| Arizona Daily Star photo caption: Scott Savage's Veal Napoleon, which won best of show and best entree at the Colorado Springs Chorale Chefs' Gala, is mae of free-range veal. Photo David Bitton |
More humane free-range veal being marketed
| Gene Bauston (now Gene Bauer), co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, sponsor of a nationwide "Say No to Veal" campaign, sees Cordonier on the cutting edge of what appears to be "a mini revolution in farming in general to raise animals more humanely." |
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Source: THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR by Teresa J. Farney Dec 2006 12/6/2006
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You can't call them vegetarians, because they eat chicken, pork, beef -- even a hot dog now and then.
But even some of the most ardent carnivores have a real beef with veal and won't get near it. Their reasons have nothing to do with diet or nutritional issues, and everything to do with how veal is produced: from baby calves that are torn from their mothers a few days after birth, fed an inadequate diet and confined to a cramped crate to keep their muscles underused and tender.
It's inhumane, say a number of animal rights organizations, including the Humane Society of the United States and Farm Sanctuary, and they've long urged consumers to avoid buying veal at stores and restaurants.
Jon Cordonier of Peyton, Colo., is hoping they'll reconsider veal -- his veal, that is. Through his company, Great West Cattle Co., he's marketing Highland cattle veal calves raised in what he says is a much more humane way. There are no crates, no hormones or antibiotics, no confinement or skimpy diets.
Gene Bauston, co-founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, sponsor of a nationwide "Say No to Veal" campaign, sees Cordonier on the cutting edge of what appears to be "a mini revolution in farming in general to raise animals more humanely."
"Mini" is the operative word. "There are only about a handful of ranchers nationally who free-range their veal," says Dean Conklin, executive director of veal marketing for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association in Denver. He estimates that free-range veal represents only about 5 percent of the approximate 717,000 head of veal produced each year.
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