Farmers' market in Monterey, California
I'm reading a book that is making it very difficult to eat. Thanks to the thoughtful arguments laid out in Eating Animals (by Jonathon Safran Foer, whose fiction I adore), I am thinking it's time to rethink meat.
I've already grown more circumspect about what I eat. The additives, the massive amounts of sugar, butter, oil, and Lord-knows-whatever-else kinds of chemicals and preservatives. It's easy to know that those things aren't good for you. And, relatively speaking, it's easy to find ways to avoid them or reduce them or be smarter about them. (Though I do love sweets. And high-fructose-corn-syrup-laden popsicles--0 points for 2!)
The difficulty comes in meat. Factory farms, as Foer points out, are almost literally the only option for chicken, turkey, pork, and beef. And animals in those farms are drugged up and kept in deplorable, filthy conditions. What kinds of drugs are they taking, and how often? What is the long-term side effect for humans eating them? We know that we don't want to eat non-organic apples or potatoes because those things are chocked full of pesticides...but what of our meat and poultry?
But what if not everyone in your family wants to go vegetarian or go out of their way to find local chickens or beef? And what do you do when you have a child and they get fed hot dogs and nuggets at day care or birthday parties? And how do you eat out? This touches every aspect of life.
Becoming a thoughtful consumer/eater is a lifestyle change in and of itself. But can I overcome my intrinsic American laziness over food? Will I be willing to paying more for humanely raised and processed chicken? (I am a penny-pincher.) Do I want to shop at three different grocery stores every week--one for Chris's food and stuff like Fiber One bars, one for produce, and one for local chicken, eggs, and milk? (I hate grocery shopping, so very thought of this is enough to me want to quit before even starting.)
When I think about the scope if this, it is humbling and frustrating and challenging. But probably necessary. Maybe it begins with baby steps, one thing at a time.
And so we're clear: I will not judge what you or anyone else chooses to eat--I hate it when people do that. I can't even promise that three months from now I'll still feel this way (though I hope my awareness of what I'm eating never leaves me). I'm just trying to get my own thoughts in order here.
We've been working on this since we returned from France, where every origin is labeled, no HFCS is used, and meat has to be labeled if radiation is used on it (which is rarely there). When we got back, we were grossed out by the size of an American chicken breast. We started slowly with joining a CSA, which has been great, btw. They work in partnership with a local beef, poultry, and pork farm, and we've started buying meat from them whenever possible. (It helps that our house came with an extra refrigerator/freezer, so we buy in bulk.) Surprisingly, it doesn't cost much more to buy our meat this way than buying quality meat at the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI am just finishing Barbara Kingsolver's _Animal, Vegetable, Miracle_ which has encouraged me to visit the local farmer's market for the first time since moving to Kentucky. It turns out that the produce there (at least in the summer) is much cheaper than at the grocery store. I've been trying to freeze as much produce for the winter months as possible--my mom calls me Laura Engalls Wilder for this, but hey, I'll have nice fresh veggies in the winter!
But all of this to say that I agree with you in becoming more responsible about the food we eat, but there are pretty easy ways to make it easy on us, like buying in bulk, using a Saturday to preserve some produce, etc.
Good luck!
Exactly, Todd and I have been having this same conversation this last year. But I think baby steps is the way too go. Have you watched "Food, Inc" or even worse "The Cove"? Basically no meat is edible according to these movies and they have great points, but after all of that grotesqueness, I still love the taste of chicken, beef, and fish. So I think for us, it is limiting the amount of meat we eat. Our ancestors most certainly did not have animal protein at every meal, but we westerners seem to think it is not a meal unless there is some sort of meat involved. So I'm trying more vegetarian dishes and eating less meat in my dish. Have you read any of Mark Bittman's stuff? He is trying to get us to change the look of our plates. So the majority of our plate isn't the main dish meat with small vegetable sides, but rather large portions of veggies and fruit and small side portions of meat. After saying all of that, the helicopter crop duster did just fly over my house to spray the walnut trees.
ReplyDelete