Meet the ethical butcher
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.
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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.
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Comments(36)
Posted By Farmer - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 10:07 PM ESTFarmer Comments
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.
Posted By @rno - Fri, Feb 05 2010 at 2:05 PM ESTKilling animals to save them from disappearing?
Killing animals to save them from disappearing?
I think that only humans are happy with that. Anyway, not the animals.
Posted By Jennifer - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 10:02 PM ESTTo Double Standard
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.
Posted By Isabel - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 8:02 PM ESTAnimals Can Hurt Too
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?
Posted By jodi - Sat, Feb 06 2010 at 11:37 AM ESTSupermarket vegetarian....
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
Posted By Anonymous - Fri, Feb 05 2010 at 1:17 PM ESTBULL-CRAP
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.
Posted By CP - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 6:27 PM ESTLabels = Ignorance
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.
Posted By Eric - Tue, Feb 23 2010 at 3:24 PM ESTWhat kind of labels = ignorance?
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
Posted By John - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 6:00 PM ESTDouble standard
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.
Posted By Jean - Fri, Feb 05 2010 at 1:24 AM ESTDouble standard?
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.
Posted By p0ire - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 5:30 PM ESTDisingenuous
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.
Posted By Frank - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 3:17 PM ESTWhat Ethics?
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
Posted By Mathew - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 3:11 PM ESTGet Over Yourselves
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
Posted By Jean - Fri, Feb 05 2010 at 1:33 AM ESTGet over yourselves?
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!
Posted By Eric - Tue, Feb 23 2010 at 3:34 PM EST"Educate" yourself
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
Posted By Anonymous - Fri, Feb 05 2010 at 12:39 PM ESTThe VERY MIND of the people we are trying to save...
"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..."
Posted By Anonymous - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 2:06 PM ESTMighty judgmental
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
Posted By LeeAnne - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 1:49 PM ESTslaughterhouse?
"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.
Posted By Anonymous - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 1:19 PM ESTHARD CORE VEGANS = RELIGIOUS FANATICS
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
Posted By bob - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 10:42 AM ESTthis guy's price is low
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
Posted By farmer - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 10:27 AM ESTSell out - another dumb ***
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
Posted By Matthew Vella - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 9:07 AM ESTEating HUMANELY can be ethical
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
Posted By Zorro - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 12:29 PM ESTKill Kindly?
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?
Posted By Sol - Wed, Feb 03 2010 at 4:43 PM ESTNuanced
Enter your comments here Interesting and well written piece on a subject usually given over to ranting.
Posted By Jimmy - Tue, Feb 02 2010 at 2:19 PM ESTwhat?
This is a great story...I didn't know all you hippies had computers. Welcome to reality.
Posted By Anonymous - Tue, Feb 02 2010 at 12:02 PM ESTVegans use animals every day
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.
Posted By Jean - Fri, Feb 05 2010 at 1:38 AM ESTare you serious?
that's the best you could come up with? That was just plain dumb.
Posted By Anonymous - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 9:11 AM ESTveganism
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.
Posted By Lailah Hanit Bragin - Tue, Feb 02 2010 at 12:00 PM EST"abstinence" is not the answer
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
Posted By Ivriniel - Thu, Feb 04 2010 at 11:59 AM ESTGet your facts straight
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.
Posted By Jill - Tue, Feb 02 2010 at 11:39 AM ESTNo Such Thing as Humane Meat
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.
Posted By Ian - Tue, Feb 02 2010 at 9:15 AM ESTianeriksmith@yahoo.com
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.
Posted By Arno - Tue, Feb 02 2010 at 3:39 AM ESTEat No Fear
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.
Decolonizing our diets
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