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Cowpooling: you herd it here

Friends team up to share a whole cow.

Illustration: istockphoto.com/ Melhi

Vegetarians may want to turn the page, but there’s no denying that plenty of people still prefer a slab of sirloin over a pack of peas. So, concerned about the uncertain origins of the standard plastic-wrapped supermarket beef, and determined to buy local, some people are even bypassing the organic meat in the grocer’s freezer. Instead, they’re teaming up with friends or neighbours to buy half or whole carcasses from regional farms.

Take Charles Whittaker, from British Columbia, Canada. Whittaker loves a good filet, but had a hard time finding it at the right price. So last summer, he and a friend forked over $1,000 for half a cow from a small farm near his home in Richmond, where cattle is raised humanely and free of artificial growth hormones, antibiotics and preservatives. Split in half and custom-butchered by the farm, it should keep the two families in steak dinners and lunch-box leftovers until at least Christmas, at a cost that beats its certified-organic equivalent at Whole Foods Market. Earlier this year, the Vancouver-based newspaper The Globe and Mail quoted Whittaker as saying that knowing how his steaks are produced gives him peace of mind.

If “cowpooling,” as the practise has been dubbed, sounds like your kind of meat market, you’ll need to invest in a chest freezer. Or find more carnivores willing to share.