Corduroy Orange

It struck me as I was finishing up yesterday’s post on my recent bulk purchase of beef that somehow my post about being excited at getting a great deal on some fantastic, responsibly-raised beef somehow twisted itself into a lament about the paucity of meat-free dining choices at many eating establishments. Rather an odd conclusion, I thought, but that’s the direction my thought process took me.

I’m pretty sure that’s because I’ve been doing a lot of reading about our food choices and where our food comes from as of late, and I spent much of last summer making visits to small scale farms that do things properly. In case you’ve missed it, I’m opposed to the wholesale factory production of animals for slaughter, though I do enjoy eating meat in moderation. Therefore, I make every attempt to locate and purchase responsibly-raised meat and dairy options.

Because there is so much more meat (and dairy) produced in an irresponsible manner, the items I purchase sometimes cost more than the bulk of similar products on the market. I buy them for several reasons:

• Environment: animals produced on a massive scale produce massive amounts of waste that go untreated into our water supply.
• Health: though many sources state that there is no difference in quality between products from animals fed hormones and animals that are fed a natural diet, I don’t buy it. The hormones wind up somewhere—chances are in our bodies. Thus, there are documented reports of children undergoing pubescent changes while they’re still toddlers.
• Taste: there is a definite taste difference between meat from animals that get to move around and that from animals penned in cages. There are two main reasons why this is so: the animals get to move their muscles, thereby excercising them and leading to a difference in texture and flavor; and the animals eat a natural diet. Beef from grain-fed cows has more marblization (intramuscular fat). This quality is rewarded by USDA grading standards, but is indicative that the animals have been artificially fattened through diet. I prefer the heartier flavor of beef that has eaten grass.
• Justice: I’ve got no problem eating animals. It’s a natural thing to do. Same with dairy products… even if other species don’t drink milk into adulthood (as goes an argument I’ve heard against ingesting dairy), humans have evolved doing so and the presence of digestive enzymes to handle the dairy is evidence that it’s part of our natural diet. That having been said, abusing animals whose lives you will take for food is wrong. I have a hard time believing that anyone who has seen documentation of factory farms would support them, let alone own and run them.
• Economy: It being a given that humans do and will eat meat and dairy, it is up to those of us who have examined the issues surrounding the industry to speak with our dollars. Persons who don’t support well-raised meat and dairy products are, whether by actively purchasing factory-raised products or by passively denying dollars to responsible, small-scale farmers, supporting the status quo.

I’ve gotten heat sometimes for disparaging those who chose a vegan lifestyle, but it remains a choice that I can’t understand. Sure, limiting intake is reasonable, and consuming exlcusively well-raised products is something I support. Even not to eat meat because one can’t condone the slaughter of an animal seems reasonable.

But to cut from your diet anything related to animals–even, in extreme cases, honey—for reasons unrelated to health or allergies boggles my mind and I can’t fathom why people would deny themselves entirely products that don’t harm anyone—like eggs from chickens not penned in cages, or milk from pasture-grazed animals. It makes no sense to me.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 18th, 2007 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Sustainable Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.