I don’t think that it is inherently wrong to eat meat. Humanity has spent thousands of years domesticating animals for use as food. Physically, people are designed to eat meat along with the bajillion other things we are designed, as omnivores, to eat. I do think that it is wrong, categorically and unquestionably wrong, to torture an animal before eating it.
This is not a happy post. It’s an upsetting post. There is no knitting. But it’s a post I’ve been thinking about for a long time about an issue that is important to me. I’ll get some of Ellie’s Christmas video edited for tomorrow to take the edge off. Here we go.
Most Americans don’t know where their chicken nuggets come from. When we think of chickens, we think of chickens pecking away in the dirt until someone wrings their necks, plucks them and makes chicken and dumplings. Cows graze in a pastoral meadow until they get bonked on the head (quietly and from behind where they won’t see it coming) for hamburger. Pigs root in the mud, get fat on slops and make friends with spiders until they magically transform into bacon.
Most Americans haven’t seen or even heard of a factory farm. In these mechanized wonders, animals are treated as commodities rather than living creatures so that institutionalized cruelty can provide Americans with cheap meat. I’ve provided links throughout this post if you choose to know more, but feel free to just trust me when I say it’s bad. Very bad. So bad that even if you don’t think that animals are especially sentient, just knowing the filth and squalor and damage to the environment that produces your chicken sandwich will be enough to make you skip it today.
Food animals are not just mistreated in life, but also in death. The US Humane Slaughter Laws are only as good as their enforcement (and don’t apply to poultry) and the USDA has proven over and over again that they can’t be trusted. Remember that downed dairy cattle in the school lunch meat thing? Or more recently, the appalling cruelty to veal calves (which was ignored by the USDA inspector who was present at the time*) and pigs (not to mention the pregnant sows jammed in gestation crates where they can’t even turn around). The cruelties to poultry are too numerable to list. A quick Google search will turn up many many many more incidents of abuse and cruelty in factory farms and slaughter houses that have nothing to do with the production of food.
In 2009, the Miracle household stopped eating meat (and gelatin, lard, etc.) unless I was confident that it was treated like an animal while it still was one. We order local, we buy Certified Humane, we read labels, we do our homework on brands before purchasing. Since we live in the rural south, this pretty much means that we are vegetarians outside our home. And in our home, we eat meat about once a week. In 2010, we will also reduce the amount of non-organic dairy we use. This is going to be harder than just not eating meat because of availability (and our devotion to cheese of all kinds). Organic certification has an animal welfare component and is more strictly overseen. We already use organic milk and eggs, so we’ll start 2010 with butter (organic butter costs twice as much, so we have to reduce our consumption by half). I’ll be trying new recipes and revamping old favorites. I think I’ll start sharing when I come across something delicious.
All this to say, this country has a problem with animal cruelty: puppy mills, abandoned, neglected and abused pets, abuse of feral cats, faux fur that isn’t faux, dog fighting, hog fighting, cock fighting, unnecessary and unnecessarily inhumane animal testing and even something as cute as a chicken nugget. I am through being a part of it.
If you feel the same, the Meatless Monday movement is a great place to start reducing suffering and make people more aware of where their food comes from. Try a classic Peanut Butter and Jelly for lunch instead of a turkey sandwich a couple times a week. Reduce your consumption. Reduce suffering. Let the industry know that this is not OK.
*As far as I can tell, that guy still has his job. The USDA won’t answer my emails, the HSUS has no further information. There is VIDEO EVIDENCE that the guy endangered our food supply, and the only thing anyone will will say is that the “matter is under investigation.” At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut: that is how our government is looking out for you.
I am most certainly the choir, but still, amen.
I have been vegan since October of 2008. I love this post. May I suggest the following book?: The Ethics of What We Eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.
I am very thankful for people like you. Thanks for your continued commitment!
(Another book recommendation for you: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I’m still reading it, and I’ve gotten angry and teary-eyed several times already. I usually read it in very small doses because it gets me so worked up.)
It’s not something we like to think about but it’s certainly something we need to think about.
Have you seen the documentary, “Food, Inc.”? I sat my hubby and kids down and made everyone watch it. That has greatly helped reduce the “flack” I get for spending more money to buy organic foods. It should be required viewing for everyone over the age of 13.
You know how I feel about this stuff. I’m 100% behind you and will send you any good-looking organic cheeses I find in my periodic packages from the Northwest. 🙂 Love ya!
The food industry in this country is so messed up, it’s insane! Not just animal cruelty, but the genetically engineered grains, HFCS, non-nutrient foods, etc. It all scares me.
There are so many factors in food production that have nothing to do with food itself, it’s horrifying. With the FDA cooperating with the food giants instead of policing them, it’s no wonder that the US food industry is the way it is (sorry to say). Thanks for raising the awareness. I’ll recommend John Robbins’ The Food Revolution and Diet for A New America; older books, but still relevant in today’s world.
