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They Got Your Goat

Mike Buzalka, Executive Features Editor

December 18, 2007

1 Min Read
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Mike Buzalka

USA Today reported recently on a self-service slaughterhouse outside Indianapolis where customers get to kill a goat or lamb for themselves. It’s like one of those pick-your-own-apples farms, except with more gore. Customers pick out the animal they want, then kill and dress it themselves.

The clientele consists primarily of observant Muslims who want to ensure that the animals they will eat are killed according to halal standards. There are also old-timers who simply want to maintain the do-it-yourself slaughter ethos of the village cultures of their youths. Most come from Indianapolis’s growing Middle Eastern, African and Asian immigrant communities. Goats are the primary product, and at $1.40 a pound live weight, apparently quite a bargain, even if you have to do most of the work yourself.

Will this catch on as another of those self-service extensions of our have-it-your-way society? Just Desserts has its doubts. Customers may like scanning their own groceries and not mind pumping their own gas, but probably will draw the line at cutting animals’ throats. There are some tasks best left to professionals.

The illustrations for FM's Just Desserts column are by Dave Clark. You can see more of his work at Clarktoons.

About the Author

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

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