I was having dinner with my parents the other evening, when the conversation turned to food. (Surprise!) After graduating from university this May, I plan on working on a farm north east of Austin for a few months. The farm is owned by my friend’s father, and she recently informed me of some good news.
“Oh, the pigs were getting out all the time, so we had to butcher them all! We sold them to a few local restaurants. So you don’t have to worry about being part of that when you come to work!”
I responded to this news with a mixture of relief, sadness and also, a little intrigue. How is it that your Dad explained this pig situation to you? I asked her.
“You know, he fed them this great quality pig feed and they got to run around with all their friends and had a really huge pen to hang out in. He said they had a very nice life and then one really bad day.”
I thought this was actually a very nice explanation, from one ethically producing meat eater to his daughter. (For the record, all of their cows are grass-fed and all of their vegetables are organically grown.) So, I told my parents this story and my father thought it was also interesting and honest.
In a way, I would someday like to be present at an animal slaughter, in order to better understand how the process works, but also to be respectful of the sacrifices animals make everyday on behalf of humans, or, one could say, all of the animals humans sacrifice for their own ends. I was raised eating meat and many fresh vegetables, though my father was a strict vegetarian for the first 15 years of my life. I remember being pretty thoughtful about thanking the animals and being grateful for their sacrifice and the nourishment they provided me.
We then talked about how it is so typical of Americans to not want to take responsibility for eating meat. Ex. My stepmom once saw a commercial for a fast food fish place where head-less shrimp jumped out of the water smiling, and then ended up, happily, on a sandwich! In most countries I have traveled to (Japan, Spain, France, Mexico) shrimp is served, as they live in the wild, with their heads on. Why are Americans so reticent to serve fish and shrimp and pigs with their heads attached?
I don’t think I am that morbid, but I would like to begin taking more responsibility for eating meat, I am just not quite sure how I should go about it…
Which do you prefer?
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