Meet the ethical butcher

Former vegetarian Berlin Reed has transformed from vegetarianism to ethical omnivorism and theorizes an environmentally friendly future for meat.

By Nicole SolomonTue, Feb 02 2010 at 10:46 AM EST

WITH A CLEAVER: Berlin Reed worked behind the meat counter for two weeks before falling off the veggie wagon. (Photo: Alison Picard)

When dangerously underemployed vegetarian Berlin Reed agreed to temporarily work the meat counter at Brooklyn’s The Greene Grape, he never expected that butchery would become his new career. Yet by the time temp turned to perm, Reed had found an unexpected new calling. By providing customers with meats from more humane and local sources, Reed saw that he could address the toxicity of the meat industry by changing it rather than just avoiding it.

I talked with the 27-year-old one evening at his girlfriend’s apartment in Bed Stuy. He was chatty and animated while cooking up a batch of Maine steamer clams from his store for the two of them (“Shellfish are great, very sustainable. A lot of variety and no guilt!”). He also graciously provided a delicious plate of pasta with zucchini and garlic to vegan me.

In addition to his work at The Greene Grape, Reed is currently writing a book that details his journey from vegetarianism to ethical omnivorism and theorizes an environmentally friendly future for meat. He also plans to begin teaching waste-reducing meat-cutting classes to both home and professional chefs, which is only one of many ideas Reed has for spreading the word of ethical butchery.

Reed was recently published in the anarchist people of color ‘zine "Decolonizing Our Diets." He can be found online at TheEthicalButcher.com, as well as on his blog .

Reed initially became a vegetarian at age 12 “to piss my mom off,” but that vintage 1990s act of preteen rebellion soon deepened into a politicized stance. He stayed a vegetarian because didn’t want to support an industry that was based on cruelty to animals and destroying the earth.

There also were health reasons. “Being a black male, I wanted to alleviate the risk of the heart disease and diabetes,” he explains. “Much as I love, love, love meat now, I still think that having that many formative years without a lot of fats or cholesterol or any of those things in my body maybe will help me? (laughs) It gives me a little boost.”

Reed was even vegan for several years. He made that transition when he was 20, but went back to eating dairy while backpacking across Europe.

It took two weeks behind the meat counter for Reed to fall off the veggie wagon. Although he had cooked meat while working the grill at a previous job, he had no idea what it tasted like. Now customers were asking for all kinds of advice on a food Reed hadn’t eaten since he was a child, and he found himself at a total loss. Uncomfortable with this knowledge gap, he wrestled with the concept of eating meat again. After all, Reed acknowledged, he was already cutting, cooking and doing everything shy of actually ingesting the stuff.

Reed has no regrets and is now an enthusiastic meat eater who wants to shift meat consumption to a model that’s sustainable. While he enjoys beef from time to time, he’s quick to point out that large-scale beef production is impossible to maintain without causing vast environmental damage. He argues that people need to begin viewing beef as an occasional delicacy rather than a staple.

Reed also bemoans the reputation seafood has achieved of being somehow less “bad” than other meat. “In so many ways, it’s worse than industrial farming could ever be,” he explains, spinning his cap intently around on his index finger. “The fish industry is ruining the entire planet.

“For hundreds of years now, it’s been dredging and trolling the bottoms of our oceans, over fishing and causing the extinction of populations and messing with entire eco systems. This is literally changing the earth.” There is hope for conscientious seafood lovers, though. Reed points to the work of groups like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and The Blue Ocean Institute who make a variety of seafood guides for consumers who want know how their fish came to them.

With the market for healthier and more sustainably produced meats on the rise, Reed hopes that consumers of conscience will turn their dollars toward eating seasonally from local farms rather than focusing on “organic” or other such green-seeming labels. He explains that with organic certification now under the USDA’s jurisdiction, most small farmers are left out as they can’t afford the fees involved.

Meanwhile, multinational corporations that continue to wreak environmental havoc offer specialty organic lines of products that likely left an enormous carbon footprint on their way to your plate. When a consumer buys such things, “you’re supporting their green front,” Reed sighs. “Corporations have gotten hip to the market, that people want to see these labels, people want to see organic Tyson’s chicken nuggets and will buy it for their kids thinking that they’re doing the right thing, no matter what else [destructive] the company is doing.”

Until there’s a serious global shift in how we produce foodstuffs, Reed continues to network like-minded professionals and amateur connoisseurs from the grassroots up, which is only one rewarding aspect of his now year-old, unlikely career. Butchery, he says with intensity and slight awe, contains “everything I’m passionate about. It’s anatomy and physiology, it’s art, it’s athletic, it’s demanding and physical ... it’s cooking, it’s food, it’s something I get to talk to people about, and it’s also political.”

