How Now, Mignon Cow?

You’re a green eater. You buy local beets, local honey, local babka. Now, take the local food moovement one step further with your own miniature cow! Via London’s Times Online:

For between £200 and £2,000, people can buy a cow that stands no taller than a large German shepherd dog, gives 16 pints of milk a day that can be drunk unpasteurised, keeps the grass “mown” and will be a family pet for years before ending up in the freezer.

The Dexter, a cow that originated as a “cottager’s cow” in south Ireland in the 1800s, is twitterpating both city slickers and small ranchers alike, according to the Dexter Cattle Society: UK registrations of these bantam bovines have doubled in the past eight years.

Seems reasonable to me; not only do the cows crop the grass (goodbye, gas-powered mower!), they provide backyard-local dairy and, for the carnivores, a fine flank steak. While I’m not sure that in-city cattle farming is legal in Seattle — what with the methane and the lowing and (ahem) cow pies — I’m all for sustainability. Plus, with a herd of tiny kine, I could re-enact Lonesome Dove on a Living Small scale. Cattle drive, anyone?