Comment on Gelatine
Machinist@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoMy ethical views of livestock/game animals, factory farming, slaughter/hunting are pretty much identical to yours. From the Southern US.
Worked on farms as a kid. Chicken houses are a nightmare. The suffering inherent in industrialized meat production is hard to overstate.
I’m rebuilding our little farm. We’re going to have steers, chickens, rabbits. Deer are very overpopulated and I’m going to be taking does to fill our freezer. Trophy hunters are disgusting. (Full disclosure, I’ve taken one trophy, will likely be the only one I ever take, she wouldn’t have made it through the winter.)
Ethically, I think that if you’re going to eat meat, you should have to kill and butcher an animal at least once. We’d have a lot more vegans that way. Factory farming should be abolished.
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not gonna lie, I’m super jealous after reading that.
Not with the experiences of chickenhouses, I’ve seen the inside of industrial meat production as well. I didn’t see any live ones, so I haven’t been at a slaughterer’s.
But like jealous of the possibility to build a farm.
I’d probably give my left testicle if I could go from this bureaucratic bullshit to sort of homesteading. But in Finland, never gonna happen for me. Way too fucking expensive. And big brother got the family house (at an unfairly discounted rate as well.)
I’ve been thinking of just hunting despite living in an apartment. It’s legal. I’d have to prolly use a bow but thats no issue. (Not the accuracy or knowing how to draw one in general). Even if I did everything legally, I’m pretty sure someone might call the cops if I had a carcasa on my balcony. And despite it being legal, I can’t them coming over because of the weed I grow.
But like a chest freezer.
Yup. Small scale farming at most and well regulated at that.
Machinist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That sucks. My wife and I saved and scrimped for years, and put a big chunk of retirement savings into it. We also moved 700mi/1100km buying the place without visiting it to make it happen. Huge leap into the unknown and we got very lucky to make it happen. We realized we needed to get out of the deep south in 2020. Couldn’t afford to leave the country.
Small game should be totally doable for you if you’re allowed to own a shotgun or . 22. (I love squirrel hunting, I harvest deer because we all love venison but find hunting them missrable and boring.) You could even process deer in apartment without your neighbors knowing. Gut in the field. Quarter or at least bisect them at your vehicle. Put parts wrapped in plastic in duffle bags. Carry into apartment. Further processing like skinning/deboning in bathtub/shower. Use cheap coolers with ice to do what is called wet aging the meat(common in the Southern US as it often isn’t cool enough to hang).
Dasus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
See that’s making assumptions, my American friend.
I see deer all the time and I have a bow, although not a hunting bow, and I don’t think it’d take me that much practice to pass the shooting test for a hunting license with a bow.
But I’d have to field dress it then carry/bike it back to my apartment. And I grow weed, which is illegal, so I don’t know if I want giving cops anymore excuses with my annoying neighbours calling the cops over things they’re not used to, or in the worst case, like a trail of blood going to my door. (Obviously there wouldn’t be trail, you’d have it in packs or bags, but like, metaphorically.)
Also my freezer is nowhere near big enough for even a small deer.
That’d save me money though, and it’d be an experience, but honestly, it’s just easier for me to grow weed, sell some, then use that cash to buy game from the butcher’s.
I could look into joining a hunting group, but I live in the city and most hunting groups are in the towns outside the city, and you can’t join them unless you live in the same municipality.
A car would be great. If I manage to buy myself a station wagon and a chest freezer, I’ll reconsider the hunting bit.
Machinist@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Got me. Totally made that assumption. I now live within an hour of downtown of a large metropolitan area, there’s even bus service here. However, even here, life without a vehicle would be full of hardship.
I’m used to only the extremely poor not having a vehicle. I don’t know the percentage, but a large chunk of our homeless live in their vehicle and have jobs. Which sounds like pure hell.
Another assumption I made is game not being available unless you hunt it yourself. I’ve read about butchers in Europe selling game but I have no experience with it. The only wild meat you can purchase in a store is saltwater fish, pretty much everything else must be farmed. I understand, and agree, with the original intent. Market hunting was a terrible thing, effectively wiped out the buffalo for instance. It now needs to be brought back, and closely managed, for whitetail deer.
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella is a fascinating book. Rinella is one of the few modern hunters that I respect. He also has a show, MeatEater, that’s pretty great. He’s a thinking man’s hunter.