something to chew on:
"For more than fifteen years, James and I had been vegetarians. The statement came with typical caveats--we ate some wild fish, and had eaten meat while on the road in certain difficult countries. For the most part we were consistent: no meat, no eggs, no dairy. The decision was not rooted in any unusual sqeamishness about killing animals. What we chose to reject was our species' capacity to disregard life. The cruelties are by now familiar enough: cutting off pigs' tails so they don't chew them in their depression and madness at confinement; breeding chickens with so much meatiness their legs can't support their bodies; fattening cows with industrial feed that can contain chicken and pork by-products, and even beef fat. ... We are equally troubled by the fact that meat production monopolizes the world's scarce agricultural land. It takes fourteen pounds of corn for a cow to gain one pound of edible meat..."
(excerpt from Plenty, by Smith and MacKinnon; photo of meal from last summer's delicious AK attempt at local and wild eating: lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower from the garden, fresh salmon caught by friends)
"For more than fifteen years, James and I had been vegetarians. The statement came with typical caveats--we ate some wild fish, and had eaten meat while on the road in certain difficult countries. For the most part we were consistent: no meat, no eggs, no dairy. The decision was not rooted in any unusual sqeamishness about killing animals. What we chose to reject was our species' capacity to disregard life. The cruelties are by now familiar enough: cutting off pigs' tails so they don't chew them in their depression and madness at confinement; breeding chickens with so much meatiness their legs can't support their bodies; fattening cows with industrial feed that can contain chicken and pork by-products, and even beef fat. ... We are equally troubled by the fact that meat production monopolizes the world's scarce agricultural land. It takes fourteen pounds of corn for a cow to gain one pound of edible meat..."
(excerpt from Plenty, by Smith and MacKinnon; photo of meal from last summer's delicious AK attempt at local and wild eating: lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower from the garden, fresh salmon caught by friends)
3 comments:
Ever notice how people tend to get up on their soapbox? "What we chose to reject was our species' capacity to disregard life." Sounds like fun... I'm going to go eat my dinner now (a hamburger) and disregard some more life.
it's truth that's particularly hard to stomach for some folks... ;)
i guess i only wanted to point out that some non-veggies might find the passion in that quote very judgmental... offensive is too strong a word, but it was an attack...
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