A Question About Your Meat

At the supermarket you are presented with an array of nice, clean-looking meats. However, the shopping experience is completely divorced from the production process of these meats. Of course we are vaguely aware that meat is produced from the slaughter of animals, but the details of how those animals are raised, fed, and killed are abstracted away. Even the butchering of the meat is usually performed in a back-room that is out of sight from the shopper.

The result is that few people make any connection between the purchase of a small cutlet at the store and the ethical questions surrounding the process of how that cutlet came to be. It is similar to how few people make any connection between their support of government and the evil that results from government.

I am not a vegetarian, and I am not going to ask you to become one. I would ask only that you consider this question, of what processes and practices you support through your purchases. Have you been to a production farm or at least seen documentation of one? Are the practices performed there ones you agree with and would be (morally) willing to perform yourself?

When I ask these questions of myself, I find that I would not be morally willing to treat animals the way they are treated at production farms. If I would not treat them that way, why should I pay others to do so? The evil that results is the same, whether I do it myself or support others in doing so.

As a result, I have begun eating less meat. I used to eat a sandwich with cold cuts in it every day for lunch, but a month ago I switched to a lettuce / tomato /mayonaisse sandwich, with a side of cashew nuts. I've found this lunch to be not only guilt-free, but also tastier, more healthful, and it leaves me feeling physically better in the afternoon than those slabs of salami and turkey did.

I still eat some meat. When we buy it, I am encouraging my household to purchase it from Whole Foods. Eventually I would like to buy it more directly from farms so I can point out into a field and tell my sons: that is where our food comes from, and this is how it comes to our plates.