High Meat Prices Got You Down? Maybe We Need To Go Old School

Like a lot of people, I've been choking at the price of meat at the grocery stores lately.

I'll admit, I haven't had many ideas about what could be done about it, save for eating less meat.  But in recent years, there's been renewed interest in an older-school alternative.

Don't keep me in suspense.  What are you talking about?

Basically, the idea is to cut some of the middlemen out of the equation entirely and buy the meat directly from local farmers and ranchers.  By doing so, in theory, the consumer gets more for their money, and the farmer/rancher gets more of the profits of the sale.  Because more money stays local, it helps the local economy.

It turns out my dad and his side of the family used to do this, but stopped either before I was born or when I was very young, likely for reasons explained below.

Sadly, it isn't as simple as calling up Farmer John Doe and saying, "I want to buy half a cow's worth of meat", picking up and paying for the meat, and being done with it.  Under current legislation, meat that doesn't go through a licensed processor or inspection facility can't be sold.

So there needs to be at least one other business involved.

Yup, you can buy the animal (or part of it) direct from the farmer/rancher, but you also have to pay to have it processed professionally, which means you don't save as much money as you might otherwise think.

So it still works, it just takes more planning and preparation compared to just picking it up at the store.

Sources:  Food & Wine, MSU Extension, MT Dept. of Livestock