The Ignorance of Meat Eating Ethics

First an update.  I am almost finished the 40 day MI40 program.  I will be posting an update when done.  I am probably the biggest and strongest that I have ever been, all while I’ve lowered my body fat.  It is a very effective program.  Now on to the “meat” of the post.

The blogosphere has been talking a lot about meat lately. Since the New York Times posted this article[1] about an absurd pseudoscience study claiming meat consumption increases morbidity risk, and the amount of reaction to it from more logical people[2][3][4][5][6][7]. Then the New York Times posted this contest[8] asking people to submit in 600 words or less why it is ethical to eat meat, but your not allowed to talk about how the meat is raises and processed … really? That got a couple good responses from Mark Sission[9] and Richard Nikoley[10].

This talk about ethics made me recall a video I saw recently on youtube or some video site. It is a hidden camera show where the store makes fresh sausage. How fresh? Live pigs fresh, see below. This is suppose to be funny, but to me I was disturbed. Not at the fact that they are pretending to kill a live pig for food, the fact that the people were OK with buying and eating sausage UNTIL they see the process used to make it.

We have become so disconnected with our food source and are so ignorant to where it comes from that we are disturbed when we actually see it. I think this is unethical.

It also makes me recall the iCaveman episode where Robb takes down an elk with an Atlatl below (25 minute mark).  They NEEDED to kill the elk for food to survive, but the emotional element of killing the animal was not lost.  This is a fact of life, and has been for millions of years.

I actually think that Mark Zuckerberg gets it.  Last year he stated “The only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself,” and shortly after “I just killed a pig and a goat.”  But the best quote of his is

Every year I have a yearly personal challenge. It’s a good way to explore different things I wouldn’t normally do and challenge myself. Towards the end of last year I reflected a bunch of how thankful I was that we were building so many good things and things have gone well so far and I decided to make this year’s challenge around being more thankful for what I have. I struggled for a while about how to implement this, but eventually decided that forcing myself to get personally involved and thank the animals whose lives I take in order to eat them was the best day-to-day way to remind myself to be thankful. So every day when I can’t eat meat I am reminded of why not and how lucky I am, and when I do get the chance to eat meat it’s especially good. This challenge also has the benefit of making me generally healthier, and I’m also learning a lot about sustainable living.

Would you be OK with killing your own food?  If not why are you OK sitting on your ass while someone else does it for you in a factory?

 

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/health/research/red-meat-linked-to-cancer-and-heart-disease.html
2. http://robbwolf.com/2012/03/14/red-meat-part-healthy-diet/
3. http://www.cavemandoctor.com/2012/03/13/red-meat-consumption-and-mortality/
4. http://freetheanimal.com/2012/03/new-study-driving-watching-red-meat-can-kill-you.html
5. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/will-eating-red-meat-kill-you/
6. http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/839/The_Red_Meat_Study_Scare_What_Do_We_Make_Of_It.aspx
7. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/04/05/chocolate-red-meat-can-be-bad-for-your-science-why-many-nutrition-studies-are-all-wrong/
8. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/is-it-ethical-to-eat-meat/
9. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/is-eating-meat-ethical/