We have a slew of vegeterians reading this site, and shenanigans is one of our great advocates for animals. On Friday, we had an exchange in the comment thread of TwoOFour’s post on wearing fur that touched on the question of how much a meat-eater should know, or do, about the process of getting that meat. Then, yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled 143 million pounds of beef that came from a SoCal slaughterhouse. [DP] It’s a self-conscious time for omnivores.
To be honest, I feel slightly defensive. (Given that I am in the majority, this is… new.) I couldn’t help but wonder if, in order to be a responsible omnivore, I should have to see the animal in its living form or even kill an animal to eat it. I’ve eaten straight from the bellies of a couple of roast pigs, and I’ve killed lobster to bake and stuff it– a highly unpleasant process, factoring in claws and rigor mortis. But it’s not quite the same as killing and plucking feathers off a duck. Could I? Still, never one to be comfortable being complacent in my own ignorance, I have some resources I’d like to share, some new, some old. (And I’ll summarize.)
Ruth Reichl: Watch What You Eat, a lecture at Princeton University
I loved this! Ruth Reichl is the editor of Gourmet Magazine, and the former food critic for the New York Times. This lecture is about the history of eating and addressing meat, with a particular focus on celebrations and feasts. She points out, for example, that we have words for food that help us separate it from the animal– like ham, not pig. It’s a long video, but if you can put in earphones at work and do something mindless for a bit, it’s just as well to listen to it (and occasionally click in the video to see her media examples– not for the squeemish, which is exactly the point).
Wikipedia: Meat processing
Here, you’ll find links to articles about various aspects of meat processing. Factory farming is the most detailed. The point comes across loud and clear that the goal is to get as much meat out of the animal as possible for the lowest cost. Issues of health, pollution, and animal ethics are all discussed.
Fast Food Nation
Read the book! But more importantly, watch the movie! Director Richard Linklater is known to be a vegetarian, and he tears at the meat processing industry like a bloodhound on a sirloin. Long, unapologetic scenes of the de-hiding of cattle and separating of parts are de rigeur in this 2006 flick– notwithstanding a heart-wrenching story of the immigrants struggling to get by in the industry.
PetEducation.com: How Pet Foods Are Manufactured
Information about how much of a cow or pig ends up in the meat case at the grocery store is hard to find– too hard, in fact, for me to find. But I’ve long suspected that what’s not okay for human consumption might be found in the pet aisle. Hey, I’ve tried dog food, too.
Questions: Should there be more education about processed foods? What rights do animals have? Do you want to know what you’re eating?
[Credit: Wikipedia, Medieval Cuisine]
Popularity: 16% [?]
Tagged as: vegetarians
Vegans: The Other White Meat
PETA: People Enjoying Tasty Animals
Fur is murder . . . to clean.
I love this old art. It’s like people 400 years ago had no idea how the body actually was shaped in motion.
The film on CNN of the meat processing plant where the recall stemmed was nauseating. Makes me not want to eat any meat that i don’t know from where it comes. Makes it all the more important that we have a source for meat grown on local farms that we can go visit for ourselves and see. It’s Double H and Polyface for us from now on.
Yes, there should be lots more education about food and processing. It is what we fuel our bodies with afterall. Important stuff.
I think animals have the right to live healthy lives at least, especially if we plan to eat them.
Need a resource that lists local sources for food? see: http://www.buylocalcville.org/
Let us not forget the video of the Tyson folks playing turkey/chicken soccer that surfaced a while back. That was pretty grim.
Been veg to varying degrees for over seven years now, but spent a good deal of my youth with a hunting license and a Browning 12-gauge. That in mind, Lilith I’m inclined to say that you wonder correctly. I still tend to have the most respect for the meat-eaters who are more conscious of where their meal is coming from. ‘Tis one of the few points where I and Ted Nugent see eye to eye.
Of course being veg for me has always been more about health, global economics, and the environment than it ever was about animal rights. But again, that’s just me.
It’s still delicious.
don’t forget patriotic.
The guy in the painting has the hairiest legs I’ve ever seen. That said I’ve been a veg for almost 20 years.
and how did the guy remember to put on his apron, but forget pants? pants are important, COME ON!