Additional photos: Michael Schnepf

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J 01/06/2011 12:47 PM

Why can there be no gray area when I comes to animal raising and slaughter? Come out to my place, go visit your local admirer of Joel Salatin (http://www.polyfacefarms.com/, featured in Food Inc and Michael Pollan's book OMNIVORE'S DILEMNA) and you'll find people loving animals. Yes, I may butcher one of my roosters, but the life that that little guy led was one where he could experience snow and.... More

Jennifer 07/19/2010 13:41 PM

Vegitarians/Vegans only see one side of the coin. I understand their need for a creulty-free and sustainable lifestyle, but they completely ignore the environmental/political aspects of the agricultural industry. (look up S. Brodt, Ag Sustainabilty Institute @ UC Davis) They have gone so far to the otherside that they create an imbalance all their own.
And have you ever noticed how unheatly a vegan looks? Humans are meant to be omnivoires. It was by eating meat, occassionally and not.... More

deborah minns Today 20:23 PM

ime sorry i am a vegan, i am healthy, and i want to ask you one thing, if we were meant to eat flesh then why cant we naturally pick it up with our blunt rounded teeth, eat its fur flesh and muscles and veins and brain etc, then not have the ability to digest it raw, i know our acidic acids would have a field day, and you say vegans look pale, thats the sun dear, WHY IS HEART DISEASE AND HEART FAILURE AND DIABETES AND OBESITY RIPE, what because they are vegans NOT

Mike 11/14/2010 09:57 AM

People say this but don't back it up with anything. What about vegans look unhealthy? Is it that they aren't fat and jolly like everyone else? I think if anything people have forgotten what we are supposed to look like at the right body weight. Just because you have a double chin and not a triple doesn't make that healthy.
Do they need a little "gut" to look healthy?
Seriously - to me this comment is just another feel good justification for being a gluttonous meat eater that will.... More

Jonathan 07/01/2010 14:02 PM

I read some of the comments, and they come off as childish from both extremes. The truth of the matter is that the world isn't perfect, but that harsh nature of reality doesn't disprove certain ideals. Pacifists are often told that there's an abundance of people in the world that hate them and their fellow countrymen and that they should defend their country as opposed to sticking to their ideals. This may be true, and well reasoned self defence would be a good safeguard against an invasion,.... More

Rosa 02/05/2010 13:57 PM

Ironic that Reed participated in APOC's "Decolonizing Our Diets". The project site says: "Recipes or entries do not need to be strictly vegetarian, but since this is about decolonizing our diets we are trying to keep it healthy and as harm free as possible. We understand that not everyone is ready to be vegetarian so we welcome recipes that include healthier ways to consume meat and dairy." Reed "stayed a vegetarian because [he] didn’t want to support an industry that was based on cruelty to.... More

Farmer 02/04/2010 22:07 PM

Have any of you ever visited a real farm to see the circle of life? Here in Upstate NY we are preserving a variety of beef breeds headed towards extinction. Only a market for their meat will save them from disappearing. Each grass fed beef farm that falls is turned to more plastic home subdivisions. I commend this man for helping farmers bring great beef to the consumer, and in the process keeping green pastures green.

Mike 11/14/2010 10:08 AM

Can't you save them any other way? Since saving them is your "angle" haha

@rno 02/05/2010 14:05 PM

Killing animals to save them from disappearing?

I think that only humans are happy with that. Anyway, not the animals.

Jennifer 02/04/2010 22:02 PM

I am a vegan and I care very much about the lives and suffering of my fellow human animals. Being vegan is the easiest, quickest, thing that I can do RIGHT NOW to make a difference. It doesn't cost a cent and can be done by anyone at anytime. We can choose not to eat meat and it does not hurt anyone. It actually helps a great deal.

Isabel 02/04/2010 20:02 PM

To me, eating an animal is still like eating your pet dog. It is still a creature, and it has a beating heart like you and me. They don't deserve to be painfully killed either. It is just not fair. We have evolved so that we don't have to live off animals anymore just like we don't live in caves anymore. If the picture showed a horse, or a dog being butchered we'd think it was grotesque, but because it's a cow and lots of people eat cows, does that make it more acceptable?

jodi 02/06/2010 11:37 AM

It's easy to be vegan or vegetarian when you have a supermarket to sustain you. In a majority of places in the world, there is not enough tillable land to support enough produce to feed everyone who lives there.

Animals can feed where people cannot plant. Steep hills and rocky terrain, and weather unsuitable for farming. Animals can graze in these areas, and turn the grasses and leaves they consume into actual dairy and meat products for the people who live there.

Just something for you to.... More

Guest 02/05/2010 13:17 PM

I betcha if there was nothing around to eat and your starving to death...you'll eat a whole heap of meat won't cha and loving it?...and don't give the BS reasons to why you're not cause that self-rightious. It's easy to explain your vegan ideology when you're stomach is full.

