Why Is Beef So Expensive?

A note to listeners: This episode includes frank discussions about raising, slaughtering, and processing animals for food. While it’s not graphic, I thought I’d warn you ahead of time.If you’ve bought beef lately, you’ve probably experienced a little sticker shock. Ground beef, once one of the most affordable ways to feed a family, is starting to feel like a luxury purchase. And a good ribeye? You might need to take out a second mortgage.But here’s something that doesn’t make sense.If Americans are paying more than ever for beef, why are so many ranchers, independent butchers, and small meat companies struggling to stay in business? Where is all that money going?This question is especially personal because I learned some of the answers the hard way, by closing my whole-animal butcher shop, Electric City Butcher in 2023. Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.When I became a butcher, I believed I was part of a movement that could fundamentally change the way Americans bought and ate meat. Working directly with small, family-owned farms in California, butchering whole animals by hand, and finding a customer for every cut. If we connected people with the farmers raising their food, we felt they’d appreciate the difference and be willing to pay more for it.And many did.But the economics were brutal. Labor, processing, transportation, and the challenge of selling an entire animal made running a responsible meat business far more complicated than we’d imagined.Around the samel time, today’s guest, Cliff Pollard was building Cream Co., a Bay Area meat company with a similar mission but a very different approach. While Electric City Butcher was trying to sell meat directly to consumers, Cliff was building the processing and distribution infrastructure to help responsible ranchers reach larger markets.Ten years later, we have a lot to talk about.In this week’s Enlightened Omnivore podcast, Cliff and I explore what we’ve learned about the meat industry, what we got wrong, and why building a better food system is so difficult.* Is the corner butcher shop extinct?* Why can grass-fed beef from Australia cost less than beef raised in California?* Have restaurants lost interest in where their meat comes from?* And what happens when doing the right thing for farmers is bad for business?Most importantly, we explore what I call the missing middle—the slaughterhouses, processors, distributors, and other businesses that connect the people raising our food with the people eating it.It’s a part of the food system we rarely talk about, but one that may hold the key to making responsibly raised meat more accessible and affordable.Join us for a conversation that challenged some of my assumptions about the meat industry. It might challenge a few of yours, too.Resources and LinksWant to learn more about the economics of responsibly raised meat?* Cream Co.: Learn about Cliff’s company and its approach to sourcing and distributing meat.* Companies and organizations mentions in today’s pod:* Certified Humane* Food Alliance* Mindful Meats* Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors* Prather Ranch* The Missing Middle: Read my earlier essay about the infrastructure challenges facing regional food systems. * USDA Cattle & Beef: Explore the economic forces affecting cattle supplies, beef prices, and international trade.PLEASE RATE THE PODCAST OR LEAVE A REVIEWPlease don’t forget to like this post (that little heart button), and rate or review the podcast wherever you listen. Your help makes sure more people will find the show.Have Thanksgiving Questions for Me?On Saturday, November 14, at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET, I’ll be hosting my next Substack Live, where you can ask all your Thanksgiving dinner questions.Should you brine your turkey? How do you keep lumps out of gravy? What’s the best way to cook a heritage-breed bird? And where can you find a really good turkey in the first place?Bring your questions, or send them in advance. I’d love to help make your Thanksgiving dinner a little easier and a lot more delicious.CookStack CollectiveThis month’s CookStack class features Kerry Faber making gluten-free Cabbage-Wrapped Chicken Parm Meatballs—a perfect comfort food combination for fall.If you missed the November 10 class, paid subscribers can catch the recording, along with previous CookStack classes.Become a paid subscriber to access these classes and support Enlightened Omnivore.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading, share this article. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

I spend a lot of time on Enlightened Omnivore talking about meat. I am a former butcher after all. I love eating meat, but I am also deeply curious about what role meat should play in our agricultural system, our food economy, and ultimately on our plates. Should we be eating less of it? Raising animals differently? Finding entirely new ways to produce the foods we love?And the more I learn, the more I find myself sitting on the fence between two seemingly opposing solutions.On one side are the people who believe we should stop eating animals altogether. That the environmental and ethical costs of raising billions of animals for food are simply too great, and that the future of food needs to be plant-based.On the other side are people who believe we should raise animals better. Restore our grasslands, rebuild healthy soil, support farmers and ranchers who are working with nature rather than against it to repair the damage already done.I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people on both sides of these arguments. And frankly, at the highest level, I find myself agreeing with much of what each of them has to say.But here’s what troubles me: Why do these solutions so often seem to be in conflict with one another?Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Why does supporting regenerative animal agriculture have to mean rejecting alternative proteins? And why does advocating for plant-based foods so often mean dismissing the possibility that animals can play a beneficial role in a healthy agricultural ecosystem?Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.Instead of arguing about which foods we need to give up, what if we spent more time figuring out what we could add?Imagine a protein that’s naturally occurring, renewable, packed with nutrients and fiber, and can be grown in a fraction of the time and space required to raise livestock.Something that isn’t assembled from a long list of isolated proteins and ultraprocessed additives, but grown as a whole food through using a production method humans have perfected over thousands of years: fermentation.And what if that ingredient could be used to make a convincing burger or chicken nugget? Or, perhaps more interestingly, what if we could combine it with real meat to make something that tastes familiar but uses fewer animals?Would that be a compromise? Would it be gross? Or could it actually be progress?Today’s guest is trying to do exactly that.Paul Shapiro is the founder of BMC Ingredients, previously known as The Better Meat Co., a and he’s making food out of mycelium, the root-like structure of fungi.Paul is most definitely on one side of that animal husbandry fence. A longtime animal-rights advocate, a vegan of more than three decades, and the author of Clean Meat, a book exploring the future of meat grown in a lab rather than on pasture.But I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and visited The Better Meat Co’s production facility in Sacramento a couple of years ago, and I was fascinated by what I saw. Rather than raising animals or growing crops in fields, his company cultivates fungi in giant fermentation tanks—like beer—producing 9,000 liters of protein in less than a day.But as promising as this technology sounds, of course I have questions. Now, that sounds promising, but of course, I have questions. Is it really better for the environment? Can it compete with conventional meat on price? ? Aren't there concerns about patenting such an important part of our food supply? And do we improve the food system if it becomes more technologically complicated?Paul and I don’t agree on everything. But that’s precisely why I wanted to have him on the pod. Because I suspect the future of food won’t be found on one side of the fence or the other.It’s more likely to be found in the messy middle.PLEASE RATE THE PODCAST OR LEAVE A REVIEWPlease don’t forget to like this post (that little heart button), and rate or review the podcast wherever you listen. Your help makes sure more people will find the show.Resources and Links* BMC Ingredients — Learn more about Paul Shapiro’s company and Rhiza, its mycelium-based protein ingredient.* Clean Meat by Paul Shapiro — Paul’s book about the promise and challenges of growing meat without animals, updated in 2024.* Perdue Chicken Plus — An example of combining conventional chicken with plant-based ingredients rather than replacing meat entirely.* USDA Silvoculture — In response to Paul’s request for data on ways animal husbandry could expand to more regenerative models without resulting in further deforestation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

NOTE: This episode isn't just for hunters. If you're a city dweller, lean more veggie than meat, or would never touch a rifle, I especially encourage you to listen. You might be surprised by what we uncover about food, nature, and slowing down.It’s hunting season, and millions of Americans are heading into the backcountry in search of deer, birds, and other wild game.I’ve only been hunting for a few years, but this season I’ve been getting out with my son, and it’s become one of my favorite parenting experiences. Although many young hunters learn from seasoned relatives, we’re learning about our land, our equipment, and our hunting instincts together at the same time. It’s a new experience for me to be both teacher and student at the same time. And boy, do I have a lot left to learn.After a few weekends trudging through the hills and ravines of the Mojave Desert looking for tiny birds, I’ve had a lot of time to think. As I become intimately more familiar with the land around my cabin—as well as how many doves or quail it takes to feed a family—I wonder more and more, what if hunters understand something about our relationship with food and nature that the rest of us have forgotten?Few people are better prepared to answer that question than today’s Enlightened Omnivore Podcast guest, Hank Shaw.Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Enlightened Omnivore. Every little bit helps me continue to make this content.Hank is a James Beard Award-winning food writer, hunter, angler, and forager. He’s also author of seven books about wild food and creator of the website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. I met Hank through his Substack newsletter To The Bone, which even if you’re not a hunter, is a great read about the constantly evolving chapters of life, and the lessons we can learn from them.I was honored to have Hank on the show last season, and I invited him back because he’s been busy. He just revised his best-selling cookbook, Buck, Buck, Moose. It’s practically The Joy of Cooking for deer hunters, which is especially fitting since Hank once served as The Joy of Cooking’s fish and game editor.We started our conversation with how to cook, what else, venison! And this book is chock-full of plenty of recipes for every edible part. But after a while, our conversation wandered well beyond the kitchen.We explored the changing face of American hunting, as more women, younger adults, and people of diverse backgrounds find their way into the field. Folks are searching for more food sovereignty, and for some, hunting is allowing them to take greater control over what they eat and where it comes from.We also discussed Hank’s changing relationship with cooking now that he lives alone in Minnesota. When he’s not the guest chef at a restaurant, or teaching one of his week-long culinary hunting workshops, he’s embracing something he calls “quiet eating,” a simpler, more personal approach to preparing and enjoying meals alone.We considered the uncertain future of food writing as artificial intelligence radically changes the Internet. We learned we share a favorite ‘guilty pleasure’ road trip junk food. And Hank described an encounter with a rare white coyote while deer hunting in California’s Sierra Nevada.He had a wonderful metaphor for what happens when humans first enter the forest. We’re like rocks dropped into a pond, sending ripples outward that alert everything around to our presence.But stay still long enough, and those ripples begin to settle.These days, Hank is less interested in bringing home as much game as possible. Instead, he likes to pause long enough in nature until those ripples disappear. I think there’s something to learn from that for all of us, whether we’re hunting, hiking, gardening, or simply sitting on our porch watching the world go by.Sometimes, the best thing we can do is stop moving, take a breath, and let the ripples flow.PLEASE RATE THE PODCAST OR LEAVE A REVIEW Please don’t forget to like this post (that little heart button), and rate or review the podcast wherever you listen. Your help makes sure more people will find the show.Resources and LinksExplore Hank’s work* Hunter Angler Gardener Cook — Hank’s extensive collection of wild-game recipes, foraging guides, preservation techniques, and stories from the field.