PS: It’s notable that a McD hamburger costs 29¢ in the US when its French counterpart costs 2.50 Euros at 2/3 its size.
I’ve been very aware of this for a couple years and we have changed our diet tremendously but still have room to improve (also living in the rural south, we too have fewer choices than elsewhere). I just finished reading “Eating Animals” and read bits to my husband. I don’t think anything has swayed his view more. That and watching Food Inc. You are brave to post this but I am glad you did.
P.S. The Christmas morning video is wonderful!
The food industry in the US is in sad shape. I’ve been to some dairy farms that made me very sad. It’s not just the meat and dairy either. Nutrition and health in food production seem to have taken a back seat in US.
Emily, I could not agree with you more. I became a vegetarian in Nov. 2008 and try to stick with organic dairy when I have it. I orginally thought I would go back to eating meat, but only from humanely raised animals. As the time passed, I’ve come to realize that I will not eat meat again. But I commend anyone who knows where his/her food came from (meat or otherwise). I recommend reading “Animal Vegetable Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
THANK YOU. thank you thank you thank you. This country and ,quite frankly, the world, is in great need of more people like you, rather than ignorant protesters trying to turn their “vegetarianism” into a fashion statement.
I wonder, have you read Michael Pollen’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma?
I must confess that I have not, but I have some idea what it is about, and I think you would enjoy it.
Okay. Fine. Yeah. Okay. Right. So, I gave up a lot this year. I basically gave up dairy. So, If I go humane, when going out to eat I’d be limited to…like…hummus. But next year, when I can eat cheese again, sure. No problem!
Okay fine!
Maybe later this year. Maybe I’ll make an effort.
But it will be a weak one!
I’ll buy some cage free eggs or something.
But only if they’re on sale! Don’t try to suck me in!
Alright I’ll do it. Where do I have to sign? When does my magazine come?
What were we talking about?
Thanks for the great blog post. I work at the HSUS, and your reflections on your family’s evolving diet really resonate. Our organization includes both meat-eaters and vegetarians, and we don’t take a “one size fits all” approach but do urge people to eat lower on the food chain. In addition to animal cruelty and environmental degradation, factory farming is also a significant contributor to global climate change. For more good reads, check out “Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond the Factory Farm” by Nicolette Hahn Neiman. And this list of HSUS staff recipes (vegetarian/vegan) is also fun to peruse: http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/eating/recipes/recipes.html.
We’ve been buying organic milk for a couple of years ago, and the taste is just so much better than that other milk, it really made the decision to pay twice as much for the milk quite a bit easier. We’re working on small, sustainable changes – the creeping dread about the food that’s being presented is making this a must-do.
Great post (as usual of course)!! We’re working on the same. We found a local farm to buy our milk & eggs from a couple of years ago….raw unpasteurized. YUMMY!! We also get cheese from here:http://www.morninglanddairy.com/ The farm where we get our milk, actually sells it now as so many wanted it. We can get pork there and we get grassfed, etc beef elsewhere. Chicken has been the bigger challenge. We can get ‘natural’ at the grocery store without all the ‘stuff’ in it…but doesn’t avoid the other issues. So we’re keeping an eye out for some land land so that we can have our own chickens. We’ll see what happens. I don’t do it all the time I’ll admit, but making your own butter is really simple with raw milk!! A mason jar and a marble is all that you need!! You can even flavor it….yummy!!! Anyway…great post emily!!
Loved your post, and I can only second most of the comments already given.
I had already reduced drastically my consumption of meat and have always been looking out for quality over quantity, food wise. In the end, I find that, for example, one slice of sprouted bread (e.g. Food for Life bread) was much more satisfying than six slices of the additive-laden, never spoiling shelf bread; quality food keeps you full longer and is better for you in general.
Last year I practically quit eating dairy and eggs, which turned out to be easier than I anticipated. Though it wouldn’t be fair to call myself vegan or vegetarian, I do eat that way predominantly.
I wanted to recommend a couple of cookbooks which I discovered in my local library and which have become staples in my kitchen.
Moskowitz, Isa Chandra, and Terry Hope Romero. VEGANOMICON: THE ULTIMATE VEGAN COOKBOOK. New York: Marlowe & Company, 2007.
Atlas, Nava. VEGAN SOUPS AND HEARTY STEWS FOR ALL SEASONS. 4th ed. New York: Broadway Books, 2009.
I’m in the choir too 🙂 We rarely (once a month or less) cook red meat at home and would only eat one white meat meal a week.
We try (as far as possible) to use organic milk and meat but the organic movement is not quite as available here in South Africa as elsewhere.