Compassionate Meat
I’m a happy vegetarian but I don’t begrudge other people the right to eat meat. After all, I do believe that different bodies thrive on different diets, and I have many friends who hate the thought of slaughter, but literally become ill if they don’t eat occasional meat.
I propose, then, compassionate meat. Whole Foods has already set high industry standards for ensuring that the animals are not only raised chemical-free, but with a reasonably high quality of life. These animals are given more care, space and hygiene than in your typical factory farm.
Why should this matter? Because all stress, pain and fear become part of the animal’s flesh (just as our own stress creates tense muscles or sets the stage for illness in our bodies). And whatever our personal belief systems, we can all appreciate that inflicting willful pain is just wrong. There are ways to painlessly slaughter animals while showing them respect and gratitude for the nourishment they will give, and there’s absolutely no excuse to put animals in a state of utter fear and trauma in their final moments of life. It is just not necessary.
If you’re a meat eater, then I humbly ask that you become more aware of inhumane factory farm practices and choose to support the compassionate alternative. And please spread the word, because creating more stress and pain on the planet – especially that of the helpless animals in our care – is neither sustainable nor healthy for anyone.
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3 Comments
April 28th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Thank you for this thoughtful post, Sarah.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:23 am
This is important, and I find it difficult to grasp the balance point between two conflicting needs. First, to meet the growing demands of consumers and their sensitivity to prices which have been escalating, and second with the absolute need to treat ALL food with dignity and respect. Perhaps we need an independent movie producer to make a film called “A Day Without A Cow” or chicken to sensitize us to what life would be like if one day, all at once all cows got on their spaceships and went back to the planet udder.
There are many compelling reasons to improve our treatment of food production animals from it is the right thing to do, to their (and our) health, and even to things as nebulous as national security. Since our nation runs on its collective stomach and because it is next to impossible for individuals to produce enough food to support themselves even for a short time, it seems obvious that everything we do to improve the entire process would be the minimum we must do. What I ask if this- if tomorrow, we were to enact all needed changes to the poultry growers and the attendant processing industry, what impact would that have on the price per pound of chicken? Would it go from $1.29/pound to $8/pound? What then. Where is our value system when we will willing pay $3.50. for a grande latte (12oz.) making the per gallon cost $7.16, and oh by the way the contents of which is mostly milk, which sells for $2-3./gallon for 2%. Just random rants…
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