* To the Bone on Substack — Hank’s newsletter exploring hunting, fishing, foraging, cooking, and the lessons these pursuits offer for everyday life.* Hank on Instagram — Follow his cooking experiments, outdoor adventures, and book-tour updates.* Hank’s events and appearances — Visit his website for upcoming book signings, demonstrations, and culinary hunting events.Books and Recipes We Discussed* Buck, Buck, Moose — Hank’s revised guide to butchering, preparing, and cooking venison, from familiar cuts to sausages, offal, and traditional meat pies.* Hunt, Gather, Cook — Hank’s first book, which helped introduce readers to the idea of taking greater responsibility for their own food through hunting, fishing, and foraging.* Borderlands — Hank’s exploration of the food and culinary traditions of the American Southwest and northern Mexico.* Venison recipes — A starting point for cooking deer, elk, and other venison, including ideas for readers who don’t hunt.* Venison Steak Diane — The dish I prepared with a backstrap generously shared by Enlightened Omnivore reader “Kurt” before our conversation.* Minestrone — A seasonal soup Hank has been making for nearly two decades and an example of what he means by quiet eating.A Few More Things Worth Exploring* Broken Arrow Ranch — The Texas wild-game supplier Hank recommends for people interested in purchasing venison rather than hunting it themselves.* Alan Bergo — Forager | Chef — A fellow wild-food expert Hank mentioned while discussing his ongoing experiments with unusual edible plants, including Kentucky coffeetree beans.Nov CookStack Collective Class: Kerry FaberOur November CookStack class is coming up. Kerry Faber will show us how to make gluten-free Cabbage-Wrapped Chicken Parm Meatballs—the perfect comfort food combo for the start of Fall. I’m gonna ask if we can also substitute leftover turkey?Join us Tuesday, November 10th at 4 pm ET on Zoom or learn more about the CookStack Collective here. Also, free subscribers will still have access to videos of all previous classes, so you haven’t missed out on anything!The class is free for all paid subscribers, who can register using the special link below. Come hungry!And, if you missed the October CookStack class, Nicki Sizemore made her glutten-free pumpkin apple cake and whipped ricotta dip with sautéed mushrooms. It was a great class, and lucky for you, it’s recorded! You can rewatch the video here.If you’d like to attend future CookStack Collectives and get access to past recordings become a paid subscriber now! Substack Live! October 24th: Ask Me AnythingI’m hosting an Ask Me Anything Substack Live on Saturday, October 24th at 9am PT/12pm ET. I’ll be sharing some behind the scenes Podcast conversations, talking a little more about what I’m writing this fall, what I’ve been reading, and answering your questions, so come ready to pry.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading, share this article.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you to Peter Giuliano, Jennifer, chad and many others for joining me live for this morning’s October Ask Me Anything—and to those of you catching up now, I’ve shared the recording above. We covered a lot of ground yesterday, from Halloween traditions and fall cooking experiments to some bigger questions about food, nutrition, and our relationship with nature.* First, I shared my latest Halloween experiment: letting my backyard chickens carve our jack-o’-lantern! * We also talked about our family’s relatively new Día de los Muertos ofrenda, a tradition we’ve embraced as a way to remember loved ones who have passed. * I loved hearing about some of your family traditions, including Sicilian ossi di morti cookies and some pretty gruesome Halloween party foods!* On the culinary side, we got into a spirited conversation about making hummus from dried chickpeas versus canned, the secrets to good tahini, and whether olive oil belongs in hummus or only on top. * We also debated the merits of Greek olive oil (you know where I stand!) and explored some of the wonderful ingredients available at Middle Eastern grocery stores.* I shared me experimenting with flourless chocolate cake, partly inspired by a recipe I learned from family in France. Please share your favorite gluten-free dessert ideas.* And somehow, we even found time to talk about my newfound obsession with purple calla lilies and the simple pleasures of bringing a little nature indoors.* Finally, we discussed this morning’s newsletter, The Liver King and the Rise of Dark Nutrition, and my thoughts on dietary absolutism. Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.As always, the best part of these Substack Live sessions is hearing from you. Your questions, cooking tips, family stories, and occasional disagreements make these conversations so much more interesting than anything I could come up with on my own.I want our time together on Substack Live to feel like sitting around the kitchen table—coffee in hand, a little wandering, lots of good questions, and room to think out loud together.Remember, if you missed it live, you can watch the recording above. And if you have thoughts, questions, or suggestions for future AMAs, please put them in the comments below!Here’s to a curious, delicious, and slightly spooky October.Next Substack Live! Ask My Anything ThanksgivingNext month Saturday November 14 at 8am PT / 11am ET, I’ll be hosting my next Substack Live where you can ask all your Thanksgiving Dinner questions. How do you keep lumps out of your gravy? Do you brine? What’s your favorite side, where to source the perfect bird. All the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years are just a chat post away from helping you in the kitchen this Thanksgiving. I hope you’ll join.New Podcast: Char MillerThis week’s podcast episode was with Environmental Historian Char Miller. We cover a lot of ground on all things climate change, What I loved most was Char’s infectious enthusiasm, even when talking about something that is seldom a warm fuzzy. You can hear the entire episode on Substack or wherever you listen to your podcasts, and a really easy way to support this work is to follow the show on your favorite app, or leave a rating /review. And don’t forget, you can always share it with a friend.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading, share this article.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

The climate we grew up with isn’t coming back.That’s a sobering thought, especially for those of us who grew up in Southern California, where sunny skies, cheap water, and seemingly endless natural resources were part of the California dream.But according to environmental historian Char Miller, we’ve been living in a changing climate for decades. We just haven’t fully accepted it yet.Char happens to be my neighbor and teaches at my alma mater, Pomona College, where he’s the W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History. He’s an award-winning historian and prolific author who has spent his career studying our relationship with the natural world. I invited him onto Enlightened Omnivore to explore climate change from a historical perspective, not just the science of what’s happening, but how we got here and what we can learn from the past.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Our conversation covered a lot of ground, from the dwindling groundwater supplies that sustain American agriculture to the role of regenerative farming, the history of wildfire suppression, and the increasingly complicated question of how to preserve national parks when the very landscapes we’re protecting are changing.We couldn’t go long without talking about food, and our discussion about agriculture raised an important question: How do we continue feeding a growing population when the water and soil we've depended on for generations are increasingly under pressure?Another theme kept resurfacing: We need to stop fighting nature and start working with it. Whether that means restoring soil health, allowing controlled fires to reduce wildfire risks, or rethinking where and how we build our homes, Char believes we have to adapt to the natural systems around us rather than pretend we can control them.Despite several moments of doom and gloom, what I loved most about our meandering conversation was our discussion about hope.Char is hardly naive about the challenges ahead. He acknowledges the severity of the climate crisis and the political obstacles to addressing it. Yet as a historian, he also knows that people have confronted seemingly insurmountable problems before.He makes a distinction between hope and optimism. Hope isn’t believing everything will turn out fine. It’s what motivates us to act even when the outcome is uncertain.And increasingly, that action may need to begin in our own communities.Char argues that most often change must come from the bottom up. Neighbors, communities, and local governments can collaborate, build coalitions, and spread successful ideas beyond their own city limits. Small changes become meaningful when enough people work together. Check out the resources and links below if you’ve been inspired or are curious about doing more. We ended our conversation in an unexpected place, talking about the beauty of small things in nature and the simple pleasure of watching the sunrise.It’s a reminder that even as the world around us changes, there’s still so much worth appreciating, protecting, and working together to preserve.Resources and Links* Here’s Char’s website including his biography and extensive bibliography.Some of My Favorite Books By Char Miller* Burn Scars — Char Miller Char’s 2024 book on the history of fire suppression, Indigenous cultural burning, and how American wildfire management evolved. * The Nature of Hope — Char Miller and Jeff Crane This one explores grassroots organizing, environmental justice, and collective action when it comes to conservation.* Not So Golden State — Char Miller Essays about California’s complicated relationship with its natural environment, including water, wildfire, and land-use decisions.Adaptation and Mitigation in ActionThese are a few examples of the ideas we discussed already being put into practice.* Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System An actual example of large-scale water adaptation, Orange County’s water recycling system can produce 130 million gallons of purified water daily.* Clean Power Alliance — Claremont A local example of communities working together to purchase cleaner renewable electricity at the municipal level. * CAL FIRE — Prescribed Fire: Explains how controlled burns can reduce wildfire risk, including efforts to expand prescribed and cultural burning.TODAY!! Substack Live Oct. 24th: Catching UpI’m hosting an Ask Me Anything Substack Live later this morning, Saturday, October 24th at 9am PT/12pm ET. I’ll be sharing some behind the scenes Podcast conversations, talking a little more about what I’m writing this fall, what I’ve been reading, and answering your questions, so come ready to join the conversation.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading, share this article. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

