About 20 high school students stood behind the butcher counter, staring at a 160-pound piece of meat from a recently slaughtered cow.
"All of our meat comes from local farms, and we get it all whole," said Tom Mylan, 33, one of three butchers at the Meat Hook, a new butcher shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that buys its meat locally and prizes nose-to-tail eating. "We don't just buy steaks or pork chops or whatever."
"How much does the whole cow cost?" one boy in a white hoodie had asked moments before. Answer: about $3.25 a pound. "Do you slaughter here?" asked another. Short answer: no-most slaughterhouses are upstate. "What is chorizo?" asked a girl. Answer: a spicy Spanish sausage.
These curious students, all juniors and seniors at Automotive High School in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, are taking a class called "Food, Land, and You." Introduced by Jenny Kessler, a teacher at the school, three years ago, this elective English course is a primer about food broadly defined - its social, political and economic aspects. While dozens of New York City public schools have edible gardens, or offer student-grown food on the cafeteria menu, Ms. Kessler's class is unusual in the wider perspective it takes.
"Food justice is a huge issue," Ms. Kessler, 31, said. "But we study and talk blatantly about it - who has access to this food and why."
Learning What Food Looks Like Before It Goes Into the Package
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By Hannah Wallace
The New York Times, Feb 5, 2010
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