Today, I read my daughter's blog that has this counter on it. It constantly updates the number of animals killed for food in the world. This nags at me with a sort of uncomfortable reality. I'm sure that's the very reason it's there, but I'm trying to decide if it really matters.
We, as thinking, physical beings, need to eat protein and animal protein is readily available. We should consider that if we were a little lower on the food chain and we knew that humans were killed for food, we might have a different attitude. We probably wouldn't consider killing animals to survive much of an issue in that light. But, because we have no such threats in this society outside of wild critters in the jungle, we can choose. We can choose to eat animal protein or vegetable protein. We can choose to sleep at night even though we ate beef, pork or fish and have no qualms about it...or we can choose to feel that killing animals is not acceptable and never eat meat again.
We have all heard the horror stories of the industries. The ones about abuse to the animals while they are being raised, while they are being transported and during the killing process. We have heard about the packing plants and what they do and don't do. My thoughts are that probably all of this is true to some point. I'm sure the industry looks more to the bottom line than the cruelty issues. As for the people that are standing in line at the meat market, they are blissfully unaware of the history of the chicken they are purchasing. You could call it the ostrich syndrome, where they just stick their head and the sand and don't look. "What I don't know won't bother me." At least those plants are supposed to be regulated.
I must admit, that hunk of red tissue in the package at the market doesn't look much like a spotted black and white cow you could see munching on grass. Thankfully. If we had to butcher the cow that we raised from a calf and then had to to cut it up into those hunks of tissue, maybe we'd all take another look, because we'd be creating memories. To those that have been raised by parents that were raised by grandparents that had been doing that all their lives, it probably wouldn't seem difficult, just a chore. The rest of us are all removed in our modern lives. Maybe in some distant past there were those that didn't want to do the distasteful part of getting their meat and so they began to barter with others. That likely led to the modern day practice of packing plants and grocery stores. All I know is that if I had to kill a cow to eat, I'd probably find other food. But, since I don't, I'm not sure that I feel so close to the animal that was butchered to let it bother me. It's not like a choice to not buy that chicken will lead to fewer chickens being raised for food. It will still happen and someone else will buy that chicken. If I chose to stop buying chickens altogether, it might save some in the course of my life, but there are so many people buy them that it would be like a drip in the universe. Just check that counter on my daughters blog.
So, after all is said, does it really matter?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Everyone chooses their own actions. Everyone has the power to make a difference, however small it may be. Just look at what millions of people did in this election; we elected a [half] black president. There are plenty of states where, had a few people said "what difference does my vote make?" and stayed home, it would have resulted in McCain winning that state. No, one individual choosing not to buy a chicken doesn't make a huge difference (although considering how many times I have passed up meals containing meat, that I would have normally eaten in the past, it does add up*). If people don't buy a product from the store, the store stops carrying it. That won't happen with one person, but it might happen with 10 people, or 50 people.
And finally, it does matter to me. By choosing not to eat meat, I know that I am not contributing to the unpleasant treatment and death of whatever animal I choose not to eat. I feel better about myself. I feel I'm doing well for the animals, my own health, and the environment (which is destroyed by mass meat production). It's a win-win situation. I just don't get to eat some of the foods I used to enjoy.
*Chicken entrees/sandwiches 3-4x/week, at 4 oz each time. Bacon maybe 1x/week, at two slices each time. Hamburgers, maybe 1-2x/week, at 4 oz each time. And take all that times the roughly 4 years that I've been mostly vegetarian. 208 pounds of chicken. 104 pounds of beef. 26 pounds of bacon.
Post a Comment