Ever wonder about the meat you're eating?  Marissa Guggiana is a writer and food activist who's traveled the country looking into the lives of some of America's best butchers.  She writes about the rivival of butchery, as well as the challenges and issues facing the U.S. meat industry.   

AndrewZimmern.com: What inspired you to get involved in the meat industry?

MarissaGuggiana: My family has been in the meat business for four generations and so I have meat in my blood, so to speak. My father gave me the reins to Sonoma Direct and I quickly learned that I had the infrastructure to change our local food system. We are a federally-inspected meat plant, which is an enormously important piece of a local food economy, as it sits smack in the middle of the food chain. In many ways, I am the communicator and intermediary in the meat world, turning carcass into cuts, taking livestock and creating food. I have the lucky job of working with ranchers, chefs, butchers and consumers.

AZ.com: Butchery has become a rediscovered culinary art. What do you think brought about this change? How is butchery different today than it was 50 years ago?

MG: The butchery revival is absolutely necessary to the survival of local farms and open spaces. Since the Industrial Revolution, meat has become an increasingly centralized industry. Trickle up profits are wolves in efficiency's clothing. By centralizing to the point where a hamburger contains meat from countless beef (literally, an un-countable, un-traceable amount), we have a food system that is completely de-democratized. Butchery was a well-paid, well-respected field until about 25 years ago, when it became completely usurped into factories. An animal now will have hundreds of hands on it, instead of the four we need: the rancher, the slaughterer, the butcher and the consumer. In order to bypass these factories, ranchers and consumers need butchers that know what to do with the whole animal. The change is happening now because we are all finally becoming aware that it has moved in such a bad direction.

AZ.com: Your new book, Primal Cuts, looks at 50 of America's best butchers. Why did you decide to write the book? How did you go about finding butchers?

MG: We cannot reclaim our food system without taking responsibility for our food choices. No one can make good choices unless they know there is a decision to be made. Primal Cuts is my way of offering a proposition to eaters: you can eat meat that degrades the planet and your health or you can eat meat that promotes health including economic, creative and systematic health. If I could offer one solution to everyone, you wouldn't need a book. I could just say: Go to Store A, buy product B, cook it at C degrees. But every community is different (thank goodness) and has stumbled upon unique solutions for sourcing, butchering and marketing local meat. In Primal Cuts I share these stories. I tell the best stories I found. And, I found them by asking the smartest people I know in the food industry (people like Andrew Zimmern) and by following the path from great farms. The pastiche of all these amazing artisans belies a genuine food movement. I have great admiration for the tenacity and passion they all bring to their work. Change is going to come from the ground up.

AZ.com: You've traveled around the country looking at the lives and work of butchers. What was the most important piece of information you learned?

MG: If there is this much intelligence, sense of social responsibility and humor in the people that cut our meat, then the world can't be too far off track! People find solutions to problems and they work together for the greater good. That was food for my spirit. On a practical level, I learned that we absolutely must get very serious about our food choices. Many people selling food raised responsibly (in restaurants, grocery stores, farmer's markets and through CSA's) are struggling because too few people support them. We need to increase access to good food for everyone. This often means eating less meat so that we can afford good meat. I don't eat steak every night. I eat stew, I eat ground beef, I eat chicken thighs and I don't eat meat at every meal. But I never eat dirty meat that comes from factory farms where animals are treated like prisoners and profits come before respect.

AZ.com: Today's meat industry is evolving and facing new challenges.  What do you think are the biggest challenges and how are farmers and butchers addressing them?

MG: The Meat Industry is facing a colossal food safety challenge. The wheels are coming off of an engorged pipeline that simply cannot ensure that the meat we are eating is safe for us. The animals are sick, the employees are treated poorly and the regulations are inadequate for the massive quantity of meat being handled. Truckloads of meat get irradiated to kill possible bacteria and parasites! That is a solution coming out of the desperation and short-sightedness endemic to the system. On the local scale that I explore in Primal Cuts, the major challenge is finding a home for the whole carcass. Luckily, everyone can help solve this. Buy from butchers that buy whole carcasses from local ranches and buy whole carcass yourself. Primal Cuts shares cooking solutions for dealing with the whole beast and a butcher is your best guide.

AZ.com: Name a few of the most influential butcher shops in the United States.

MG: The 50 butchers in Primal Cuts are starting a food revolution and are influencing how people will be eating in the coming years. Butcher shops like Fleischer's in upstate New York, The Meat Hook in Brooklyn and Avedano's in San Francisco are making responsible food choices accessible and giving people cues how to eat and enjoy the whole animal.

AZ.com: What are your five favorite cuts and how do you like to eat them?

MG: I am a braiser. I love slow cooking! I especially love pork butt and lamb shoulder. Pork butt makes carnitas, a simple braise, which you drain, shred and then broil, so the meat caramelizes a little. Lamb shoulder makes a heady stew and I tend to favor British stews of rough-chopped veggies or Moroccan tagines. I grill skirt steak or hanger steak frequently, as well. Fast and super flavorful. These are muscles that work so they don't have a dilettantish lack of flavor. They've got grit. I also adore the culotte steak, which I show how to butcher yourself in Primal Cuts. It doesn't need much interference and it is wonderful rare or medium-rare. I am used to taking home the scraps so my favorite piece of meat is the one on my plate! I prefer to think of cooking as an excuse to learn and I always ask the butcher for cooking suggestions.

AZ.com: What's in your fridge?

MG: I tend to go on food tangents. Right now my fridge is all about fermentation. Pickles, home-made kraut, pickled veal tongue and some Stone Brewing Co. beer. I also have a long-standing love affair with charcuterie and I am always on the look out for the best. I have a guanciale from Tender Greens in San Diego and a tiny bit of salami my great uncle made that I am hoarding. I am testing some new sausage recipes for Sonoma Direct, so there is some lamb with lavender and juniper berry and a merguez. And tons of squash, squash blossoms and green beans from Greenstring Farm, my local produce source.

Marissa Guggiana is the president of Sonoma Direct, a family business providing sustainably raised meats, the co-founder of Secret Eating Society, and a leader in Slow Food, for which she was the charcuterie curator at the inaugural Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco. A regular contributor to Saveur.com since 2008, Marissa has been the co-editor and contributor to Meatpaper, a quarterly magazine exploring the fleischgeist.  Marissa is committed to changing the food system to maintain the strength and independence of small farms and ranches. Primal Cuts: Cooking with America’s Best Butchers, published by Welcome Books, is her first book.