CP 02/04/2010 18:27 PM

I'm not going to hate on this guy, his choices are his choices. I will however, criticize the loose use of the word ethical. Those certainly aren't my ethics. Overuse of this word will eventually make it useless.

For those who think vegans are hippies, wake up. I build software, I live in the city, I make a six-figure paycheck, I wear stilettos - I just choose not to condone unnecessary pain, suffering, and death.

Eric 02/23/2010 15:24 PM

Interesting - what's the "label" on those stilettos of yours?

More importantly, who's making them: a fourteen year-old Indonesian girl who would otherwise be in school if there wasn't a global economy 'demanding' modern-day child slavery? Yes, I chose to say "slavery" rather than euphemize it with "child labor".

You're right to note that ethics are a relative matter, especially since you are certainly "condon[ing] unnecessary pain, suffering, and death." But hey, at least you're doing it with.... More

John 02/04/2010 18:00 PM

Vegans oppose the "senseless" slaughter of animals but I bet they could careless about about the death of humans in any aspect of life. Sad.

Jean 02/05/2010 01:24 AM

What makes you think that because someone is a vegan they don't care about deaths of humans? What an ignorant comment. Do yourself and everyone around you a favor, educate yourself on the topic, and come back when you can carry on an intelligent conversation with grown ups, Someone once said - it is the highest form of ignorance to reject something you know nothing about.

p0ire 02/04/2010 17:30 PM

It reminds me of the argument some people make about wanting to be vegetarian for ethical reasons but cannot take that leap for any number of lame reasons. You either believe in it or not... actions speak the loudest.

A truly ethical diet never includes the slaughter of animals or he doesn't. Cows, pigs etc are not collateral damage.

Frank 02/04/2010 15:17 PM

Most of these commentors should be glad horses are not a primary food source or else the would have to get off their high horses. I cannot understand how persons who eat veggie/ vegan can overlook the massive ecological destruction that their lifestyle also produces. How many millions of acres of the midwest have been plowed under for thier food? Tell me what happend to all the native species? I'm sure that they didn't move on to better living conditions. The argument about CO2 is also.... More

Mathew 02/04/2010 15:11 PM

If you choose not to eat meat, then don't. You can talk about carbon footprints and the environmental effects, but don't try and say that veganism or vegetarianism is more "ethical" than meat eating. Just as you made a choice not to eat meat, those who want to eat meat have every right to that choice. Animals are not people - there's no sense in trying to make it an ethical issue. I'm not for intentionally mistreating animals just for the sake of doing it, but I'm not going to stop eating.... More

Jean 02/05/2010 01:33 AM

By all means...keep eating that meat. EAT IT ALL!! FEED IT TO YOUR KIDS!! BON APPETITE! And when your wondering what caused your cancer, why your kids are fat, why your 6 year old daughter looks like she is 15, and what caused your latest outbreak of swine flu.....maybe then you'll learn what so many of us already took the time to educate ourselves on!

Eric 02/23/2010 15:34 PM

If you had bothered to read this article, you would have noticed that the premise of Reed's practice (as well as that of other ethical omnivores) is to eliminate the moral and health issues of factory farming, on the forefront of which are the growth hormones and antibiotics of caged life. Further, the impetus to do so locally provides a solution to such pandemics as swine flu, etc.

Cancer? What about the ovarian cancer your daughter is far more likely to suffer from after years of eating.... More

Guest 02/05/2010 12:39 PM

"The Matrix is the system Jean. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see?...Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The VERY MIND of the people we are trying to save...you have to understand most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it..."

Anonymous 02/04/2010 14:06 PM

I'm going to have to echo the analogy to religious fanatics--everyone calling this guy a sell-out and whatnot needs to get off their high horses, strip off the air of superiority, and stop passing blatantly rude and hateful judgment on people. I'm sure many of you have complained of religious fanaticism yourselves, yet you're motivated by the same sense of self-righteousness and moral superiority that religious people are.

Let me also say that I applaud vegans. I actually rarely eat meat for.... More

LeeAnne 02/04/2010 13:49 PM

"they suffer the same horrible fate at the slaughterhouse"

which is why we don't pass this responsibility on to a stranger. The animals that we plan to eat are raised from birth, spend their lives on our place and are dispatched instantly without knowing a moment of panic or fear or uncertainty. For us it is the 'greener' option.

Guest 02/04/2010 13:19 PM

ALL FOR THE ORGANIC, LOCAL & ETHICAL MOVEMENT...and I'm one of those who wants to do the right thing and do my part.

However, when you start judging those who don't believe in what YOU believe in a FANATIC WAY, it shuts people down and no one listens.