Earlier this spring, I interviewed journalist and author Nancy Matsumoto for an article in Pomona College Magazine, our mutual alma mater.Nancy had just published Reaping What She Sows: How Women Are Rebuilding Our Broken Food System, a fascinating book about the women farmers, entrepreneurs, and community leaders creating alternatives to industrial agriculture.I had decided to record our interview so that I didn’t have to take notes. Although we hadn’t talked about it in advance, I started treating the conversation like a podcast interview, just in case. Turns out, I made the right call.Nancy’s answers to my questions about regenerative agriculture, food waste, and women farmers, were some of the best I’ve heard in quite a while. In fact, she was so succinct and on point that I barely edited the 40 minute conversation even though she never knew it might become an Enlightened Omnivore Podcast. I did ask her permission to share our chat before I posted it.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. Become a paid subscriber to keep this content coming. I could use the help.None of this should surprise you. Nancy has had an impressive career in food. She’s an award-winning author, journalist, and editor. In addition to Reaping, she co-wrote a James Beard Award-winning book on sake, and her articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, The Los Angeles Times, Civil Eats, Saveur, NPR, and numerous other publications. She has a fantastic Substack called Reaping, by Nancy Matsumoto, and regularly posts Substack Live interviews with women in agriculture. The more conversations I have with people like Nancy, the more convinced that a better food system is on the horizon, but only if we all lend a hand. In addition to committed farmers and ranchers, it will take the butchers, millers, distributors, writers, cooks, and consumers to make change. Nancy shares a lot of suggestions on how you can get involved at your local level, and I’ve included links at the bottom of this article,If you do one thing on that list, think of the potential impact we might have on changing how food is raised in this country. Plus, Nancy promises it can be fun, and delicious!Ok, go listen to the episode, and check out the links below. And if you think a friend might want to take a listen, please share Enlightened Omnivore using the button below. And if you’re listening to the podcast somewhere else, please make sure to follow, and rate this content. It helps a lot. Lastly, if you have any questions or comments about today’s episode, please visit me on Instagram at @enlightened_omnivore. I post about each episode and read all your comments. I might even respond on a future podcast episode.More from Nancy and Me* Reaping What She Sows — Nancy Matsumoto’s book* Reaping, by Nancy Matsumoto — her Substack. Nancy writes about the people building shorter, more transparent and equitable food supply chains.* Rethinking the Food System — Pomona College Magazine. My original interview with Nancy about her book.* The Missing Middle — Enlightened Omnivore. My follow-up essay about why regenerative farmers need more than good agricultural practices to succeed.Organizations Mentioned in Our ConversationBuilding alternative food systems* Lotus Foods — A rice company working with smallholder farmers to promote more sustainable growing practices, while bringing its products to mainstream retailers.* Full Belly Farm — A diversified organic farm in California’s Capay Valley, co-founded by Judith Redmond, that Nancy discusses as an example of interconnected farming systems.* Maine Grains — A stone-grain mill in Skowhegan, Maine, helping rebuild a regional grain economy and supporting other local food businesses.* Veritable Vegetable — A women-owned organic produce distributor demonstrating how the often-invisible work of distribution can support a more sustainable food system.Community food organizations* Karma Co-op — The member-owned grocery cooperative in Toronto where Nancy participates in the food issues committee, investigating how products are grown and sourced.* Slow Food USA — A network connecting people through food traditions, biodiversity, education, and local food advocacy.Want to Get Involved in Your Own Community?One of Nancy’s most practical suggestions is to think beyond what we buy at the grocery store. Buying directly from farmers is wonderful, but we can have a much greater impact by helping schools, hospitals, and other institutions source food from local and regional producers.Find your local food policy councilThe Food Policy Networks directory is an excellent place to start. It includes an interactive dashboard of food policy councils across the United States. These organizations bring together farmers, consumers, public health professionals, community advocates, and policymakers to improve local and regional food systems.If your community doesn’t have a council, you might consider joining an existing food organization or helping organize one.Find your local Slow Food chapterSlow Food USA’s chapter directory connects people with groups working on everything from school gardens and farmers markets to preserving regional food traditions.Consider joining a food cooperativeA member-owned food co-op can be a way to support responsible sourcing, local producers, and greater transparency in the food supply chain. Nancy’s experience at Karma Co-op shows how grocery shopping can become a form of community participation.And of course, don’t overlook your local farmers market. Get to know the people growing your food, ask questions, and learn how you can support their work beyond making a purchase.CookStack Collective October: Nicki SizemoreEach month, you can attend a LIVE cooking class with the CookStack Collective. Paid subscribers get access to some of the most talented people on Substack! CookStack brings together 12 amazing food writers (myself included) to teach you a dish or two LIVE. It’s like having your own personal chef teaching you how to cook some amazing dishes. Together, we’ve created a year-long series of live cooking classes that are all about cooking with and learning from one another.The October class is hosted by my good friend Nicki Sizemore! She’s sharing how to make two fall staples — a whipped ricotta dip and a grain-free pumpkin apple cake.Nicki’s class is Friday, October 16, 2026, 10am PT / 1pm ET. All events are recorded.This class is free for you as a paid subscriber! Be sure to register at the link below:This post has bonus content for paid subscribers. Upgrade to get full access.Substack Live! October 24th: Catching UpI’m hosting an Ask Me Anything Substack Live on Saturday, October 24th at 9am PT/12pm ET. I’ll be sharing some behind the scenes Podcast conversations, talking a little more about what I’m writing this fall, what I’ve been reading, and answering your questions, so come ready to pry.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading or listening today, send them this episode.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

