To meat or not to meat?

I can hear myself at the support group meetings now..."Hello. My name is Lori, and I am a meat addict." My omnivorous habits are a source of much angst for me, mind you, but having grown up a farm girl and a terribly picky eater, I really don't have a whole hell of a lot going for my taste buds.

Now, here's where the Catch 22 comes in. Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am a non-fictional Ellie Mae (complete with a concrete pond that I hate!). My family owns 4 cats (all rescues), 6 dogs (all rescues), 2 ferrets, a guinea pig, a bunny, a cockatiel, and 3 finches. We shell out big bucks to make sure they are up-to-date on their shots and get high-quality food and veterinary care. I adore cows. If we could have farm land, I'd have cows and alpacas and goats and... well, you get the picture.

I know the torture that factory farms inflict on animals to provide us with our steaks, shaved ham, chicken fingers, and turkey bacon. I've seen the PETA films; I've been boycotting KFC for a couple of years now. Intellectually, I know all this. And yet, I still love the taste of meat.

Veganism is out for me; I'd die of malnutrition. Note I did not say starvation; I can find a veritable plethora of food that I like to eat that doesn't contain meat or meat products. But I do not enjoy (and I even daresay detest) the taste, and especially the texture, of many vegetables, beans, and grains. So I am fairly confident that I would not get the nutrition I need to be even remotely healthy.

So what is the answer? How does one assuage huge feelings of guilt even as one chows down upon the dead flesh of another animal? For me, I think I have decided that my personal answer is finding a local organic farm where I know the slaughter is as quick and painless as possible. (On a side note, I think that we as a society are so ready and willing to eat meat in huge quantities because we have been conveniently separated from the killing. If we had to watch or, heaven forbid, participate in the slaugher of our own food, I think there would be a sharp decline in meat consumption.) I know there are many who think this is a cop-out, a way to make myself feel better while still participating in barbarianism; perhaps, but that's my story, and I'm sticking to it (for now).

Comments

[vanessa]

Again, I can totally empathize -- I've flip-flopped numerous times between being vegeterian and an omnivore (but never vegan, as I wholeheartedly support humane egg and dairy farming). In the end, I think it's unnecessary to restrict yourself to such absolutes. As long as you try to eat local and free-range whenever you can, and maybe try to limit your meat consumption to once a day so you still appreciate it, I think that's reasonable (and more than what most people do, anyway). Also, if you ever shop at Whole Foods, try looking for this brand called Better Foods (www.betterfoods.ca). They're a couple Canadian guys (I interviewed them) who make half-soy/half-meat products, and I swear you will NOT taste or feel the soy. They're healthier and create less demand for meat. That's amazing that you're caring for so many animals, by the way — warms the cockles of my heart... whatever cockles are.

[Walter Jeffries]

Meat is a part of the cycle life life and death. It is natural. I disagree with the often proffered concept that eating meat hurts the environment. You can't grow veggies on a lot of land. If you try you'll destroy the soil. We live in the mountains. The best use of the land is forest and mountain pastures that are grazed by sheep, chickens, pigs, goats, cattle, etc. They graze on low quality pasture that won't produce any crops for us and in turn they'll turn those low quality, to us, forages into high quality protein, lipids and other good wholesome foods. I've been vegetarian several times in my life for various reasons but I would not consider it ever to be a long term sustainable solution. Vegetarianism is not healthy in the north country without importing food over long distances and the use of supplements and neither of those are truly sustainable.

As to the killing thing, for myself I personally feel that I must be willing to do the killing, and everything else, if I'm going to eat meat or veggies too. But that's just for me. I make no judgement on anyone else. See this post of "To Kill or Not" from my Sugar Mountain Farm blog:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/02/to-kill-or-not.html

Cheers,

-Walter
in Vermont

[Lori V.]

Wow, Walter. It is very fulfilling to find that I am not alone in my views. Thank you for taking the time to visit & comment!