I think many hunt for the quality of meat not the quantity or money savings. I seldom if ever buy meat from the grocery store and when I do I often end up over cooking it for fear of the processing. At least once a month and usually once a week there is another news story about some death or illness as a result of poor food handling or cooperate greed. I think there is still many that are hunting primarily for food and as the study suggests, it is a main reason newbees are taking up hunting.
This is from the Realtree Website;
A survey by Responsive Management cites a full 39% of survey respondents listed “for the meat” as the chief reason they hunt. This is up from just 22% who answered the same way in 2008.
Why the increase? I think there are a few reasons. Chief among those is probably the field-to-fork locavore movement that has swept the nation in the past few years. People are better informed about where their food comes from these days. They want to know how the meat they consume was raised, with many preferring it to be as natural as possible. It doesn’t take much research on the topic to realize wild game is the most natural protein available. Game meat is additive, steroid and added hormone free, leaner than most farm-raised meat, and tastes absolutely delicious when prepared correctly.
This desire to put wild game on their family’s dinner table is also one of the main contributors to new hunters taking up the sport. I often participate in group discussions with new hunters where the bulk of the questions getting asked center on field care, processing and cooking of the meat. Many of these hunters readily admit that no one else in their family hunts and that they are taking up the sport for the sole reason of obtaining the most natural meat available.
|