigh four pounds cleaned and cost a restaurant $25 to $30. D’Artagnan sells a whole fryer rabbit for $36.99 on its Web site.

    I think it is more to do with what is cool these days. Butchers are cool

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  7. I'd say that once you leave the city and go to a rural area in the US, especially in a place like West Virginia, there is a higher appreciation for the animals that are eaten. I know here in a lot of schools the start of hunting season is often taken as a legitimate reason to miss school for a day or two, and just about everyone I know seems to go rabbit, deer, or squirrel hunting and fishing every now and then.

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  8. Alex.

    Thank you for the article, that really surprised me.

    The thing about rabbit, made me think of michael moor(Who isn't cool as a butcher)'s movie Roger and me. With that woman selling rabbit because of out of job.

    So Vegan are out now.

    Anyway that new trend make's me think of the movie "Into the wild" could be coming from that as well.

    Then end of the world is coming be ready to hunt for surviving :D

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