Meat and right

I believe our attitude to meat requires radical reform. I'm delighted to say I am not the only one championing an alternative approach to meat production and a return to some of the older, more holistic values of meat cookery. There are a good number of chefs, writers and commentators, plus hundreds of farmers and meat producers, committed to a similar set of ideas. But ultimately the only person who is going to effect any significant change in the way meat is produced, sold and cooked, is you - the consumer. So it's you I'm after, and your habits I hope to change.

Already thousands of people are beginning to shop for meat in a more thoughtful way. If you are one of them, I hope I can add a little to your commitment to and enjoyment of good meat. But if I may be unabashedly honest about my ambitions, what I really want to do is help to change those thousands into millions. And The River Cottage Meat Book, due out later this year, is, alongside my journalism and television work, one gesture towards that ambition.

Cooking is a daily drama, still staged to some degree in almost every home. One of my jobs as a cookery writer is to make sure that every episode has a happy ending - and, with a bit of luck, a happy beginning and middle as well. I want you to enjoy cooking, eating, and feeding your friends because I believe these are among the higher pleasures and privileges of our short time on the planet. And I believe that meat, at its splendid best, helps us achieve this sense of shared contentment better perhaps than any other food. But another reason I've written about meat is because of my alarm at what meat eating can be at its worst: an ignominious expression of greed, indifference and heartlessness.

After eating badly produced, badly butchered and badly cooked meat, you may be left thinking, if you are prone to such thoughts, ‘You mean an animal died, for that.' I hope that if you read my book on meat you will have such thoughts rarely, if at all.

I like to argue, and I like to digress, and I like to take some time in cajoling my readers to consider and, I hope, embrace my theories about food. But what I'm saying in the new book is not really very complicated. As an exercise for my own benefit, I tried to summarise it all in a few bullet points. When I did so, it seemed to make sense, and even to be worth reproducing. So here it is - my ‘meat manifesto', if you like, expressed as a series of questions and exhortations to you, a visitor at rivercottage.net.

Do feel free to answer back ...

MY MEAT MANIFESTO

• Consider how much meat you eat. Is it, perhaps, too much? Too much for your good health? Do you imagine that your personal meat-eating habit, extrapolated to a national level, might put undue pressure on farmers to produce mountains of cheap meat of dubious quality, by dubious means?
• Think about the meat that you eat. Is it good enough? Good enough to bring you pleasure every time you eat it? Could it, should it, be better? Perhaps it would make sense to spend a little more on it, a little less often. Or to buy cheaper cuts of better meat.
• Think about the animals that the meat you eat comes from. Are you at all concerned about how they have been treated? Have they lived well? Have they been fed on safe, appropriate foods? Have they been cared for by someone who respects them and enjoys contact with them? Would you like to be sure of that? Perhaps it's time to find out a bit more about where the meat you eat comes from. Or to buy from a source that reassures you about these points.
• There might be a different way of buying meat that works well for you, that could guarantee better quality and give you a cleaner conscience. Could you shop more locally, buying direct from the people who actually farm the animals that produce the meat? Or could you use a butcher who can tell you where all his meat comes from, and get special things for you when you want them?
• Think about the way you cook meat. Do it justice. Respect it. Understand a little (or even a lot) about what happens when you roast a joint or bird in a very hot oven, or when you simmer meat slowly for hours, with subtle flavours. Discover the remarkable difference that resting roast meat, for 15 minutes or more, before carving it, will make to its texture, and therefore its taste. A few small adjustments to your kitchen habits could bring big benefits.
• Are you adventurous with meat? Do you explore the tastes and textures of different cuts, particularly the cheaper cuts and offal? Could you save money and eat better by doing so? There may be all kinds of recipes, not complicated, not expensive, that could breathe new life into your meat cookery and bring more excitement and satisfaction at mealtimes to you, your family and the friends you entertain.
• Are you thrifty with meat? That's not the same as mean. In fact, it's practically the opposite. Being creative with leftover meat means getting more from it. You're making it more generous to you and, in so doing, paying greater tribute to the animal that has died to provide it.
• Finally, if you accept that there is any moral content at all in the way we treat animals, then you must accept that there is a moral dimension in your dealings with meat. Please think about it, don't shirk it.