This document discusses organizing a meat share group to purchase whole animals from local, sustainable farms. Some key points: - Meatshares allow people to access high-quality, pasture-raised meat at a lower cost by buying in bulk directly from farmers. - Finding other people to share a whole animal with and splitting the meat is more affordable than buying retail cuts. Chest freezers allow storing large quantities. - Popular animals to share include goats, lambs, pigs, and occasionally cattle. Farms are found through websites, meetup groups, or word of mouth. - Organizing includes researching farms, coordinating payments, dividing the meat, and distributing shares. Good planning makes the process

1. Meatshare
Whole animal buying for local, sustainable, pastured meat

2. Why Meatshare?
 Knowing too much about the industrial system!
 If I’m going to eat meat, I want meat from healthy
happy animals
 But going to the organic butcher shop or the farmer’s
market = serious sticker shock!
 Buying in bulk is ALWAYS cheaper

3. The Whole Animal Advantage
 Cheaper
 Ensure you get the best quality meat
 Cooking adventure!
 A way to make friends with farmers and people you
are sharing with

4. Who to share with?
 Small  Big
 Roommates  Internet meetup groups
 Family  Gym/dojo
 Friends  Church
 Social circle

5. Finding Sharers
 Social Networking
 Facebook
 Twitter
 Google Plus
 Meetup.com

6. The Trump Card: Chest Freezer
 A chest freezer is the best
way to buy in bulk and
store your meat
 5 CU chest freezer from
home depot for less than
$200
 Very energy efficient, can
cost less than $25 a year
 Stores ½ pig or a whole
lamb/goat + fish
+vegetables
 Foldable cooler is also a
good idea

7. Meat share is for people who
 Eat special diets (like Paleo or Primal)
 Place a high priority on saving money
 Like to cook
 Don’t mind trying new things
 Willing to take small risks
 Have some freezer space for at LEAST 10 lbs meat

8. Meatshares are NOT for people who
 Want a precise amount of meat
 Want or don’t want certain cuts
 Aren’t willing to take on a little bit of gambling (less
meat than you want, cuts you might not like) in order
to save money
 Direct these people to a butcher like Dickson’s
Farmstand Meats, The Meat Hook, or Fleischers

9. Finding Farms
 Localharvest.org
 Word of mouth
 Setting up a Meetup group
 Google

10. Poultry
 Are they truly free-range?
 No such thing as a grass-fed
bird, all birds need some
supplemental feed
 Might ask about the quality
of supplemental feed. Some
farms doing soy-free birds
 One bird per person
usually, with a bulk
discount, so don’t save that
much money, but worth it for
higher quality meat such as
heritage turkeys and chicken

11. Goats/Lamb
 Most popular meat in the
world, underrated in the US
 Variable taste based on
pasture
 Depends on breed, but
usually pretty small from
15-65 lbs
 Small very young goat or
lamb (15-20 lbs) can fit in a
normal freezer
 Definitely recommended

12. Swine
 Taste and fat % vary heavily
by breed, so ask the farmer
what to expect- Mangalitsa =
very fatty, Duroc= pretty lean
for example….how much
lard do you want?
 No such thing as grass-fed
pig, pigs need supplemental
feed
 What is the supplemental
feed?
 Should be pastured on grass
though so they can eat at
least some grass
 Lots of butchery
options…sausage, bacon, et
c.

13. Large Ruminants like Cattle
 100% pastured always
preferred
 100% grass-fed usually
preferred, but if you want
fattier meat, some
supplemental grain is
OK, but make sure to ask
about the quality
 You’ll get TONS of ground
beef
 Might be worth sharing a
share like a quarter if you
don’t have many people, but
will buy more per lb for it

14. Other animals
 “wild” game
 Rabbits
 Ostrich

15. How to buy?
 By animal
 Flat rate per animal regardless of weight
 By live weight
 The weight of the live animal
 Final yield can be 25-60% of live weight
 By hanging weight
 The weight of the WHOLE carcass after slaughter but before
being cut
 Some risk as final yield can be 50% to 97% of hanging
weight
 By final weight
 The weight of all the butchered cuts added together

