Maybe you have learned that family is the most important thing, stealing is wrong, and drugs are bad. Others may have been abused by their family or never had one at all. They may have learned that stealing was the only way they ever got ahead and that selling drugs is what puts food on the table. Who is right? Maybe it is even less clear when it comes to gender roles, religion, politics, appropriate behavior in public, or even appropriate eating habits or hygiene.
The tricky part comes when we try to communicate about what this giant puzzle is all about. Sometimes we clutch so tightly to our little section that it is impossible to see the truth of other peoples experiences. Might I suggest, taking a deep breath, setting down everything you think you know so far, take a short walk to the top of the bleachers, and looking at what a beautiful thing we are all working on together. I'm not asking you to give up your opinion. I'm just asking you to see the life experiences of others with the same validity you see your own. It's time to look at the big picture.
I've been reading this book and I want to share with you what I've learned.
Not because I think my lifestyle is "more right" than yours.
Or because I want to convert you to anything.
Or to make you feel guilty about your choices.
I want to share these things with you because I believe they are true.
You cannot have an opinion about their truth
unless you hear them first,
so I'm giving you that opportunity.
An man named Jonathan Safran Foer wrote a book called "Everything Is Illuminated." It's about a vegetarian American who goes to Ukraine and meets a bunch of hilarious characters. That was me last summer! I had never heard of the book but a friend sent me a video clip from the movie (which was based on the book) and I laughed forever about it. When I got back I checked the book out from the library here in Buffalo. It was powerfully written and so, when he wrote another book called "Eating Animals," I took the bait and checked that one out too.
The reason he wrote "Eating Animals" is because his wife got pregnant and he began to reflect of the things he would be teaching his child about life. Having been a half-hearted vegetarian for years, he began to consider what he would tell his son about eating animals. "There are thousands of foods on the planet, and explaining why we eat the relatively small selection we do requires some words. We need to explain that the parsley on the plate is for decoration, that pasta is not a "breakfast food," why we eat wings but not eyes, cows but not dogs. Stories establish narratives, and stories establish rules."
Sometimes I feel apprehensive about sharing about my vegetarianism. This hesitancy derives from the number of times I've been burned. I like the way Mr. Foer put it, "There is something about eating animals that tends to polarize: never eat them or never sincerely question eating them; become an activist or disdain activists. These opposing positions--and the closely related unwillingness to take a position--converge in suggesting that eating animals matters." This is the reason he spent three years researching the meat industry in the United States.
Now, I'm not an animal rights activist or a member of PETA. I actually don't even really like animals. This disdain probably comes from sharing a house as a teenager with five untrained little yippy yappy dogs who barked at everything and peed on you when they got too excited And then some large outside dogs who stunk and liked to smell me in uncomfortable places. It also comes from my knowledge that Americans spend enough money every year on pets (36.3 billion dollars just in 2005) to end world hunger and yet they spend that money on animals instead of people. Awesome.
So, my non-meat diet doesn't come from my animal lover tendencies, as I'm sure you can tell. It started with a few facts I learned and couldn't get out of my head. To fully understand my decision, I would request that you read "Eating Animals" but since most of you won't, I'll share with you some of the things I highlighted in my book (well, up to chapter seven). I'm just throwing them out into the universe for you to poke through, and if it changes your eating habits--fine. If not--oh well. I just feel like you should know these things, so you can make informed decisions.
"In the past fifty years, as factory farming spread from poultry to beef, dairy, and pork producers, the average cost of a new house increased 1,500 percent; new cars climbed more than 1,400 percent; but the price of milk is up only 350 percent, and eggs and chicken meat hasn't even doubled. Taking inflation into account, animal protein costs less today than at any time in history...For each food animal species, animal agriculture is now dominated by the factory farm--99.9 percent of chickens raised for meat, 97 percent of laying hens, 99 percent of turkeys, 95 percent of pigs, and 78 percent of cattle...(page 109)."
"I don't have any reverence for suffering. These factory farms calculate how close to death they can keep the animals without killing them. That's the business model. How quickly can they be made to grow, how tightly can they be packed, how much or little can they eat, how sick can they get without dying (page 93)."
"Needless to say, jamming deformed, drugged, overstressed birds together in a filthy, waste-coated room is not very healthy...Scientific studies and government records suggests that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. Coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 to 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected....Chlorine baths are commonly used to remove slime, odor, and bacteria.
Of course, consumers might notice that their chicken doesn't taste quite right--how good could a drug-stuffed, disease-ridden, shit-contaminated animal possibly taste?--but the birds will be injected (or otherwise pumped up) with "broths" and salty solutions to give them what we have come to think of as the chicken look, smell, and taste. (A recent study by Consumer Reports found that chicken and turkey products, many labeled as natural, "ballooned with 10 to 30 percent of their weight as broth, flavoring, or water.") (page 131)"
"Journalist Scott Bronstein wrote a remarkable series for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about poultry inspection, which should be required reading for anyone considering eating chicken. He conducted interviews with nearly a hundred USDA poultry inspectors from thirty-seven different plants. "Every week," he reports, "millions of chickens leaking yellow pus, stained by green feces, contaminated by harmful bacteria, or marred by lung and heart infections, cancerous tumors, or skin conditions are shipped for sale to consumers (page 134)."
Have you stopped to consider how readily available meat is here in our country? Think about the meat section of your local grocery store and consider the sheer number of animals it took to stock just that store. Then consider how many grocery stores there are in your town, your state, the entire nation? Try to imagine how many chicken nuggets or burgers McDonalds sells daily. Where is all that meat coming from? How are they selling it for so cheap??? Do you think when you buy a burger for a dollar that the company you're buying it from can afford to grow, kill, package, and sell anything of quality? We are paying a price for not paying enough for our food.
Well, this is definitely the most depressing blog post I've ever written. Now at least you know the truth, though if you choose to believe these things or change your lifestyle because of them is up to you. No pressure here. I'm perfectly willing to accept (almost) any decisions you make.
Oh, and here's a link to the video that started it all and got me hooked on Jonathan Safran Foer. It's the one about the vegetarian American in Ukraine.
Oh my goodness. I had to cover my mouth when I got to the puss and cancer part. Argh. I'll be thinking. I'll be thinking. Thanks.
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