Avril Lavigne’s performance in Fast Food Nation was sooo moving(I was moved right over to Five Guys after watching it)! You go Avril! Fez too!
Is everyone on vacay today? The site seems slow and I’m getting teary eyed. THREADJACK!
i think it’s some kind of a ridiculous government holiday. i typically celebrate those by going into the office and doing my damned job.
dijonbray, I love it. I saw Thank You For Smoking with a guy doing dip.
I saw The Passion with a guy named Judas who kept biting his nails.
I have never been able to figure out how people who would never eat meat (personal choice- which I respect) seem to have no problem with abortion but won’t eat an egg. Seems-inconsistent.
I always respect the view that if abortion is wrong then so is capital punishment.
@17 - I eat eggs and support abortion. Of course I would never eat a fetus… does that make me a hypocrite?
/ this is disgusting
@18 - not at all, are you a Vegan? It is reasonable that most eggs in today’s market have not been fertilized, which does make it different. That knowledge is not, however, absolute.
For vegans and many PETA people, eggs are from a tortured place
well played. i eat meat, but don’t support unprotected sex. does this make me a vegetarian, a polygamist, or a porn star?
@ 20 - that clearly depends on the weather.
/ Ionesco anyone?
@16, if you’re serious, that’s amazing.
@17, yes, we live in such a contradictory society, it’s true. I especially enjoy the one about mistreating and marginalizing gays in the name of religion, that whole point of it being about loving each other thrown to the wayside. Me first to heaven! So back to that point of complacency, this is a time when I actually am complacent. Live and let live, and the bad comes with the awesome.
eggs are from a tortured place
fifth street food lion?
/I abort eggs, don’t eat meat and put fetus’ in electric chairs.
Sorry lilith… I never even saw “The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre”, but I did see Cat in the Hat while my parents were away on a rainy day.
Wow, Presidents day is such an anticlimactic expereince….I tried to go to work and people were insulted when I actually answered thir calls….Forklifting and chain pulling sick cows….makes me furious and sick, and furious….I think cruelty to animals should warrant the same punishement as violence homosapian on homosapian (or however you spell that)…life is life and should be respected….The biggest threat to nature is cow farts we should not be “making” all these cows, we should respect them. And there are way to many people in this world, I really think we could clean up by starting to eat fellow folk instead…you know after the electrical chair they are already roasted.
Speaking of critters….
Have we settled on a name for the bird/owl/varmit on the upper right hand corner of the page?
SCOTT!
Why Scott?
because he’s a mascot.
but really it’s just because i won’t let go.
I’ll setup a big old vote soon to narrow down the names.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eE23Ukd1qA
good. scott will lower taxes, get us out of iraq, bail you out of your terrible mortgage decision, and provide a national healthcare program based loosely on prescription painkillers and medical grade pot. the other candidates are wacko right wing evangelist meth heads.
who do you want leading your internet?
@32 parlie: who do you want leading your internet?
lilith
/shameless kiss ass
i would prefer it if my internet were led by homer simpson.
(@9, i felt that surprising feeling when you first get a crush on someone). thanks for making my day.
http://www.hanginartgallery.com/images/OracleOriole.jpg
@17: The belief that a woman has control over what goes on in her uterus has nothing to do with whether one wants to eat what originates in the uterus (?) of a chicken, duck, goose, quail, turtle etc. There is no inconsistency in believing that a woman has a right to control her body and that nonhuman animals have rights to control their bodies.
I made that egg/abortion argument to my dad when I was about 10 years old. He found it as absurd as I do now.
I really like to eat eggs, by the way.
d’oh, it is led by Homer Simpson parlie! Welcome to the internet you lucky guy you!
CAROLINE - I missed you!!!
What kinda idiot uses a croquet mallet to kill a pig?
And he’s not wearing pants
/What a strange picture
Art historians, correct me if I’m wrong but I think that painting was titled “An early and novel technique for meat tenderizing” by: artist unknown and was part of a diptych. The second panel, titled “Someone catcheth that sharp-toothed hog, for he hath my balls” also artist unknown came to be known simply as ‘juevos con hamon’
Nice post Lil, too bad nobody took it seriously.
