Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Save the cows, eat a steak!

Now here's a conservation program I can get behind:
Ask Joe Henderson any question and odds are he’ll give you a very thorough answer. But ask him how to save one of the most endangered breeds in the world, the Randall Lineback, he’ll give you a very short retort: You have to eat it.
Donate to the World Worcestershire sauce Fund!
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12 comments:

John Richardson said...

That's one funky looking cow!

If it's good beef, no need to hide the flavor with Worcstershire Sauce!

Tam said...

I needed a meat-related word that began with "W" and was in a hurry. ;)

jetfxr69 said...

I wonder if a non-purpose-bred (heirloom) breed would be a good fit for an off-grid kinda place?

(sarc)Naaahhhh. Couldn't be. The only possible use is as meat at high-end restaurants. (/sarc)

Seriously, I wonder if he'd consider selling starter stock to someone who didn't intend to run a herd dedicated to a foodie city.

Joanna said...

If you want more of something, make it profitable to keep it around. Not just valuable, profitable. Charge admission, sell it to restaurants, rent it out to birthday parties, do whatever you have to do. If somebody's got a vested interest and some of their own money sunk into it, they'll find a way to keep it going.

Roscoe said...

Neat article. The description of the breed ( but not the pictures ) sounds a lot like Piedmontese - very lean meat and bred as triple purpose ( meat, dairy, and draft ). Piedmontese are lots more temperature tolerant, though. I've heard of herds from Georgia to the Dakotas.

Anonymous said...

jetfxr69, I don't know about him; I do know that several of the herds in CT have sold steers for use as oxen. But they don't breed for that use; so chances are good in a few years it will be only a dual-use breed. Oxen don't pay, veal does.

Jonas said...

In America, we eat endangered species to keep them from extinction. In Mumbai, they let endangered species eat them to keep them from extinction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/world/asia/cultivating-vultures-to-restore-a-mumbai-ritual.html?_r=0&pagewanted=all

There's a 'in Soviet Russia' joke in there somewhere...

RandyGC said...

Joanna said..."If you want more of something, make it profitable to keep it around."

Something they have demonstrated in Africa. Once the local villagers in and around parks and wildlife refuges have a stake in keeping the wildlife alive to attract tourist money, poachers end up having very short interesting careers. (interesting as in "please arrest me before the locals get to me").

Geodkyt said...

Yup -- it's even more noticeable with African nations that allow controlled hunting, versus those that try to keep the animal population at it's maximum for camera safaris.

Nearly identical ecosystems in neighboring countries, only in one all hunting is illegal, whereas the other one not only does controlled culls, but sells the rights to do the culls to wealthy Western hunters.

Guess which one has poachers spraying down herds with Kalashnikovs and then finishing off the wounded (usually with the local villagers assisting and almost always refusing to tell the cops anything), and which one has poachers found in the bush by game officials (often times sans heads or limbs from unfortunate encounters with machetes)?

Joseph said...

I suppose you disagree with the bumper sticker "SAVE A COW EAT A VEGETARIAN"

Ed said...

I have heard that those vegetarians do not taste very good, or have poor taste, or something.

Geodkyt said...

Ed:

Vegetarians have all teh texture of veal boiled in milk, and all teh flavor of tofu.

What? Why are you all looking at me?!?

[Furiously scrubbing meat tenderizer into my clown suit]