Buying meat directly from farmers may do more harm than good, despite good intentions.
In recent years, the trend of "buying directly from farmers" has become increasingly popular. Supporters simply want to "buy fresh ingredients" and "support Taiwanese farmers," but poultry and livestock products cannot be handled the same way. Because meat processing is complicated and time-consuming, after farmers raise animals to maturity, the animals must first go through slaughterhouses and cutting plants, and then be delivered by distributors to major supermarkets or restaurants. Every step requires professional division of labor and cooperation. Only when producers each fulfill their own roles can they work together to maintain the standards and quality of meat products.
Why must meat be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse?
1. Government regulations:
1. Article 29, Paragraph 1 and Article 32, Paragraph 1 of the Animal Industry Act stipulate that livestock and poultry shall be slaughtered in a slaughterhouse and may only be cut, processed or sold after passing a veterinary slaughter hygiene inspection.
2. Policy banning the slaughter of live poultry in traditional markets: In June 2013, regulations were amended so that traditional markets could only sell chickens, ducks and geese after electric slaughter. This means all poultry and livestock must enter a slaughterhouse for electric slaughter before they can be sold in markets.
2. Quality and safety: Once an animal dies, microorganisms immediately begin to grow, and the meat changes quality accordingly. Therefore, the operating temperature of a slaughterhouse must be maintained at 15°C. After slaughter, the meat is pre-chilled, then cut and packaged at low temperature. For frozen meat products, rapid freezing and frozen storage are also carried out, with low-temperature transport throughout the entire process.
Buying meat directly from farmers is not only illegal; it is also more likely to raise the following concerns:
1. Unsafe: Without veterinary inspection, how can it be guaranteed that the animals are not infected with legally designated infectious diseases? Is it because they had obvious diseases that they were not sent to a slaughterhouse for processing?
2. Not fresh:
(1) Farm temperature cannot be controlled at 15°C: Most household air conditioners installed on farms can only lower the temperature to 24°C at most. Unless a compressor at the level of a cold storage warehouse is installed, the temperature cannot be controlled at 15°C. Just in terms of temperature control, there is a huge difference between professional standards and self-perception. Even more absurd is that most private slaughtering processes are often carried out at room temperature. If animals are slaughtered at a high temperature above 30°C, the meat spoils even faster. Unless it is eaten immediately, after more than 2 hours its quality becomes a concern.
(2) Low-temperature logistics delivery takes at least one day: Unless the farm is in Taipei City, urban logistics has a chance of delivering it the same day. Or unless your home is next to a slaughterhouse, only then can you eat "fresh" meat. But please stop deceiving yourself and others into thinking you can really eat freshly slaughtered meat.
3. Unhygienic: Whether environmental hygiene is adequate differs from person to person, but in addition to having professional veterinarians stationed on site to ensure quality, legal slaughterhouses are also regularly confirmed each year by the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine of the Council of Agriculture or by professional certification bodies. If measured by the environmental hygiene standards recognized by ordinary farmers, it is actually failing in the eyes of veterinarians.
Furthermore, farmers at the farm end are the source producers in the meat industry chain. They are good at raising and caring for animals. If they also have to transport animals to slaughterhouses, or negotiate with sales channels over cutting, packaging, shipping, quality control, shelf placement, returns and exchanges, promotions, graphic design, and even media public relations, this not only squeezes out the aforementioned working time and may lead to a decline in production quality. Most importantly, because they cannot focus on their core profession, overall costs keep rising, which runs counter to the good intention of "buying directly from farmers."
If we listen to farmers' needs, they are none other than: stable selling prices and selling out all products. Farmers should focus on raising animals, producing toxin-free meat and reducing costs; slaughterhouses and processing plants should pursue the highest production quality; distributors should take into account producers' needs and sell at reasonable prices. Because each profession has its own expertise, only when everyone fulfills their own role can the industry chain operate sustainably and continue to produce fresh, safe, high-quality meat.
Author: Kuo Hsu-ying, founder of Hearty Butcher Shop / veterinarian who passed the government senior examination