{"id":337,"date":"2019-07-05T08:35:53","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T12:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=337"},"modified":"2022-03-04T16:04:30","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T20:04:30","slug":"organic-slaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Polyface Farm processes and packages its own chickens. The government allows organic farmers to process a few thousand birds on farms<\/strong>, but most other food animals must be processed in a state- or federally-inspected facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polyface Farm does its organic slaughter processing in an open-air assembly line of steel sinks and water tanks, which customers can watch if they want to. Birds are placed upside down into metal funnels or cones, with their heads sticking out the bottom of the cone. Their necks are quickly cut and they are bled out. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal regulations for organic slaughter processing facilities are rigid and specific \u2014 for instance, walls must be painted white, with screen doors and windows. Processors are required to provide an exclusive bathroom for the USDA inspector.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organic slaughter regulations are one-size-fits all and are difficult to apply to small organizations<\/strong>. For instance, because Salatin\u2019s process is open-air, conducted in an open-sided building, it lacks white-painted walls.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are no federal standards for food-borne pathogens<\/strong> (if there were, inspectors would have to test and order recalls of meat.) Yet government research has shown that the main cause of food-borne illness in the U.S. is centralized production and processing, plus long-distance transportation of meat. Irradiation rather than decentralization<\/a> is the solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slaughtering animals, even organic, can be dehumanizing to the people doing it and inhumane to animals if it becomes routine. Polyface Farm processes chickens only a few days a month, so it doesn\u2019t become routine<\/strong>. Salatin says this keeps workers focused on what they\u2019re doing, so organic slaughter personnel can be as careful and humane as possible.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salatin believes transparency is a better guarantor of a clean and humane process than regulations or irradiation.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-omnivores-dilemma","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nOrganic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-05T12:35:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-04T20:04:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"462\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Allen Cheng\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Allen Cheng\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Allen Cheng\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e9c1cecc340502045489d4c4e6f4a877\"},\"headline\":\"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-05T12:35:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-04T20:04:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\"},\"wordCount\":316,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The Omnivore's Dilemma\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Food\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\",\"name\":\"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-05T12:35:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-04T20:04:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg\",\"width\":730,\"height\":462},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e9c1cecc340502045489d4c4e6f4a877\",\"name\":\"Allen Cheng\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/658f486a7308ee9a8cffe118baa58e29b0ef902cb29203b65e033a7c49f06a2a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/658f486a7308ee9a8cffe118baa58e29b0ef902cb29203b65e033a7c49f06a2a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Allen Cheng\"},\"description\":\"Allen Cheng is the founder of Shortform. He has a passion for non-fiction books (having read 200+ and counting) and is on a mission to make the world's best ideas more accessible to everyone. He reads broadly, covering a wide range of subjects including finance, management, health, and society. Allen graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and attended medical training at the MD\/PhD program at Harvard and MIT. Before Shortform, he co-founded PrepScholar, an online education company.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/allen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work? - Shortform Books","description":"After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?","og_description":"After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2019-07-05T12:35:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-03-04T20:04:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":730,"height":462,"url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Allen Cheng","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Allen Cheng","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/"},"author":{"name":"Allen Cheng","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e9c1cecc340502045489d4c4e6f4a877"},"headline":"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?","datePublished":"2019-07-05T12:35:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-04T20:04:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/"},"wordCount":316,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg","keywords":["The Omnivore's Dilemma"],"articleSection":["Food"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/","name":"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work? - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg","datePublished":"2019-07-05T12:35:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-03-04T20:04:30+00:00","description":"After organic animals are raised, how are they slaughtered in an organic process? Learn about organic slaughter practices here.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg","width":730,"height":462},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organic-slaughter\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Organic Slaughter: How Does It Really Work?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/e9c1cecc340502045489d4c4e6f4a877","name":"Allen Cheng","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/658f486a7308ee9a8cffe118baa58e29b0ef902cb29203b65e033a7c49f06a2a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/658f486a7308ee9a8cffe118baa58e29b0ef902cb29203b65e033a7c49f06a2a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Allen Cheng"},"description":"Allen Cheng is the founder of Shortform. He has a passion for non-fiction books (having read 200+ and counting) and is on a mission to make the world's best ideas more accessible to everyone. He reads broadly, covering a wide range of subjects including finance, management, health, and society. Allen graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and attended medical training at the MD\/PhD program at Harvard and MIT. Before Shortform, he co-founded PrepScholar, an online education company.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/allen\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/omnivore-feedlot.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6744,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/6744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}