Six days no chickens would die

Folks seem excited about the new slaughterhouse at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Evidently

[Dan Barber] and Craig Haney, the livestock manager for the center, decided it didn’t make sense to have their poultry slaughtered elsewhere. Hipsters and eco-friendly entrepreneurs may be opening more farms in the Hudson Valley, but starting a slaughterhouse doesn’t have quite the same appeal, leaving a gap now that so many of the bigger slaughterhouses in the area have been forced out of business by tightening regulations and slim profit margins.

As part of the local food movement Barber champions, this move makes sense. Less stress on the birds, and fewer food miles, etc. But the article is sort of peculiar. The headline "How about [a?] Slaughterhouse Tour Before Supper, Food Lover?" suggests that BH@SB diners will be scraping the detritus of the abattoir off of their loafers as they consult the wine list. But, first of all, it appears they are only doing chickens in-house. Traditionally, the slaughterhouse for chickens on a farm is a stump and a hatchet, so we are not exactly in some sort of groovy local and sustainable version of the meatpacking plant in The Jungle, in any case. More baffling:

But the tour, for now, stops short of bringing visitors inside. Knowing the slaughterhouse is there is one thing — seeing what happens inside is another. “No, that might be too much,” said Mr. Barber, who confessed that the first time he visited a slaughterhouse, he experienced the same visceral revulsion that non-foodies often do.

Oh, and:

Mr. Barber is clearly taking it one step at a time, and the farm is still considering how it might (safely) open up the slaughterhouse to interested individuals or groups (for now, slaughter day happens on Tuesdays, when the farm is closed to the public). He’s just relieved that the existence of the slaughterhouse hasn’t “grossed people out and made them not want to order here,” a concern that suggests how little he senses his organic-friendly clientele truly understands about what goes on at a farm.

So, BH@SB has a slaughterhouse, or barn where they kill chickens, more properly speaking, but you can't see it on the tour, or be on the farm at all when the slaughter happens. According to Barber

“We thought a lot about how diners were going to feel knowing that their chickens were slaughtered here,” said Dan Barber, the chef and co-owner of the restaurant and a partner with the Stone Barns Food and Agriculture Center, which runs the slaughterhouse and sells the restaurant its poultry and lamb. “We were a little worried.”

The only context where this might make sense is if a) BH@SB had been running a "No chickens were harmed in the making of this roast chicken" disclaimer on the menu, or b) had been telling diners that the chickens were those that committed seppukku, and left instructions to be served at BH@SB. Being a mindful carnivore means being aware as much as one can of the circumstances of the life and death of the animals you eat. In the absence of any contact between diners and their meals, this story seems about as compelling as news that BH@SB bought a washing machine, and will be cleaning its linens in house.

It's a book, and not a restaurant, so the relationship between chef and patron is different, but a glance at the opening pages of The River Cottage Meat Book, which features a series of graphic photographs of a cow being slaughtered, and a thoughtful explanation of the rationale for doing so, suggests that Barber might be underestimating his patrons, and that this article certainly overestimates the newsworthiness of this development.

Comments

[Scott.]

Please let me know when I can get a tour while you are slaughtering larger animals. I spent many a summer killing chickens via cervical dislocation (break their neck). It's to pretty if you don't get it right the first time. I am a contentious carnivore. I believe if you can't watch it (or do it) you have no right to eat it.

Scott