Abstract
Why is it so hard to find goat meat in the United States? Although popular in diets around the world, most white Anglo-Americans lack this particular culinary tradition. To examine why goat meat remains underutilized, I take the state of Vermont as a case study. Vermont, one of the smallest and whitest states, is often credited with jumpstarting the popularity of goat cheese in the United States. Although home to many goat dairy farms, goat meat is rarely consumed outside small ethnic minority communities in the Burlington area. Many of these consumers import their goat meat from Australia, even as local farmers are euthanizing their male baby goats. In this paper, I explore the exceptions to this rule: Vermont farmers and consumers of fresh local goat meat. My research builds from extensive interviews with goat farmers, processors, and consumers, as well as analysis of livestock market reports and local news sources. I find that both producers and consumers of goat meat consider themselves alienated, both culturally and economically, from the mainstream American industrialized food system. They are able to succeed only by sidestepping traditional slaughterhouses and retailers, instead utilizing Vermont’s on-farm slaughter legal exemptions. Along with a growing awareness of the benefits of on-farm slaughter across other meat sectors, this pattern in goat processing fits into the longstanding historical trajectory in Vermont towards decentralized, hyper-local, and artisanal agriculture.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Goats, Meat Processing, Refugees, Ethnic Food, Slaughter, Small-Scale Farming, Vermont
