When BackpackMr and I recently moved to the Minneapolis area, I was thrilled to return to city life, and I was looking forward to greater access to culture and the arts, but I was most excited about Herbivorous Butcher, the nation’s first vegan butcher shop.
So fervently was I anticipating my first visit to Herbivorous Butcher that I was literally having dreams about editing cookbooks for them and doing their public relations and media relations work. They seem to be at full staff, and they have an extremely capable and responsive social media manager, but I’ll continue to dream, while eating their incredibly delicious products.
I know in my heart the world is ready for this, and it’s exciting just to be in the city where it’s all beginning to unfold.
Why is this important? Today, more than ever, we need to make conscious food choices, and Herbivorous Butcher offers delicious, healthful alternatives for our seemingly insatiable hunger for meat. If you haven’t done any reading or documentary watching on the state of our food system (in particular factory farming) and what it’s doing to our planet, the beautiful creatures who inhabit it, and our health, here’s the Cliff’s Notes version: it’s ugly.
Here’s just one example. Worried about water? Changing to a plant-based diet is infinitely more effective at preserving our planet’s dwindling drinkable water supplies than taking short showers, or “if it’s yellow, let it mellow,” ever will be. Ever.
But the truth is, you don’t have to be an activist, or even concerned about the planet, to hunger for a better way. And Herbivorous Butcher’s stuff is GOOD. So good! Imagine korean-style ribs! Steaks! Sriracha brats! Chewy, savory, hickory-smoked BACON that trumps any other fake bacon product out there today! And how about jerky?
Maybe you just want less saturated fat in your diet. Maybe you are concerned about animal welfare, but don’t know what to do about it. Maybe you want to lighten up your meals. Or you’re concerned about food safety, mechanical tenderization, irradiation, hormones or the like. Or maybe you just don’t love the taste of meat and want to see what else is out there, perhaps something other than the highly-processed frankenfoods in the vegetarian frozen foods section.
Full disclosure: I am not vegan. But I strive to be as often as possible. So I am not trying to be sanctimonious or to cram an ideology down your throat. Rather, I just want to celebrate a place that has nailed it, innovating a new way to satisfy our palates, one which is delicious, earth-friendly, healthier, local and even craveable.
In true, animal-friendly form, they even allowed Ms. Brooklyn to visit–and your dog is welcome, too. For the record, she loves the ribeye!
You can follow Herbivorous Butcher on Twitter to learn more, or to see their daily menu: @TheHerbivorousB.
Get some.
Want to learn more about our food systems? Check out the following documentaries:
Forks over Knives
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (1 & 2)
Hungry for Change
GMO OMG
Earthlings
Food Matters
Cowspiracy
Charish Badzinski is an explorer, and award-winning travel and food writer. When she isn’t working to build her blog: Rollerbag Goddess Rolls the World, she applies her worldview to her small business, providing strategic communications, media relations and writing support to individuals and organizations.
Find Charish on Twitter: @charishb
Rollerbag Goddess Rolls the World by Charish Badzinski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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