Food History

On Friday I went to the Royal Canberra Show. All Saturday I admired my swag. Just now I realized that I hadn’t told you so many important things about my visit.
I did a lot of learning at the Show. My photos will come later, so I might do you a photo-heavy slide show in a few days. Until then, you’ll have to be satisfied with knowing that the way cows and goats are judged is very different to the way cats are judged. And that I got to talk bush food. Right now, though, I want to talk about meat on the hoof, which is not bush food at all.

The Royal Canberra isn’t a place for pets, in fact. Despite it taking place in the city, it’s a rural show. It’s where all the getting-together happens for the whole of NSW, which is funny, because it’s not actually in NSW. This getting-together is mostly to do with making sure you have evidence that your animals are the best breeders and will produce the outstanding meat, milk and wool the industry needs.

The animals we saw were very different to the Belted Galloways at Mountain Creek Farm. They use the land differently, for one thing. For another, they are being actively bred to put on weight quickly to cut down the time between birth and the abattoir.

These animals aren’t the sort you put on growth hormones or who are rushed from birth to death. The idea is that the put on healthy size quickly, not that they grow unnaturally. What the Show judging does is make sure that the weight they put on is safe, really. The animals are judged for their proportions and their capacity to hold size (among other things). The beautiful liquidity of their eyes is not a factor.

The breeders love their animals. They talk proudly about them. This means that the Show helps share ethical standards and care as well as keep quality high for the market.

Those blue ribbons are important to meat history. Trace them back and we can see how meat tastes and types develop on the hoof, and how animals are treated and how the great isolations of the Aussie bush are broken down once a year. There is more food history in those blue ribbons than you can shake a hoof at.