Nose to Tail: Could You Learn to Eat the Whole Animal?

Caution vegetarians, you might as well stop reading right now. I am about to embark on explaining to my fellow meat eaters why supporting whole animal consumption is considered a sustainable practice. Now there is no doubt that eating only local fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains can be the most eco efficient means to nourishing our bodies. But many of us environmentally conscious consumers need or crave animal protein, and if you do, then supporting nose-to-tail animal eating may be the most sustainable option.

I've noticed a recent culinary trend in my Brooklyn community where restaurants are choosing to purchase entire animals raised naturally on nearby farms, butcher in house, and use most of their parts in the establishment's cuisine, leaving little animal to waste.

Brooklyn's Get Fresh Chef and Owner Juventino Avila proudly admits, "When I purchase the whole animal, all the parts are being used even the bones for doggie treats."

It's really a culinary practice that many of us learn from historical text, foreign travel, or older, sensible generations recollecting meals uncommon to today's Westernized taste buds such as heart, feet, tripe, liver, or blood pudding. In fact, just simply imagining the whole animal and the farmer that raised it while placing its savory meat in to our mouths is a thought typically kept at distance from today's dinner table.