[Jacob-list] NYTimes.com Article: Saving Breeds That Are Historic, Tasty and Also Kind of Cute (fwd)

[Susan Nielsen]

The following item from the New York Times is shared with permission.
Because of that, I leave their advertiser's message intact.

Susan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 01:39:27 -0800 (PST)
To: snielsen at orednet.org
Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Saving Breeds That Are Historic,
     Tasty and Also Kind of Cute

This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by snielsen at orednet.org


/-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\


Presenting the reloadable Starbucks Card.

The Starbucks Card is reloadable from $5 - $500. Fill it up. Use
it. Use it. Then, fill it up again.
https://www.starbucks.com/shop/reload.asp?ci=672

\----------------------------------------------------------/


Saving Breeds That Are Historic, Tasty and Also Kind of Cute

March 22, 2002

By JAMES GORMAN




For ruggedness, strength and overall rustic hairiness,
neither Mel Gibson nor Liam Neeson, both of whom have had a
go at kilt-wearing and sword brandishing, can compare with
Highland cattle.

Let the ubiquitous black-and-white Holstein reign as an ice
cream cow. These are cattle. A Highland bull, or cow, looks
something like a cross between a Tibetan yak and a Texas
longhorn, with a bit of Yoda thrown in. They have bovine
charisma.

For a glimpse of a Highland bull, with the irresistible
name of Tussock of Swain's Fold, you can turn to the new
"Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and
Poultry Breeds," by Janet Vorwald Dohner (Yale, $75). Or,
if you want to see a Highland cow in person, you can do as
I did and visit Pumpkin, the Highland cow who lives at
Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Mass.

The village, devoted to Shaker history and crafts, has a
number of historic buildings and also some of the old
livestock breeds the Shakers kept, like merino sheep and
Derry cows. It shares pastures in a cooperative venture
with the New England Heritage Breeds Conservancy, a new
organization that is working to re-introduce to small New
England farms the kind of livestock that can thrive on
grass, rather than grain and antibiotics. Pumpkin is a
conservancy cow.

I drove to Massachusetts to see Pumpkin and some other old
livestock breeds, like Gloucester Old Spot pigs, after
receiving the encyclopedia. The book describes how the
number of livestock breeds in commercial use is decreasing,
like the number of plant varieties. It's not quite the same
as extinction, but there is a connection.

Between the city and the forest lies the farm, where humans
have transformed nature but are still in intimate contact
with other creatures. The domesticated animals and plants
are all part of human culture - agriculture - but still,
they offer a connection to the nonhuman world: life, death,
reproduction, cow manure.

When Darwin wrote "The Origin of Species" he drew a
parallel between natural selection and artificial
selection. Just as artificial selection had produced an
incredible variety of domestic animals, he argued, natural
selection had produced the whole vast spectrum of life on
earth.

Now, as extinction of species in the dwindling natural
world proceeds at a rapid pace, an unseemly corollary is
occurring among the organisms that human beings have bred,
plant and animal. Modern farming and meat production rely
on just a few varieties and breeds, and the old ones are
fading away.

One reason to preserve some of the fading old breeds is
their historical value, another is to avoid the galloping
uniformity that threatens all forms of culture, agri- and
other, to escape a future consisting entirely of action
movies and supermarket tomatoes. The breeds provide a
reservoir of genetic diversity as well.

The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy lists nearly 100
breeds of poultry, cattle, horses, sheep, goats and donkeys
whose numbers put them at some level of concern. Some of
them are exotic looking, like the long-eared and hairy
Poitou donkey, which would have been a perfect mount for
Sancho Panza. Others, like the Clydesdale horse, are well
known. And some, like the Florida Crackers (horses and
cattle) are probably worth preserving just for the name.

But there are other reasons. Before I went up to see
Pumpkin, I spoke to Heather Ware, of the New England
Heritage Breeds Conservancy, who told me how tough Highland
cattle are. One of the attractions of the so-called
historic livestock varieties is that they were bred in a
day before factory farming and antibiotics. The task of
these animals was to go forth and prosper in often
inhospitable territory like the Scottish Highlands or the
New England hills.

