It’s all about the goats

Andrew Martin has a fascinating front-pager in today’s Chicago Tribune about how rising immigration from less developed countries into the United States is altering the mix of goods that American farmers cultivate:

A growing demand for goat meat among New York City Muslims has been a boon to a livestock auction tucked away in the middle of Amish country. Here, where a covered shelter in a parking lot keeps Amish buggies dry when it rains, Mohammad Khalid arrives from Queens every Monday morning to buy as many as 50 goats, which end up in the meat case of Queens Discount Halal Meat by Wednesday afternoon. “A good goat is a Boer goat,” said Khalid, a Pakistani immigrant, pointing to a redheaded goat standing in a pen with his other purchases, all of them bleating and staring nervously at their new owner. “It’s very good meat. Tender.” Khalid is one of a handful of Muslim buyers who trek to New Holland every week to buy goats and, to a lesser extent, sheep, for Muslim markets in New York and other East Coast cities. While the idea of eating goat is considered distasteful by some in the United States, goat is the primary meat dish in many parts of the world. With the number of immigrants arriving from the Middle East, Mexico and Asia surging, so, too, does the demand for goat meat. According to the most recent Census of Agriculture, which the Department of Agriculture publishes every five years, goats are among the fastest growing sectors of the livestock industry. The number of goats raised annually for meat increased from 1.2 million to 1.9 million–a jump of 58 percent–from 1997 to 2002. The number of farms that raise meat goats grew to 74,980 from 63,422. “If you want to know who eats goat, it’s anybody but white people, descendants of Northern Europe,” said Susan Schoenian, a sheep and goat specialist with the University of Maryland extension service. “Now all the immigrants come from every other part of the world, and they all come from goat-eating parts of the world.” Many Muslims and Jews, for example, don’t eat pork and Hindus and Sikhs do not generally eat beef. “Goats cut across all religions,” she added. “There’s no taboos against eating goats. They are raised all over the Third World because they don’t need a lot.” ….by far the biggest state for goat meat–those raised specifically to be eaten–is Texas, where 16,145 farms reported raising 941,783 goats in 2002, according to the agriculture census. Texas is also the home to the nation’s largest goat auction, in San Angelo, where many of the goats are shipped south to Mexico.

Since goat meat is better for you than other forms of meat — the fat content is 50%-65% lower than similarly prepared beef while the protein content is roughly equal — someone should be promoting the Goat Diet.