Recent Comments

Excellent post, Lee! I haven't read this book, since I doubt I could handle another descent into the annals of meat production, but I think the topic is incredibly important and should be widely discussed.

I grew up on a tiny non-production family farm (Cornish hens, cats, a dog, a horse), loved all animals to the ends of the earth, yet had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA that I was eating them with nearly every meal. Eighteen years later, I went vegetarian, then vegan, as realized that I could no longer justify continuing to consume "food" manufactured (slaughtered, tortured, mutilated) by a disturbingly industrialized system that treats living, breathing, intelligent creatures like products simply because they cannot speak up (in English) for themselves. "Humane" meat production is an oxymoron of the highest order.
My belief system revolves around the idea that people shouldn't eat anything they'd be uncomfortable killing themselves; since I feel very comfortable picking lettuce and tomatoes, but not stealing milk from baby cows, debeaking chickens, or slitting pigs open from throat to sternum, I'm vegan. Meanwhile, people who would kill -- or, better yet, have already killed -- another animal just to eat it are (IMO) well within their rights to do so.
On the other hand, the unbelievable number of people who are willfully or blissfully unaware of the destruction that industrialized agriculture wreaks on ecosystems across the world need to give continuing to eat meat more than a little thought. (I'm not talking about farmers, hunter-gatherers, or people who don't otherwise have the resources to do so, I'm talking about comfortably middle-class city dwellers whose idea of "chicken" comes in the form of sterilized, pre-breaded nuggets handed to them through a drive-up window.) Eating Animals seems to be a wonderful introduction to that process.

Farm Sanctuary does amazing work with animals rescued from pseudo-agrarian torture chambers. And yes, oh, yes, I could talk about this all day. ;)

I don't doubt that the idea of eating dogs, particularly for those of us who consider our dog a full fledged member of the family, is a bit horrifying. The same holds true for horse meat, which in many parts of the world is considered a viable protein source.

I think that suggestion is similar to the idea expressed by other authors that if you choose to eat meat then you should be able to stomach (and in fact experience) the idea of killing that animal that becomes your meat. One must be able to understand that "meat" was once a living, breathing animal, not something that comes neatly cut and packaged at the store.

great article. great organization.

Thanks for your suggestions, Tracey, Alex, and Barth. Thanks also Barth for the link to Daily Bread. I haven't seen it, but it's now on my list. I'd like to weigh in by saying that I'm a HUGE fan of the 1970s Gene Wilder "Willy Wonka" movie - I don't think the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton version even comes close.