Tame Meta Meat Team:
The Serious Side
I've known various vegans and vegetarians over the years. Some were militiant folks who'd show you pictures at lunch of swine at the slaugherhouse or little calves with broken legs living brief lives in small cages to eventually be someone's Veal Parmesean. Some were folks who just stopped eating meat one day because it didn't taste good anymore or made them sick when they ate it. Some stopped because they love animals. Some turned away from beef and pork for health reasons, but still ate fish and poultry. Whatever the reason, people around me have made this huge lifestyle change and have stopped eating meat while I continue to consume burgers, chicken wings, meatloaf, and roast pork loin with seeming abandon. Ummm...roast pork loin...
I've never been able to commit to the vegetarian lifestyle, much less to that of the vegan. I have respect for people who do take on this lifestyle because I feel the meat industry is corrupt, morally and literally (see mice poop mention above). Not only are animals mistreated in order to be made into our food, but the humans that do the slaughtering are not treated well by their corporate puppet-masters either. They work in terrible conditions for low wages and face dicey safety challenges all day, every day.
So why do I still consume meat? Partly because it's so available and convenient, partly because it's so tasty (?) and partly because I seem to have committment phobia when it comes to me actually agreeing to not eat meat. Let's face it, meat is everywhere and it comes in these tidy styrofoam packages. Meat fills you up when you eat it. Cooked & seasoned meat smells and tastes wonderful.
Cue The Circle of Life ... I don't know if I can solve my dilemma yet. I like eating meat. I just feel guilty about it sometimes. Meat is not bad or evil and I'm a proud member of the food chain. I just wish animals were treated humanely - all animals - and that they didn't have to suffer to fill my belly or fill the belly of what's going to fill my belly. Is anyone else having this problem?
4 comments:
I, too, have had these feelings. The follow is not really any attempt to justify anything...or to make you feel better....but, it's just something else...
Eating food and surviving will always be detrimental to something else...no matter what. So, let's say you subscribe to only eating vegetables...you still don't know how many field mice are killed by the giant, tractor-pulled harvest machine.
Ok fine. You decide that you'll only eat organically grown, hand-picked vegetables...but, what about fair wages? And how do you really know, anyway? And what about the effect of food growing/harvesting has on the environment?
Also, as I've learned in all my restaurant expericence, don't expect that ANYONE in that kitchen really gives a fuck about your dietary beliefs. This isn't the case everywhere, but unless you're going to be making all of your own food or watching it be made, you DON'T know what's in it.
So, what' the lesson here? Life is futile...don't try.
Ok...no. You do have choices...and, if choosing to limit your diet is something that you feel strongly enough about, by all means, go for it...there's something to be said for people who actually practice what they believe in.
As for me, I'm just not so sure I believe in it all that much.
I just want to point out that plants are alive. One could consider chomping on a carrot as slaughter.
I have also wrestled with the meat/no meat dilemma. I spent several hours on GoVeg one evening and thought I wouldn't eat meat for awhile. And the next day: pepperoni. Instead of giving it up all together, I try to eat less meat. I have also started eating more meat substitutes (Boca whatnots) but that doesn't happen too often.
That's all I got. BTW: Mel-a-rific:genius.
LOVE!
~The Booklahver
I know, I know! Unless I start my own frickin' farm and grow my own food and raise my own chickens, I can never really know where my food came from, much less what's in it.
I guess I was just feeling a bit impotent yesterday -- the sad thing is, after all my 'save the animals' bluster, I ended up eating pepperoni pizza at lunch. I really did enjoy it though, and I appreciate the animal that died for my lunch. Who knows? Maybe a Giant Bear will eat me for lunch one day? Then me and Muddah Nature can call it even.
So, I have decided that I will decide about deciding to give up meat later. Why do something today when you can put it off until tomorrow? Indeed.
Meat! Meat!
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