Thanks for this piece! I've been a vegetarian/vegan for many years and I completely agree that it's possible to eat meat ethically. Everyone needs to make a conscious decision about the food they eat. Passive and processed eating is the real issue, not vegetarianism.
Tracy, I'm just thawing some ny strip from Blue Gentian Farm that I bought at the Mpls Farmer's Market this morning. Plan to bring these steaks and a pound of local morrels and a bag of local ramps to our family dinner tonight.
Great Article Kris! Flat Earth's Cygnus X-1 Porter is a sweet dark elixir of life, so honest that even a righteous brew by Bell's pales in comparison! I'm longing to try their Stout, but I wish they used Peace Coffee though.
The farms from which all of your meats (and seafood) come from sound fantastic. You guys are clearly doing your part to distribute the good stuff, and I hope you're as busy as you can manage.
My concern wasn't with your parent's company, or their purveyors, but aimed instead at the bureaucracy that has insisted upon such highly-regulated, unreasonable processing facilities (full-time inspectors, for one thing), making fresh, unfrozen organic meat a near-impossibility. I bemoan the scarcity of local, clean, old-fashioned slaughterhouses--and I'm not alone. I've noticed a public outcry along the same lines. (Check out this nytimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/28slaughter.html)
Toro, "our land?" Like it's ours and not equally theirs? You say this as if these animals are conscious of cause and effect, like it's their fault for getting in the way of the tractor.
Your humanely raised animals require food to live. That food must then come from a place that in producing it kills random wild animals. Hence, you've simply added more killing. You have not reduced the moral mistreatment of anything. You've added a being to be killed while also increasing the number of beings killed.
If you suggest that the vegetables fed the animal were cleaved with no killing on a level applicable to our population size, I now ask: why can't that be done in the first place.
Animals killed by our harvesting are not being forced to die, they are dying because they live in/move to our land. Their own actions bring about their own deaths. Killing a cow because you want to eat it is not the same.
Your question,
"...is it better to be brought into existence, live a (short) life, then be killed for food, or is it better to not exist at all?"
has no meaning. You are making an incoherent comparison. To be “brought” is to be moved from one state to another. To be “allowed” is an action on an existent being. I do not “allow” a non-existent bee to remain non-existent. I cannot, by definition, act on it. A mother does not “bring” a baby into existence. The baby is by definition, the baby once its existence occurs. Morality of acts/choices concerning it can therefore only be made with regards to the existent baby.
For these reasons, you cannot say it is “better” or “worse” as the two judgments are comparisons between states, and one of your states does not, according to you, exist (read the last three words of the question).
Thanks for this piece! I've
Thanks for this piece! I've been a vegetarian/vegan for many years and I completely agree that it's possible to eat meat ethically. Everyone needs to make a conscious decision about the food they eat. Passive and processed eating is the real issue, not vegetarianism.
Tracy, I'm just thawing some
Tracy, I'm just thawing some ny strip from Blue Gentian Farm that I bought at the Mpls Farmer's Market this morning. Plan to bring these steaks and a pound of local morrels and a bag of local ramps to our family dinner tonight.
Best wishes, Scott
Scott - So glad you enjoyed
Scott - So glad you enjoyed it!
Great Article Kris! Flat
Great Article Kris! Flat Earth's Cygnus X-1 Porter is a sweet dark elixir of life, so honest that even a righteous brew by Bell's pales in comparison! I'm longing to try their Stout, but I wish they used Peace Coffee though.
what an excellent piece.
what an excellent piece. thank you!
You are not alone - heritage
You are not alone - heritage cows are so beautiful! I plan to visit BGF to find out what their shaggy hide feels like . . . 8-)
Thanks, John. The farms from
Thanks, John.
The farms from which all of your meats (and seafood) come from sound fantastic. You guys are clearly doing your part to distribute the good stuff, and I hope you're as busy as you can manage.
My concern wasn't with your parent's company, or their purveyors, but aimed instead at the bureaucracy that has insisted upon such highly-regulated, unreasonable processing facilities (full-time inspectors, for one thing), making fresh, unfrozen organic meat a near-impossibility. I bemoan the scarcity of local, clean, old-fashioned slaughterhouses--and I'm not alone. I've noticed a public outcry along the same lines. (Check out this nytimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/us/28slaughter.html)
I'll be curious to hear what you think.
Amy
Is it just me, or does anyone
Is it just me, or does anyone else think the heritage cows are beyond pretty? Do heritage cows like to be hugged? How about the little bitty calf?
Toro, "our land?" Like it's
Toro, "our land?" Like it's ours and not equally theirs? You say this as if these animals are conscious of cause and effect, like it's their fault for getting in the way of the tractor.
Your discussion is
Your discussion is self-contradictory.
Your humanely raised animals require food to live. That food must then come from a place that in producing it kills random wild animals. Hence, you've simply added more killing. You have not reduced the moral mistreatment of anything. You've added a being to be killed while also increasing the number of beings killed.
If you suggest that the vegetables fed the animal were cleaved with no killing on a level applicable to our population size, I now ask: why can't that be done in the first place.
Animals killed by our harvesting are not being forced to die, they are dying because they live in/move to our land. Their own actions bring about their own deaths. Killing a cow because you want to eat it is not the same.
Your question,
"...is it better to be brought into existence, live a (short) life, then be killed for food, or is it better to not exist at all?"
has no meaning. You are making an incoherent comparison. To be “brought” is to be moved from one state to another. To be “allowed” is an action on an existent being. I do not “allow” a non-existent bee to remain non-existent. I cannot, by definition, act on it. A mother does not “bring” a baby into existence. The baby is by definition, the baby once its existence occurs. Morality of acts/choices concerning it can therefore only be made with regards to the existent baby.
For these reasons, you cannot say it is “better” or “worse” as the two judgments are comparisons between states, and one of your states does not, according to you, exist (read the last three words of the question).