Let's learn from religious fanatics who judge those who are gay, happy and marry or anyone that seems "evil" in their eyes. Too much of "if you don't what i do, then i shall condemn you...oh and you deserve to die" attitude. .... More

bob 02/04/2010 10:42 AM

I'm a bankrupt vegan (thanks bush & obama for the ****** economy!) and I still wouldn't touch a piece of meat for $10 million dollars

matt 02/06/2010 09:38 AM

why not instead eat the meat and take the $10 million and donate it to stop factory farming? that seems like a logical thing to do.

farmer 02/04/2010 10:27 AM

if the price is right- many people would sell out there ethics. his price must have been real low.

Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
—Albert Schweitzer, French philosopher, physician, and musician (Nobel 1952)

Whenever people say “We mustn’t be sentimental,” you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add “We must be realistic,” they mean they are going to make money out of it.
—Brigid Brophy.... More

Guest 02/05/2010 13:29 PM

You're full of it...you'll take that $10mill and shove a whole cow in your mouth for that one time to get your hands on that money...full of **** I tell ya.

Matthew Vella 02/04/2010 09:07 AM

I'm sorry but some of the comments here are extremely ignorant and childish. There is nothing ethically wrong with killing an animal and eating it. That is natural, and part of nature's ecosystem.

Whats wrong is treating the animals inhumanely. Giving them a cruel, painful existence. If an animal is treated correctly, and has a natural life, then there is nothing wrong with eventually killing (in the many painless, efficient ways available) the animal to eat it.

And naturally one should.... More

Zorro 02/04/2010 12:29 PM

If it's natural to kill an animal and eat it, it's also natural for the death to be very painful. Why are you advocating for the unnatural killing "in a painless and efficient way" at the same time you're advocating for "natural" processes of eating other animals? Face up to your "natural" philosophy and kill without conscience. Or is that too natural for you?

Sol 02/03/2010 16:43 PM

Enter your comments here Interesting and well written piece on a subject usually given over to ranting.

Jimmy 02/02/2010 14:19 PM

This is a great story...I didn't know all you hippies had computers. Welcome to reality.

Guest 02/02/2010 12:02 PM

There is no such thing as vegan - every plant-based food contains insects, insects parts, larvae and eggs (yes, things with faces that live and breathe and did not "want" to die). Just check the FDA's "Food Defects" page of allowable insects/parts in foods such as pastas, fruits, and veggies (ex: 225 insect fragments in one box of macaroni, 120 aphids/thrips in a box of frozen broccoli, etc.). Because of grain/plant-based diet, vegans and vegetarians eat more insects than other diets.More

Jean 02/05/2010 01:38 AM

that's the best you could come up with? That was just plain dumb.

Guest 02/04/2010 09:11 AM

Where do you think that meat comes from? IT has to be raised and fed grains and vegetables. depending on the meat it can take anywhere from 12 to 50 lbs of food to create 1 lb of meat. so your assumtion that vegans eat more insects is completly obsurd. The idea of being vegan is to reduce suffering as much as possible.

Lailah Hanit Bragin 02/02/2010 12:00 PM

In response to the initial comments, I strongly disagree.
Abstaining from eating meat is a great choice, however it is unlikely to bring about as great a change in the world as is a fundamental change in meat production and farming.
Switching the demand from beef mass produced on ploughed down rainforests in Brazil, for example, to locally raised beef is likely to have a greater impact than simply not eating meat. That doesn't mean you should eat meat, but it does mean that it.... More

Ivriniel 02/04/2010 11:59 AM

Sorry, but very little Brazilian Beef makes it into North America. The Brazilians have trouble with hoof and mouth disease, and the only way that Brazilian Beef makes it here is as canned corned beef.

Jill 02/02/2010 11:39 AM

There is no such thing as humane meat. Raising animals in slightly better conditions helps on a small level, but they suffer the same horrible fate at the slaughterhouse. Their waste still goes into the environment. Stop kidding yourselves that you can eat meat and feel good about it; apply those same standards to cats and dogs and see how you feel about people eating them. Vegetarianism isn't elitist, but it is certainly the most ethical.

Ian 02/02/2010 09:15 AM

This is an entirely absurd article - there is no such thing as an ethical butcher.

The article better displays how one's environment can influence a person into making very poor choices - working at a meat counter peddling the remains of animals who were intentionally killed can lead to thinking that eating the remains of those individuals is acceptable. It's not.

Arno 02/02/2010 03:39 AM

As long as an animal is killed just because it taste nice, it is not ethical.

As long as we feed the animals first, and then humans, it is not ethical.

As long as we use a lot of energy to freeze, transport and fry the meat, it is not ethical.

As long as we use animals, it is not ethical.

Meet the ethical butcher

Former vegetarian Berlin Reed has transformed from vegetarianism to ethical omnivorism and theorizes an environmentally friendly future for meat.

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Meet the ethical butcher

Former vegetarian Berlin Reed has transformed from vegetarianism to ethical omnivorism and theorizes an environmentally friendly future for meat.

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