Also a good read: The Omnivore’s Dilemma and My Year of Meats
Ooooh, all of a sudden shenanigans is miss serious.
/on your side, please don’t hurt me.
scott will lower taxes, get us out of iraq, bail you out of your terrible mortgage decision, and provide a national healthcare program
Plus, he’s already got his own stadium, that should count for something, right?
I’m serious about donkey-punching you.
You “Yo” or you “Oy”?
Yo. Don’t get your hopes up. :p
If someone challenged me to go a week without meat, I’d take them up on it. I’d be interested to know just how hard or inconvenient it’d be (assuming I could get through the week) and how much I’d miss meat (might have to be a seafood exception) and whether I could keep going or would go back to burgers? The manner in which meat is processed in factories is troubling to me, and like a lot of meat-eaters (I suspect) I’ve avoided reading the books or watching the movies mentioned because, as a meat-eater who doesn’t go to too much trouble to determine the source of the meat I eat, I’m part of the problem.
damnit! Can I at least get a mule punch?
how about a nut flush?
oh well - I’m guessing there’s a challenge in doof’s near future (don’t worry, I’ll keep up your end of the carnivore foodchain for the week)
HI Silm, I missed you too! all my fave people here, shen, oy and hips, werd thunderbird.
silm I think that’s a lady killing the pig, she just has a beard.
Doof you can give up anything for a week. I’m giving up late nights on the town as it leaves me a crumbling wreck of a human. Next week I am giving up hope or maybe I’ll “give it up” to a trucker.
/therapy tomorrow!!!
yeah! I gave up sex last week. And the week before. And the week before. And, shit….
@53 - a lady … well that expains the apron and the sexy boots.
I’m gonna be on the radio in 45 minutes. Don’t know what station but some people are picking me up soon and we’re gonna be broadcasting our wit and wisdom to all who will listen. I will link to the youtube video and the podcast. Wish me luck
that’s really cool silm, keep us posted.
oy, sorry you had to give up sex and kiki….poor guy.
Oy - You gave up sex with Kiki???
@50 - As the name for the villain mascot???
I’ve already given up meat, and in an unrelated set of circumstances, hope. Im drawing the line at truckers though, unless nanigans drives a rig. Did two weeks without nights on the town, Silmo, I feel your pain. It gets better. I thought I was dead. But now Im thinking of building a layer of trust with the Mas bartenders,and letting them take me on a mystical journey, or whatever the hell that was in some other thread. Mas monday, anyone? Anyone? Oh well, Im used to the solo haunt.
/didn’t make clique queen caroline’s list o’ fav’s, must drown sorrows.
oy, sorry you had to give up sex
ever since the big bust on the mall, the price of rock has gone through the roof - can’t afford crack ho’s no mo!
(”I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As though a thousand CVillain’s cried out “Ewwww” and were silenced”)
SHit b’yo, you know I loves you, that’s a given.
and that’s King Caroline.
Yo, Don’t drown yourself.
My life just hasn’t been the same since Sexshuns closed.
Sil:me toooo I always get the lowdown too late
i love the lowdown twoOFour!
I have absolutely nothing witty or fun to say. verily entertained though.
Miss you 2; sorry I missed you last night
Shen is too modest to say anything, but she cleaned everyone’s clock at rekop last night. Oh, and I arm wrestled 2o4, and I think we’ve got a contender there…
I miss all the fun. My days of partying until dawn are over. In bed by midnight from now on; never missing rekop (or a meeting with my parole officer) again.
That means that certain villains *cough*(Doof&Shen)*cough* have to change their weekend habits as well.
/fat chance, huh.
//I’m movin to L’burgh with all the adults
@48 doof: I’ve read all those food books (fast food nation, omnivores dilema, the jungle, etc etc etc) and still eat meat. So what does that mean? It means I feel kinda bad for a while and vow to make better/more ethical choices with all of my food intake, not just my meat products.
Did give up meat for lent last year and saved a bundle on pointless fast food.