Ms. Ware said friends of hers in New Hampshire had seen
first-hand how successful the animals are. They bought two
Highland cattle and when they were delivered, one escaped.
This was in the early fall. Throughout the winter the cow
was often seen in nearby woods and on the outskirts of
neighboring farms, but they weren't able to catch it. When
it was finally recaptured in the spring, after a typical
New Hampshire winter without benefit of a barn or any food
other than what it found on its own, the cow was in
excellent health and had gained weight.

At the Shaker village I met Tom Gardner, the head of the
New England group, who told me the organization's goal was
to promote grass-based farming in New England. The heritage
breeds of cattle, he said, could produce meat and milk with
far less work by farmers. And the same was true for poultry
and pigs, which could forage on their own.

I walked around the pastures at the village, looking at the
San Clemente goats, the Irish Dexter cattle, merino sheep
and milking short-horn cattle. I particularly liked the
cattle, which are smaller than many modern breeds.

After a while I realized that like a typical urbanite, I
was looking at the animals more as pets, while Mr. Gardner
and Ms. Ware were looking at them in another way. They
talked about how the cows were filling out, and about how
the different breeds were "thrifty," meaning more meat or
milk from less feed.

Not all the animals are headed for the slaughterhouse;
there is a Kerry bull that is going to be shipped to the
West Coast to service a small herd of heifers kept by a
group of nuns. As we were walking over to visit Pumpkin and
a couple of Gloucester Old Spot pigs, Mr. Gardner began
talking about how tasty the heritage breeds are, "These
breeds are not going to survive as pets in someone's back
yard." When I suggested that you couldn't eat animals you
had named, Mr. Gardner and Ms. Ware informed me that there
was no such rule.

Mr. Gardner sees a market in specialty stores and
restaurants for the meat. A chop from a Gloucester Old Spot
pig was as different from "the other white meat" as a
home-grown tomato was from one of the mass-produced
cardboard wonders.

That made sense. But when Mr. Gardner got to the subject of
steaks, he took me by surprise. He mentioned that the
Highland cattle were very flavorful, and said that he and
the other members of the conservancy had dined on Pumpkin's
sister at one of their banquets. "She was delicious," he
said.

Mr. Gardner's description of the pleasures of eating
heritage pigs and cattle was so open and straightforward
that I couldn't help but think of Garrison Keillor and
Powder Milk Biscuits: "Heavens, they're tasty!"

It's not that I'm a vegetarian. I still eat red meat. I
think it was the notion of a meal having a sister that got
to me. But Mr. Gardner's point was well taken. If no
Highland cattle are eaten, there will be no Highland
cattle. I see the logic. But I'm still not sure they should
name them.

A Moo-Moo Here and a Moo-Moo There

Some farms are specifically devoted to heritage livestock.
The Kelmscott Farm in Lincolnville, Me., has various
breeds; (207) 763-4088 or www.kelmscott.org.

More information can be obtained from the American
Livestock Breeds Conservancy, www.albc-usa.org/links.htm,
or the New England Heritage Breeds Conservancy,
www.nehbc.org.

A number of historic villages have heritage livestock
breeds as part of their reconstruction of life in the past,
often including demonstrations of oxen pulling, for
instance, or of how sheep are shorn. These are some of
them:

HANCOCK SHAKER VILLAGE, Pittsfield, Mass.; (413) 443-0188
or www.hancockshakervillage.org.

OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE, Sturbridge, Mass.; (508) 347-3362
or www.osv.org.

COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG, Williamsburg, Va.; (800) 447-8679 or
www.history.org/index.html.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/22/arts/22OUTS.html?ex=1017962767&ei=1&en=edf985f3709f5092



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters
or other creative advertising opportunities with The
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales at nytimes.com or visit our online media
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to
help at nytimes.com.

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company