Heather Thomason and I have an increasingly strange number of things in common.We both started our careers doing marketing things—me in public relations and Heather as a graphic designer—before we made unlikely pivots into whole-animal butchery. We both eventually opened neighborhood butcher shops built around sourcing meat from small, local farms raising animals more responsibly. We both ran those businesses for exactly seven years.And we both eventually closed them.In the years since, we’ve each found ourselves trying to figure out what happens when something that wasn’t just your job, but also a significant part of your identity, suddenly ends.This content ain’t cheap. Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. For a cup of coffee, become a paid subscriber to keep the articles, podcasts, and classes coming.Heather is an Enlightened Omnivore podcast veteran, and this visit is #4, a record. And that’s because she’s the perfect guest. She’s honest, interesting, doesn’t take herself too seriously, and lets me interrupt with my own stories on occasion.When we last spoke, she described herself as “wintering”—resisting the urge to immediately replace one ambitious project with another, and allowing herself to sit with not knowing what came next.Now that it’s fall, I wanted to know: What season are you in?“I did not have my spring and summer growth yet,” she told me. “So maybe I’m not going in order.”Maybe none of us are.What grows in the empty spaces?Heather closed her Philadelphia butcher shop, Primal Supply Meats, three years ago. Since then, she has deliberately tried to slow down. After years of believing that if she just worked hard enough she could solve problems, she realized she needed some space. Eventually, she got it—and picked up a paintbrush.Painting has become an increasingly important part of how she spends her time, and that’s because she’s good at it, and has made the effort. Which brings up a bunch of questions we try to wrestle with on the Podcast. What happens when you finally get the time and space you’ve been asking for? Does creativity automatically fill the vacuum? What makes someone an artist? And who gets to decide?Check out more of Heather’s work on her website.Who are you when you’re no longer what you did?A chat with Heather wouldn’t be complete without talking about food. How simple food can sometimes be the best choice for entertaining. Our new obsession with beans, cooking techniques, and several recipes to include more beans in your diet, and of course some extraordinary pancakes I got to enjoy thanks to her partner Brad, when they hosted us at their Poconos cabin this summer.But underneath our conversations about seasons, painting, pancakes and beans was a much bigger question. Heather and I both spent years being publicly identified by our butcher shops. People knew what we did. More importantly, we knew what we did.There is a certain comfort in being able to answer the question What do you do? with something tangible. I’m a butcher. I own a butcher shop.Closing the business changes that answer overnight. It doesn’t necessarily change the business owner quite as quickly.What happens to all of those experiences when you move on? Do you leave that identity behind? Carry it with you? Write about it? Turn it into something else? And at what point are you allowed to claim whatever comes next?That’s eventually how we arrived at the phrase that became the title of this episode:“Maybe I’m a forest and not a tree.”I’m not going to explain what Heather meant.You’ll have to listen.And when you’re done, I’d love to know: Are there parts of your own identity you’ve left behind—or are they still growing somewhere in the forest? Don’t forget to leave comments and questions at instagram.com/enlightened_omnivore.Links & Resources* Heather art portfolio* Boonville Barn Collective article on cooking dried beans* Foodocracy* Smitten Kitchen: Pizza Beans anyone?* The Great Bean Awakening — my guide to pressure-cooking dried beans* Brad’s go-to cornmeal pancake recipeEnlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.CookStack Collective October: Nicki SizemoreEach month, you can attend a LIVE cooking class with the CookStack Collective. Paid subscribers get access to some of the most talented people on Substack! CookStack brings together 12 amazing food writers (myself included) to teach you a dish or two LIVE. It’s like having your own personal chef teaching you how to cook some amazing dishes. Together, we’ve created a year-long series of live cooking classes that are all about cooking with and learning from one another.The October class is hosted by my good friend Nicki Sizemore! She’s sharing how to make two fall staples — a whipped ricotta dip and a grain-free pumpkin apple cake.Nicki’s class is Friday, October 16, 2026, 10am PT / 1pm ET. All events are recorded.This class is free for you as a paid subscriber! Be sure to register at the link below:This post has bonus content for paid subscribers. Upgrade to get full access.Substack Live! October 24th: Catching UpI’m hosting an Ask Me Anything Substack Live on Saturday, October 24th at 9am PT/112am ET. I’ll be sharing some behind the scenes Podcast conversations, talking a little more about what I’m writing this fall, what I’ve been reading, and answering your questions, so come ready to pry.Help Enlightened OmnivoreThis season, I want to hear from you, too.What questions do you have about food, farming, meat, sustainability, cooking—or where our food comes from? Leave a comment here or on Instagram and I’ll get back to you. I plan to use your questions in upcoming episodes, and your suggestions may even help determine who I invite on the show.And if you enjoy the podcast, please follow Enlightened Omnivore on your favorite podcast platform, leave a rating, or post a review. I’ll be reading reviews on future episodes to thank you for your support. Every little bit helps other people discover the show. You can also watch the full video conversations on YouTube, as well as episodes from previous seasons.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading or listening today, send them this episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