SS, when does this midnight vow take effect? I recall leaving you out at LEAST 3am Saturday. If you do start being an early to bed villain, please also become a nonsmoking villain. please?
signed, your mom
mc, I made that offer without recalling that I had two ribeyes in the fridge, so now one’s in my tummy and the other will follow soon, so if I am giving up meat, its going to take effect midnight tomorrow at the earliest.
I dated a vegan who worked for PETA once, and it definitely cut into my meat intake, good practice for trying out vegetarianism perhaps? we’ll see..
I am a nonsmoking villain. But these late nights are killing me. Problem is all my fun happens at night, which is also when I sqa nder all the good will I’ve earned by being a moron
Has anyone linked to this yet? whatever, I’m linking. It’s was in the top emailed for like a week or something, you’ve probably all read it already. I love that the story tag is “incompatible.”
“I Love You, but You Love Meat”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/dining/13incompatible.html
76: I saw that article. Just look how much younger and sprier the non-meat-eating partner looks in that photo (he said while quaffing whiskey and stepping outside for a smoke).
I attribute the youngerness to the fact that she is literally a decade his junior. Could be the meat, though.
/fun to see you embrace your vices, Stanley.
75: agreed… fun things need to happen during non late night drinking hours. let’s work on that.
Keep on drinkin’ Stanley! Don’t let them get you down,
80: done and done!
mc, awesome link! I love the word “vegangelical.” That was a new one for me.
Lil, Good To hear from you! How are you?
i got drunk with c-murder tonight, which was a HUGE mistake!
she kills people.
@ 72: me too! (OMGz!!)
i have to say, though, that when i lived in russia i gave great pause to eating meat. i’d stopped at a food kiosk near my metro stop on the way home one morning and bought the local version of shawarma - you know, the thing with the rotating column of “meat”. when i got to my apartment, my host mom had two words for me: “otkuda myasa?” (where’s the meat coming from?) i shrugged, said i didn’t really care, and then she asked me whether or not i’d noticed the dwindling stray dog population near that same kiosk. i carefully snuck the rest of my food into the trash can and ate vegetables for the next several weeks. (i know dogs are eaten in other parts of the world, but as much as i don’t like them i could never consciously do it)
i did find another shawarma stand eventually. but that question of hers always hung in the back of my mind, and often does to this day. i try to be good about where my food is from, but don’t always succeed. *shrug*
I’ve watched a farmer in a straw hat bring roaster chickens into Revolutionary Soup. Maybe it was the famous Polyface dude.
Is it too late to enter this into the owl mascot discussion.
Slap a Cvillian logo on it and we are good to go.
http://gizmodo.com/357968/usb-owl-blinks-wisely-doesnt-leave-owl-pellets-or-worse-on-your-monitor
usb owl? usb humping dogs? My, I’ve been away too long.
But, of all usb devices, my favorite has to be Usb Wine.
/threadjack
@88 USB wine is genius. Surfing the web has never been so much fun!
Buster, when I was in Moscow, I was still vegetarian. And the shawarma stands had the *best* potatoes and spicy ketchup. The vendor over on the Old Arbat would make up an awesome plate of potatoes, ketchup, and toss in the salad + tzatziki in the pita. Yum. Is dog halal?
@ 90: i have absolutely no idea…
after that incident, i became partial to roadside bliny (caramel & almonds = heaven) and cabbage pies that the old women would sell by the metro. i lived in st pete but didn’t get much of a chance to sample moscow’s shawarma when i did visit.
i do miss that tzatziki sauce though. they put something in it you can’t quite find here.
/waiting for it…
Cute article, MC. I would never not date a guy just because he ate meat. Thinking about what I eat is a priority but it’s not the same for everyone else. I would not however date a guy who ate crappy junk food/fast food all the time. That’s just gross.
[…] how to order cocktails. While we are no strangers to food, we thought it appropriate to discuss the merits of eating meat and decided that no one really cares what you eat and everyone can have their own opinion. Boring, I […]
” There is no inconsistency in believing that a woman has a right to control her body and that nonhuman animals have rights to control their bodies.”
Where do rights come from? (Next…)