COVID-19 outbreaks have closed almost two dozen giant meatpacking plants nationwide, creating shortages on grocery shelves that have inspired shoppers to look for local sources.
Farms here that raise beef, pork, lamb, chickens and rabbits are noticing a sharp uptick in interest.
“It’s been crazy,” said Caleb Sturtevant of Botany Bay Farm in Brush Prairie. The farm saw meat sales jump in March.
Other farms have also experienced a spike in sales.
“Our direct sale to consumers went through the roof,” said Rachel Reister of Reister Farms.
McPhee Family Farms in Ridgefield has had trouble keeping pace with demand.
“In the last two weeks, it’s been very hectic to the point where you could sit on the phone all day responding to calls, emails, Facebook,” said the farm’s James McPhee. “I had to put a post on Facebook telling people to be patient.”
Connecting consumers to farmers
The Clark County Food Systems Council formed in 2008 to address this sort of supply-chain interruption, said Ann Foster, a council member.
A weak link in Clark County’s food system has been between farmers and consumers. Farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture programs have done their best to make the connection. Foster is working with Holly Hansen on a project called the Second Mile to create a centralized system for farmers to sell food to consumers.
As larger conventional food systems falter during the current pandemic, the gap between the farmer and the consumer is closing, as seen by the leap in meat farms’ sales.
Buying locally grown meat is a bit more complicated than tossing a shrink-wrapped package into your grocery cart.
The first step is seeking out a local farm (see list) that raises the kind of meat you want. Look for a farm that is transparent about how it raises and processes its meat.
Heather Carpenter, an environmental studies lecturer at the University of Portland, cautions that larger growers must process their meat at USDA-inspected facilities, but many states, including Washington, have created exemptions for smaller farms.
Sturtevant of Botany Bay Farm urges shoppers to investigate farms for themselves.
“Find a farmer you can trust. If the farmer is raising sickly animals that are not clean and not calm, then it will be hard to have a clean slaughter without contamination and the meat quality will suffer,” he said. “If you can, visit the farm or look up the farm online. By all means read the label and look for words like ‘antibiotic free,’ ‘grass fed,’ ‘pasture raised,’ etc. However, most terms on labels are not regulated or have broad definitions. Better to visit the farm and sniff around. Literally. If the farm smells bad, don’t buy.”
For those seeking meat immediately and willing to head out of the house, Botany Bay Farm’s on-site farm store offers pre-packaged cuts of beef, chicken and pork. The chicken supply in the store is lower than normal, Sturtevant said, but will soon be replenished. Ground beef, steaks, pork and ground pork are available. Bacon can be hit or miss.
“There is never enough bacon on a pig,” Sturtevant said.
In addition, the Vancouver Farmers Market recently opened with stalls from such local meat producers as Windy Hill Livestock and Reister Farms.
Some farms have added home delivery. Botany Bay takes orders on Thursdays and meat arrives via Fed Ex on Friday. Reister Farms also offers home delivery.
“We didn’t intend to be a home-delivery service, but we have customers who are at risk,” Reister said.
Steaks, chops, roasts
The most economical way to buy meat is in bulk. Buying a whole or half cow or pig can cause a bit of sticker shock to those used to paying for one steak at a time. Most farms selling cows or pigs offer some sort of payment plan. Lamb is less expensive because they are smaller animals. A half typically costs $180 and a whole lamb is around $360. For the average family, half a lamb will provide plenty of meat.
Few of us have ever bought massive amounts of meat at one time. It requires learning more about the animals we eat. The butcher will want instructions on how to cut the meat. Farmers recognize that many customers have never made these types of decisions and offer suggested cuts of meat to instruct the butchers.
One benefit of buying in bulk is that the consumer can customize how thick or thin the butcher cuts pork chops and steaks.
Storage can be an issue. When purchasing meat in bulk, it’s good to talk to the farmer about how much freezer space you’ll need to stow your cuts.
Bulk buyers will also have to expand their cooking skills. If you’re used to preparing boneless skinless chicken breasts or New York strip steak, cooking other cuts of meat will require some research. Many farms have recipes on their websites to help.
Rabbit, lamb
In this process of changing meat-consumption habits, sales have increased for something many haven’t tried: rabbit.
Michelle Week of Good Rain Farm raises Coeur D’Argent rabbits. Rabbits are high in protein and low in fat. They take up less land and are ready to eat sooner than cows or pigs. Week has seen an increase in people interested in buying rabbits since the outbreak of COVID-19. Meat sells out quickly and is sold on a first-come, first-served basis through her website. Rabbit goes well in most chicken recipes.
“It doesn’t taste like chicken, but it cooks like chicken,” Week said.
Good Rain Farm rabbits are domestically raised rabbits and don’t have the gaminess associated with wild rabbits.
Many new customers are buying lamb for the first time from Reister Farms.
“Lamb isn’t something people know how to cook,” Reister said. “But now people have time to learn.”
Farmers said the benefit of buying local goes beyond putting good-quality meat on your dinner table.
“When you buy locally raised meat,” McPhee said, “you’re helping to support their family.”
