How Happy is Your Meat? Confronting (Dis)connectedness in the ‘Alternative’ Meat Industry

Abstract

The rise of ‘happy meat’ and support for small farmers has gained popularity in the alternative food movement in response to concerns about the industrialized meat industry. Looking at slaughter in the alternative meat movement, this article identifies three types of disconnectedness: socio-spatial, aesthetic, and connected. Socio-spatial disconnection is explored here through an analysis of the Mobile Slaughter Unit as a practice of slaughter alternative to industrial scale slaughter. This article uses alternative farms’ web marketing materials to explain aesthetic disconnection occurring in the alternative meat movement. Connected disconnection is understood through a brief analysis of a new phenomenon of ‘do-it-yourself’ slaughter. This article discusses how these three sites of disconnection represent a denial of the actual connections humans share with animals.