More than a decade ago, when I co-owned Electric City Butcher, we started buying chickens from a little Southern California farm called Pasturebird.And when I say little, I mean little.Founder Paul Greive and his family had started out raising 50 chickens in the backyard because they couldn’t find the kind of pasture-raised chicken they wanted to eat. Eventually they started selling a few birds to friends and family. Then a few more. Then a few more. Paul had grown big enough to start selling wholesale, and Electric City Butcher became one of its very first customers.The chicken was great. The farming made sense to us. The birds actually lived on pasture and were moved onto fresh ground every day. This was exactly the kind of farm we wanted to support, and we did for almost seven years.Then, I heard Pasturebird had joined forces with Perdue. And I’ll admit what went through my head: Paul sold out to the evil empire.We did keep carrying Paul’s birds but then COVID happened, and the butcher shops closed. I didn’t connect with Pasturebird again until I saw their products on the shelves at my local grocery store. A small farmer had finally made it to the big show. But was it the same chicken that I’d fallen in love with so many years ago?So naturally, when Paul agreed to join me for the first episode of Season 3, I had to ask him what happened. His answer made me reconsider some of my own assumptions about what it actually means to build a better food system.What happens when the little guy gets big?We love small farms. We love the folksy farmer at the farmers market who knows your name, the pasture you can actually visit, and the chicken that costs more because you understand exactly how it was raised.I built an entire butcher shop around that idea. But there’s a problem. If these farming systems really are better—for the animals, the land and the people eating the food—do we actually want them to remain small?How does an everyday consumer trying to put food on the table reconcile supporting a favorite brand once it’s no longer small? And more importantly, what if partnering with members of the industrial food system that I—and countless others—have spent years fighting, actually becomes a way to change it for the better?Better doesn’t have to mean perfectPaul said something during our conversation that stuck with me. Years ago, he was much more absolutist about farming. If it wasn’t regenerative or pasture based, he wanted nothing to do with it. It may not surprise you that now working with Big Ag, his thinking has changed a bit.He still believes deeply in regenerative agriculture. He still wants chickens on pasture. But he’s become much more focused on demanding transparency from a food system that likes to hide its processes and details in the shadows.I appreciate that.It’s also a conversation I very much what to expand on for this new season of the Enlightened Omnivore Podcast. I’m not particularly interested in finding the one perfect way to eat. I’m interested in the messy middle. The tradeoffs. The contradictions. The compromises that happen when an ideal encounters economics, infrastructure, and eight billion hungry people.This season I’ll be talking with regenerative agriculture experts and pasture-raised farmers, journalists and food writers, leading climate experts, people working on alternative meat and new food technologies, and some old friends I’ve met over the years who’ve devoted their lives to making our food system better, with our without the help of Big Ag.We’ll talk about how food is made, where it comes from, who produces it—and why all of that matters. And, of course, there will be a few surprises along the way.So, did Paul sell out?You’ll have to listen and decide for yourself. But I came away from our conversation thinking that “selling out” might be the wrong question. Maybe the more interesting question is what happens when the little food company we love actually succeeds. Does regenerative agriculture have to remain small, local, and expensive to remain authentic? Or can we take some of its best ideas and bring them into the industrial food system without losing the integrity that made those ideas worth supporting in the first place?That’s a tension we’re going to return to again and again this season.Watch the full conversation above, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.And welcome to Season 3.I’m glad you’re here.Links & Resources* Pasturebird website* Pasturebird’s Coop Live Feed* GetRealChicken.com, a great resource for local, pasture-raised chicken* USDA Guide to Animal-Raising & Environmental Label Claims* American Pastured Poultry Producers AssociationHelp Enlightened OmnivoreThis season, I want to hear from you, too.What questions do you have about food, farming, meat, sustainability, cooking—or where our food comes from? Leave a comment here or on Instagram and I’ll get back to you. I plan to use your questions in upcoming episodes, and your suggestions may even help determine who I invite on the show.And if you enjoy the podcast, please follow Enlightened Omnivore on your favorite podcast platform, leave a rating, or post a review. I’ll be reading reviews on future episodes to thank you for your support. Every little bit helps other people discover the show. You can also watch the full video conversations on YouTube, as well as episodes from previous seasons.Most importantly, if someone came to mind while you were reading or listening today, send them this episode. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

