JANUARY 6 — Meat. The flesh of an animal consumed for food.
There is a massive variety of meat — from countless cuts of lamb and pork to more exotic delicacies like venison and ostrich meat.
I’m also going to add fish into the definition as well; basically, all the animals we like to consume.
Now the thing about meat is that it is (in many cases) delicious.
The satisfaction of a lamb chop or a piece of perfectly of cooked fish. No matter what vegetarians will tell you about the value of mushrooms cheese and soy (all of which can be extremely delicious) none of these things can quite replace a strip of bacon, a slice of smoked salmon or a roasted chicken thigh.
And I say this as a person who was successfully vegetarian for eight years of my life before I met and married my carnivorous husband.
But delicious as it is and as undeniably crucial as it is to food cultures around the world, meat is wrong.
Certainly, the modern meat industry is wrong. The way humans today rear and slaughter millions of animals a day is frankly atrocious if you pause to consider every single one of those beasts was a sentient being.
If think of your pet dog or cat as special and deserving of love, remember that a pig is just as intelligent if not more.
Even a little goldfish has personality, spirit and well... a will to live, yet we kill animals like this at an unbelievable rate.
Over 100 million chickens are killed every day to feed our voracious appetites; the majority of these barely take a true step in their lives and hardly see natural sunlight.
They are raised in factories, fattened on hormones and antibiotics from chicks to lumps of meat in less than 40 days (in the wild, a chicken’s life span is around eight years.)
Pigs are killed at a rate of 1.5 billion a year; a majority of which are gassed and processed on conveyor belts. They lead (in most cases) truly miserable lives and meet horrible fates.
The reality is that if people really understood how the meat they eat was produced, they wouldn’t eat it.
And to me that’s the point. I don’t know if I will ever successfully be fully vegetarian again, but I do know that the mindless way we consume meat today is revolting.
I have even persuaded my husband. A man who once categorically declared that he could never be vegetarian is now joining me in a lifestyle that looks to reduce our consumption.
I don’t believe that humanity should turn its back on meat entirely. It has always been part of our diet and our culture, but we do really need to show respect and restrain and awareness in terms of what we are eating.
When lives are taken for a mindless sprinkle of meat on a bland pasta dish (I am guilty of this), that is categorically wrong.
In these cases, we are treating the flesh of an animal like it was a condiment — like salt or dried herbs — it is not.
Traditionally, meat was reserved for special occasions. The killing of animals was regulated by religious taboos, rituals and prayers.
Again, the basic idea across cultures has been that life has a special place and shouldn’t be viewed as disposable which is exactly how we treat it today.
Perhaps the solution isn’t binary — vegetarian, non-vegetarian as it’s usually presented. It’s about eating less but higher quality meat and perhaps being willing to pay more for it.
Personally, I’m making an effort to cut meat out of my daily diet and consume it only on celebrations though I might allow myself lapses on weekends.
It is actually not a big effort and it makes the meat I do eat feel more special. I try to make sure it’s delicious, well cooked and memorable.
Of course, my part-time carnivore approach does not resolve all the complex ethical and environmental issues related to meat but I like to think it’s a start.
It is also a viable approach for people and families who aren’t ready for or even interested in being fully vegetarian.
It also means we’ve already started marinating our chicken for a weekend roast; if we only taste meat once a week, we’re going to make sure it’s delicious.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