16. Butchering
 Butchering probably done by a professional butcher
 Each butcher is different
 Might have to talk on the phone with the butcher to
determine what products you want the animal turned into
 For example: Ground meat or sausage? Smoked or fresh
ham? How thick do you want the chops?
 Recipes for cured meats and sausages?
 How will it be packaged? Paper or plastic?
 Fresh meat = impractical

17. Regulations
 USDA Slaughterhouse= sell anywhere in the US
 State-inspected slaughterhouse = can only be sold in
the state it was slaughtered
 Some exemptions allow for on-farm processing, most
of them are for poultry
 DIY slaughter if you buy the animal by live weight??

18. Advanced Meatshare
Ideas
 Buy whole carcass and do
butchery
demonstration/supper club
 Rent commercial kitchen
and make your own
sausage and other
chauceuterie
 Hunting club

19. Buying checklist
 What am I paying for?
 Final weight? Live weight? Hanging weight?
 Are fees and taxes included?
 How will the meat be packaged
 How will I get the meat? Pickup? Or delivered?
 We prefer all-inclusive final weight pricing

20. How to split
 What products are variable and what are predictable?
 For example: lamb has only two legs, but unknown
amount of ground lamb
 Fewer shares= easier for us, members can use
message board to share a share
 We set a MAX amount and charge for that, then we
give a refund if the amount in the share is less
 Flat rate per lb, but we try to equally distribute the
most premium predictable products among shares
 Each comes in a thermal pig with a weight label

21. Other split models
 Randomly, flat-rate
 First come, first serve
 When you have a random model, it’s best for one
person to distribute things “randomly” before the
shares are picked up = handling meat too much will
mess up vaccuum packaging

22. Easy Meatshare: Goat with Roommates
 Reserved a goat from Glynwood farm
 Talked with roommates about splitting it since we have
a chest freezer
 Drove up there and picked it up
 Split it 50/50 by labeling with Sharpie – there were a
few parts there were only one of like the liver and
kidneys, so we each took half of those

23. Spring Lake Farm 1/8th
Pig
 What items are premium and predictable?
 Spare ribs, fresh ham butt, etc.
 What items are variable?
 Bacon, sausage, chops, just divide as equally as possible
 Basic share
 2 Premium predictable items (you can let people pre-pick
these or just pick randomly)
 1/8th the sausage, bacon, and chops
 Distribute the one-off items (liver) randomly
 Picked up in individual labeled and pre-weighed thermal
bag

24. Gym Meatshare
 Gym invested in 25 CU chest freezer and a scale, financed
by charging a meat club joining fee
 Bought half a cow online at $4 a lb to split among twenty
members = 400 lbs
 265 1 lb packages ground beef split and 40 packs stew
meat evenly
 Random 5 premium cuts per share (steak, filet)
 Farmer dropped off and organizer (gym owner) put in
freezer
 When member picked up, organizer weighed and filled
their cooler with their share, then refunded deposit

25. Bad Example: First share I did
 10 people to one lamb, even though one lamb was 50
lbs hanging weight
 Didn’t research any cuts
 Cuts weren’t pre-weighed
 Went to farm and got a back of un-weighed cuts
 Had to weigh them and randomly distribute them
 Stressful, people didn’t get hardly meat

26. What is hard? MATH
 Coordinating with people
 Collecting deposits and payments
 Planning how to divide the share and dividing it into
packages if the farmer doesn’t do that
 Transportation
 Coordinating pickup and dealing with money/people during
pickup
 The organizer may want to charge a commission or
organizing fee
 I use Google Docs frequently

27. The perfect farmer
 Willing to let organizer visit
 Delivers
 Willing to split, weight, and label shares for you before
delivery
 All-inclusive pricing, no dealing with butcher
fees, taxes, etc.

28. The Fun Part: Eating
 Cooking nose to tail
 Learning how to braise!!
 Meat keeps for up to a year or more with a good
vaccuum seal, a few months in paper

29. Some farms to work with
 http://healthymeat.org/
 Email kkleinpeter@glynwood.org and ask to be on
meat mailing list