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>  From:    Ashley Moran <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Vegetarianism

>  Now I've got nothing against farmers earning a
> living, but how much can it cost to let a cow wander round a field
> eating grass for two years?

*** Depends. There's more to ranching than simply letting cows wander around 
and eat grass, especially if you are doing it without chemicals (wormers, 
vaccines, antibiotics--all the things needed to keep conventionally raised 
animals alive). In my county, land values are so high that every farmer I 
know could easily sell their property for many times more than they can hope 
to make from farming. Even with marketing directly to consumers and cutting 
out the middlemen, it still costs far more to raise quality local food. 
Industrial farms lobby for tax breaks and so forth, the little farmers 
generally go without those supports.

> Right now it feels like organic meat farms are taking advantage of
> their relative scarcity and promoting themselves to Marks & Spencers
> shoppers (sorry, don't know how to translate that for US readers,
> think opposite of Walmart).

*** As an organic meat farmer, it feels like many shoppers want 
humanely-reared grass-fed organic local meats, but want to pay the same 
price as confinement-reared government-subsidized animals fed garbage ("you 
cut out the middle man so you should be charging less than the grocery 
stores, right?". Organic/naturally-raised meats cost easily twice what 
grocery store meats cost here, and even so, nobody is getting rich raising 
them. Fortunately, most of us have more demand than supply, but I don't know 
anybody who is doing it for the money.

--Carrie