Meat+Poultry - November 2018 - 68

BOOK REVIEW

After immersing herself into learning the craft of butchery in France,
Camas Davis returned to Oregon to start the Portland Meat Collective.

68

MEAT+ POULTRY | 11.18 | www.meatpoultry.com

Eugenie Frerichs

and then at a butcher shop to put some of her new skills to
work. But even with the fairly sophisticated "foodie" culture
in Portland, she found that her customers were still only
buying bacon and pork chops from her at the butcher shop.
They seemed to be interested in buying meat that was raised
a particular way, but they didn't have any way to connect
with that food. She had been looking for a more transparent
meat experience ever since her French adventure and she
was convinced she wasn't the only one on that quest.
In the second half of her book she writes: "Surely...
we weren't the only people in Portland searching for this
sort of transparent experience, who wanted to take part
in the process of getting meat to our tables the right way,
the old way, the respectful way - whatever you wanted to
call it. The real way, if such a reality was even possible
anymore. Surely we weren't the only people unconvinced
that the answer to the entire meat conundrum was as
simple as forsaking meat altogether. Surely we weren't
the only people who would rather eat meat from farmers
like the Chapolards...than from anonymous factory
farms four states over..."
Three months after her return from France, Davis
formed the Portland Meat Collective in an effort to deliver
that sought-after transparency to like-minded Portland
consumers. After pooling her resources - finding farmers
and chefs and other food experts to help her teach classes -
Davis held her first class at her new "transparent, hands-on
meat school" in early 2010. Since then the Collective has
been teaching a selection of classes about meat cutting,
slaughter and preparation all over Portland. The group

offers a few classes a month (up to four classes in the
summer months). The classes range from the popular
pig butchery and sausage and charcuterie making to
duck, rabbit, lamb, chicken and turkey butchery. Class
participants include everyday consumers interested in
experiencing a more hands-on meat experience as well as
chefs and farmers who also want to learn more.
"I had originally conceived of the idea just for
consumers - but pretty soon it became apparent that they
weren't the only ones interested in this type of class."
Fifty to 60 percent of the attendees are everyday curious
consumers. About 25 percent of that group want to get their
hands dirty and do all the work themselves, Davis explains,
the rest just want to learn about the process. The rest of the
people taking the classes are chefs and farmers, many of
which don't get to do whole-animal butchery in their jobs,
so they attend to get that opportunity.
In 2014, after the Portland Meat Collective started to get
some recognition and attention around the country, Davis
started to be approached about starting similar collectives
in other cities. Instead of developing a franchise model,
Davis raised $30,000 on Kickstarter to set up two test
models in Seattle and Olympia, Washington. The remaining
money was used to establish the Good Meat Project, which
now helps set up experiential, hands-on meat classes
around the country.
"We've developed a style of education, which is very
transparent, very hands-on, very much about every part of
the process. That style of education, when more specifically
applied to different audiences can affect change in various
sectors - consumers and their buying habits, chefs and
their cooking habits, how they formulate their menus, who
they source their animals from and how much of their
animals they're willing to use," Davis explains. "Over time
we've developed a style of education that can be applied all
over the country for those audiences."
As Davis continues to teach classes for the Portland Meat
Collective and to help lead the Good Meat Project, now as
the executive director of its board, her mission to shift social
attitudes about food and to satisfy the consumer's hunger for
a connection with the meat they're eating is ongoing.
The final chapter of her book reads: "Before I held my
first Portland Meat Collective class, Jo had asked me what
my long-term goals for the project were. I told her that
I hoped someday the Portland Meat Collective wouldn't
even have to exist, because everyone would already
possess the knowledge that our classes offered. 'That's a
long game you're playing,' she said. It was indeed. It still
is...It has been nine years since I first went to France to
learn how to turn a pig into pork chops and a pig head
into pâté. My classes still sell out. I have competitors now,
other people who see the need for such education, which
means that the long game hasn't gotten any shorter."
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Meat+Poultry - November 2018

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