Fall arrived twice for me this last week.First, Nicki Sizemore and I sat down for our latest Seasonal Table Substack LIVE to talk about changing routines, darker days, what we’re cooking, and what we’re ready to carry forward—or leave behind.Then I found myself writing about many of those same things in yesterday’s newsletter. So rather than recap the conversation here, I thought I’d simply invite you to pull up a chair and listen to the recording.Nicki makes her crispy Parmesan-crusted delicata squash. I show you how I preserve the absurd number of lemons coming off my backyard tree, and somewhere in between, we get into family, grief, hunting, composting, changing appetites, and why Fall might be an invitation to let a few things go.Watch the conversation, visit Nicki’s Mind, Body, Spirit, Food for her recipe and scroll down for my lemon curing recipe.If you enjoy this article, please consider liking it or sharing with a friend. Your engagement helps more people find Enlightened Omnivore.Enlightened Omnivore Preserved LemonsSalty, intensely lemony and ridiculously easy to make. A little preserved lemon adds brightness to roast chicken, fish, lamb, stews, salads, vinaigrettes, and sauces.Ingredients* 4–6 lemons, preferably unwaxed* 4–6 tablespoons kosher or sea salt, plus more as needed* 1–2 tablespoons sugar, optional* Fresh lemon juice (about four lemons), to cover* Optional aromatics: bay leaf, black peppercorns, coriander seeds, or juniper berriesMethodWash the lemons well and scrub the jars thoroughly. Trim the ends from each lemon.Working from one end, cut each lemon lengthwise into eighths, stopping about 1/4 inch from the bottom so the wedges remain attached. Gently open the lemon and sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of salt into the cuts.Sprinkle another tablespoon of salt into the bottom of a large mason jar. Pack the lemons tightly into the jar, pressing them down firmly enough to release some of their juice. Add 1/2 tablespoon of sugar per lemon, and layer in optional aromatics between the lemons.Continue packing until the jar is full. Pour in enough fresh lemon juice to completely cover the lemons. Keeping the fruit submerged prevents oxidation or spoilage during curing.Seal the jar and leave it in a cool place out of direct sunlight for about three weeks, gently turning the jar every few days to redistribute the salt and juice. Once the rinds are soft and translucent, transfer the jar to the refrigerator.To use, remove a piece of lemon and rinse off excess salt (if desired). You can remove the pulp and finely chop just the rind, or use the whole thing. Remember to taste your dish before adding additional salt—these little buggers are salty.For big lemons: Instead of leaving the lemon whole, slice it into thin half-moons and layer them tightly in the jar with salt and aromatics. This is particularly useful for the big, thick-skinned lemons or if you only have small containers for curing.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve never been much of a recipe follower.I own plenty of cookbooks, and I love reading them, but when it comes time to make dinner, I’m much more likely to open the refrigerator, see what needs to be eaten, and take it from there. Sometimes that means substituting ingredients. Sometimes it means inventing something entirely new. And occasionally it means making something I probably won’t make again.I’ve always thought that was just how I cooked. But after my recent Substack LIVE with Katerina Pavlakis of Think Like a Cook, I realized there’s a much bigger idea behind it.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Katerina teaches something she calls intuitive cooking—learning to trust our senses, experiences, memories, and appetites instead of outsourcing every decision to a recipe or an expert. And she believes our modern obsession with recipes, celebrity chefs, and perfectly photographed food has convinced a lot of us that cooking is much harder than it actually is.We had a fascinating hour talking about why so many people are afraid to cook, how recipes can sometimes create a kind of learned helplessness, and why restaurant chefs probably shouldn’t be the standard by which we judge Tuesday-night dinner.We also talked about one of my favorite subjects: permission. Permission to substitute an ingredient. Permission to add more salt. Permission to use the slightly sad tomatoes in the back of the refrigerator. Permission to make something that tastes good even if it doesn’t look anything like the photograph.Then we put it all to the test.I raided my refrigerator and challenged Katerina with random combinations—eggs and feta, sweet potatoes and cilantro, even mango and onion—to see how an intuitive cook thinks through ingredients without immediately reaching for Google. Katerina also cooked a simple Greek-style green bean dish while explaining how understanding why we chop, salt, sauté, and season can eventually free us from needing a recipe at all.One idea from our conversation kept coming back to me. We spend so much time trying to make cooking more “convenient” so we can get dinner out of the way.But as Katerina asked: What if the evening is the dinner?If you’ve ever stared into your refrigerator wondering what the hell to make, felt intimidated by a recipe, or wished you were one of those people who could “just throw something together,” I think you’ll enjoy this conversation.Enjoy the full recording at the top of this post.Also, please consider becoming a paid subscriber before the end of summer. Not only will you get a bunch of great paid benefits, including in-depth workshops, more live conversations, PDFs and opportunities to connect one-on-one. But you’ll also help me to achieve Best Selling status, which helps get Enlightened Omnivore in front of more readers. I only need 12 more subscriptions!Next Up: CookStack Collective — Kimchi!Our next CookStack Collective class is this Friday. Paid subscribers can join Betty Williams on Friday, August 21 at 12 pm PT / 3 pm ET for a fermentation primer and hands-on lesson making two kinds of Korean kimchi: quick-pickled cucumber kimchi and fermented cabbage kimchi.It’s the second installment of the year-long CookStack Collective, featuring 12 live cooking classes from food writers, cooks, bakers, and teachers across Substack. And if you can’t make it live, paid subscribers get access to the recording.Come cook with us.The Seasonal Table is Back: FallOn September 17 at 10am PT/1pm ET, I’m co-hosting with Nicki Sizemore the next installment of The Seasonal Table — a quarterly Substack Live series marking the four seasonal turning points of the year (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter).For our fall conversation, Nicki and I will share about my favorite time of year. What does autumn mean to nature, the body, the kitchen, and the family dinner table.And, of course, there will be food. Nicki and I will be demoing some of our favorite recipes for fall. I hope you join us.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe