little bee, books about meat, and meat talk!
LITTLE BEE SOON!
On January 28th, I'll be posting a discussion post for Little Bee. We'll have general discussion, and then I'll be posting a few questions in their own threads for people to discuss, if they like. Please feel free to think up your own questions for people!
in other news.
i finished another book today. it's called Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer. I thought it was more of a philosophical book about the animals that we eat, and why we eat them. Instead, it was a half memoir, half investigative report (which it says on the back! I should have paid more attention!).
Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I didn't expect it to be a pro-vegetarian book, and it was. Very much so. He does talk a lot about "good" farmers (aka not factory farmers) and certainly advocates for the "selective omnivore" (so, people who choose to eat ethical meat, rather than all meat). It isn't a long diatribe on the the evils of eating meat, which I appreciated.
I did like it because my own relationship to meat and eating it has been long and confusing, very much like his own. It took him until he became a father and writing the book to finally "pick" a side (he chose vegetarianism); before then he had alternated between the two and selectively ate meat. So, I did enjoy the memoir-ish part of it; it was nice reading about a person's journey with their diet.
There were parts of the book that I cringed at, because the horrors of factory farming really and truly is horrific. It has reignited by internal debate on food. I have been living in limbo for a while. I had a brief stint with vegetarianism for about 2 years, and then stopped because I realised that even though I had made that choice, I was still living in limbo; I didn't *really* know why I was doing it. I had reasons, for sure. But I had just as many contradictory beliefs as I did stable ones, and that made it difficult.
One thing that I think resonated with me (slightly; I think my own guilt shields me from the full effect) was the idea of deliberate forgetting. Once you know the information, you can either choose to change your life, or deliberately forget what you know so that you can have brief palate pleasures when you sit down for a meal. Or, so your diet remains simple and effortless. We choose to forget the horrors of the meat industry. And it's true. I've read multiple books on beef, I've seen horrendous videos online. And yet, I look at that little pale-pink chunk of chicken, and I see "chicken", "meat", not "flesh", or "corpse" or "muscle". I see something far removed from what it truly is. I deliberately choose to ignore what I know. And, that is wrong.
My reasons for being a vegetarian in the past were health related; the shit that is fed to animals is horrible, and then we eat the animals. I claimed that it wasn't for the actual animal, because I think that was easier. Despite this, seeing how they make chicks on How It's Made almost brought me to tears. I felt sick reading about things that happen in slaughterhouses. So - I do care about animals.
He talked about animal rights, and animal welfare. PETA is more animal rights; animals do not deserve to be killed. Animal welfare is more of the ethical treatment of farm animals; treat them well, feed them well, and give them as painless and respectful a death as possible.
I agree with both camps. I think the animal welfare perspective is more to my liking, though. Although we have removed ourselves from nature, we are still part of it. (yet despite this, what differentiates us from other animals is that we have a choice and the gift of rationalisation and realisation). Again, I find myself on the fence.
Another thing I don't understand is vegetarianism and veganism. When I was a vegetarian, I considered every time I ate an egg, or an egg product, I was doing something that made absolutely no sense to me. Drinking milk is just as wrong as eating a steak. So for me, there is no middle ground; it's vegan, or selective omnivore.
And, further, I find it very difficult to eat at other peoples houses. Being a vegetarian is one thing; people can grasp that. But, being a selective omnivore? Saying - sorry, I do eat meat, but just not your meat is ... difficult, to say the least. Or, making people grocery shop for me and me alone is something I dislike.
So - basically, I have no answers about my own personal choices and decisions. Well - that's a lie. I do. I am less in limbo than I was before reading the book. (or more, I suppose, since I'm back in the wondering-what-to-do state instead of the willfully ignorant state). I will try and make my home conversation first. I will attempt to make vegan things as much as possible, and I will continue to ponder.