This weekend as we were plucking and beheading and otherwise somewhat unpleasantly processing a wild turkey it occurred to me that Americans have become far too detached from the actual source of their meat. The majority of meat eaters I know believe that the cows they eat live on large rolling farms, happily munching grass until one day they are led to a barn where a farmer quickly and as humanely possible ends his life. The reality is, most cows may begin their lives on nice farms like this, but they are soon transferred to CAFOs, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, where they have no room to move, and they are fed grains to fatten them up, even though it is unnatural for ruminants like cows to eat corn. They are given antibiotics to stave off the illnesses that would be rampant considering their living conditions and diet.
But even if you are buying grass-fed, free range, organic meats, meat is the product of slaughtering an animal for the purpose of human consumption. I know people who won’t even buy whole chickens at the grocery store because they can’t stand the sight of the whole bird, and are too squeamish to cut the bird into pieces. So they pay more to buy the same product that has already been cut up for them. It just seems to me that if you are going to eat meat, you should have some idea where that meat comes from, and if at all possible, you should be involved in the killing and processing of that meat at some point in your life. I have to imagine there are a lot of city dwellers who would quickly become vegetarians if they ever visited a CAFO or a meat processing plant. For some people just driving by these places is enough to make them swear off meat, and for me the smell in some of these towns was enough to at least get me to want to stop eating meat that comes from a factory farm.
I have a friend in South Carolina who tells the funniest story about his childhood, but it’s also a very good lesson. He was a typical southern boy I’d say, galavanting in the wild, exploring, realizing that at least in rural America man may actually be the king of the forest. He saw a sparrow and shot it with his BB gun, and proudly brought it home to show his father. His father told him, “that’s great son, you’ve killed your first meal.” And proceeded to make my friend clean that tiny little bird, cook it, and eat it. His point? It’s okay for man to kill other animals, but it should only be done with respect for the animal in question, and the animal is not a trophy, the animal is a source of food. I completely respect vegetarianism, but I don’t seem to be able to do it. So I have decided that if I am going to eat meat, I will try to do it in a way that is still respectful of the animal and his life. Yes, perhaps when I eat elk I have taken the life of (or been reponsible for the death of) a magnificent animal, but at least I know that animal lived a natural life in the wild, rather than being confined with hundreds of other animals and fed an unnatural diet and given antibiotics that I will then be eating when I eat the meat. I realize that I am lucky to live in a place where that’s possible, but more and more options are springing up every day that enable us all to choose NOT to support factory farming.