Letters to the Editor
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A few points
1. It would be so nice if everyone could just eat what they wanted without anyone criticizing any of the various choices as murderous, ignorant, unreflective, etc. I make an exception for the small number of vegans who are willing to live their beliefs. These vegans should be taking up arms against the genocidal matrix of modern society. Writing letters to internet publications just doesn't quite cut it.
2. Why are so many people so obsessed with ethical purity? These people are wasting all kinds of psychological energy on concern they could easily sweep under the rug for the rest of their lives. What's wrong with a little compartmentalization. Bad things are happening everywhere constantly. If we didn't ignore most of it, today and permanently, most of us would have a very difficult time functioning.
3. If you're looking for cosmic justice, consider that, to paraphrase Keynes, in the long run none of us is a top predator.
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former ag teacher?
really?
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HAHAHA!
Thanks GeeBee.
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how about we apply the same humane treatment laws that are applied to dogs and cats to farm animals
do that and we can forget the whole thing, go on with our lives and everyone will be happy. OK? Since your main concern is that people keep a reasonable perspective I trust you will support this policy. Looking forward to working with you.
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We all must kill to survive
Maybe it isn't with gore and potential anguish that we kill our foodstuffs. But, it is naive to think that being a vegetarian or vegan is significantly better than an omnivore. Carrots die, but they cannot look us in the eye when we kill them or eat them while they still have life.
If you choose not eat meat, then good for you. And, you can condemn others for eating meat, there is no law against being a hypocrite.
We are all killers in one form or another.
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a carrot is the same as a cow?
someone did point out that plowing a field and growing soybeans kills lots of mice, voles, etc. in fact destroys a whole ecosystem that would be living and thriving if one cow were grown and slaughtered in that same field
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Meat still takes far more resources.
It still takes about 100 times the water and many times the calories to produce a lb of meat protein vs a lb of vegetable protien, and until that isn't true, eating meat free will continue to be the more ethical choice. If you are going to eat meat, however, this sounds like the most humane way to go about it.
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Scientific evidence trumps Vegan religious beliefs
"For those of you who a) think eating meat is natural ( I think that argument has been sufficiently quelched."
So easy to dismiss that fact without a single shred of evidence. I refer to the widely accepted scientific research of the Leakeys in Africa, which showed that early humans' diet consisted PRIMARILY of small animals. Indeed, most, if not a near-consensus, of anthropologists directly attribute Homo sapiens development of a much larger brain than Homo habilis and the acquisition of language skills to the evolutionary advancement represented by hunting for meat. But why pay any regard to science when you have vegetarianism as religion?
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The kill bill
1. When did people expressing their viewpoint make them into vego-fascists, fundementalists and akin to "right to lifers" blowing up termination clinics? Quite a few of the anti vego letters here seem creepily close to the strategm of calling anyone who disagrees with the Iraq invasion anti-american and a terrorist sympathiser. Sure there are some disturbed people in the animal rights movement but I haven't detected a lot of that in these letters.
2. The "it's how nature designed us" support for meat eating only works if you walk around naked, mate, if your male, with any female you're stong enough to dominate and who you can fight over with all the other males, stop being able to read when your eyesight declines, forget contacts, glasses etc. if fact forget any surgery or prostetics. Just because the first humans did it do we have to?
3. Meat eating or not isn't just a personal issue. The Amazonian rainforest clearing, the depletion of the ozone layer and malnutrition in many parts of the world is linked directly with the raising of huge herds of cattle destined for consumption only by those that can affort it. Meat is calorie heavy to produce for a much lower calorie yield. In other words the grain that goes to feed the cows would feed more people satisfactorily than the meat ever will.
I don't eat meat fish or fowl. Thats my decision. The author's decision to raise and eat Harold was hers. I wouldn't do that but I'm not in a position to judge her. At least she thought about it and came to an ethical position that she can be at peace with.
David Edler
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Embarassing
As a liberal and a committed environmentalist, all I can say is that I find the commentary from the Vegan side to be deeply embarrasing due to their dogmatism. I can only find solace in the fact that less than 3 percent of Americans are true vegetarians. Now, perhaps, we can move on to more important issues like saving the world from habitat destruction.
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Too Lazy to Be Vegan
That said (about myself)...I admire them. I'll never forget how my child wept when she first comprehended what hamburgers were. She never ate meat again.
I go intentionally numb when I eat meat or poultry. I am less disturbed when I eat fish, but watching a series on crab fishing made me rethink crab.
It's not black and white, imo. It's no more extreme to forgo meat than it is to froth about "militant vegans" which in my experience, is a ludicrous and nearly oxymoronic phrase. PETA notwithstanding.
Anybody see Fast Food Nation? I guess for foodies who savor sweetbreads in upscale eateries it's not very interesting, but god, how about some nice beans and rice with some onion, a whiff of cumin and tomato and bay?
Eating 90% vegetarian I've found that the flavors of vegetables and whole grains are much more subtle than meat. Once that blood craving dies, the palate changes. Meat now tastes like something ashy. But fresh veggies, great olive oil, and herbs? Lovely.
Try it out. Think about it more. Don't get busy forming camps, judging, etc.
But if you can be present with a lover, in the most transcendent kind of sex, or lose yourself in music or contemplation of a view...you could do this too: go out in the country and find a field where cows graze. Stand quietly at the fence. Greet them, then be quiet. Just stay in their presence until something comes over you. See what it is.... See if you are open to change.
It would be okay, you know. It wouldn't be unAmerican. It wouldn't be a betrayal of your Mom or Dad who lovingly fed you steak. It would be okay.