Inhumane Meat
I am still a meat eater. I like meat when it is well prepared but I don't need to have meat every day at every meal or anything. Still, I like meat enough that I found it very difficult to maintain anything close to a strict vegetarian lifestyle.
Even as a meat eater, I can't abide cruelty to animals. At the risk of sounding like some New Age hippie white cultural appropriatrix, I don't take the sacrifice of the animal's life lightly. Just because I'm going to eat that animal doesn't mean that I'm okay with it being tortured on its way to my table. In fact, precisely because I am going to eat that animal, I want to know it's been treated in the most respectful way possible and lived a healthy and comfortable life!
Video of the cruel treatment of these animals, in blatant violation of the law and all ethical concerns, was released recently from the Humane Society of the United States.
The part that pisses me off even more than the grotesque an inhumane treatment of "downer cows" is that our taxes are going to pay the contracts for these suppliers! We're PAYING them to provide ground beef to our schools! Potentially infected meat is making its way to our school children, many of whom are on free or reduced lunch programs to begin with. For some of these children, the food they receive at school is the "best" meal they receive all day... I shudder to think of hungry, disadvantaged students receiving tax-payer subsidized meals made up of sick animals that should have been humanely euthanized but are instead sent into our food supply.
I've already tried to be socially conscious with my meat purchases but really, what incidents like this drive home is that I don't have the stomach for typical American-style meat consumption. I will continue to support local producers, like the fine folks at Skagit River Ranch other farmer's market suppliers. I will buy the free-range, grass fed veal that comes from the family farm and not an industrial complex. I will buy my meat sparingly, from reputable, humane, sustainable merchants and use it wisely. Meat supplied to restaurants (and schools!) is a stickier subject but I'm making this commitment as far as meat in my home goes. There will probably be many other steps after this one but this is the first step I'm taking.
That's where my head is on the matter of inhumane meat for the moment.
Even as a meat eater, I can't abide cruelty to animals. At the risk of sounding like some New Age hippie white cultural appropriatrix, I don't take the sacrifice of the animal's life lightly. Just because I'm going to eat that animal doesn't mean that I'm okay with it being tortured on its way to my table. In fact, precisely because I am going to eat that animal, I want to know it's been treated in the most respectful way possible and lived a healthy and comfortable life!
Video of the cruel treatment of these animals, in blatant violation of the law and all ethical concerns, was released recently from the Humane Society of the United States.
The part that pisses me off even more than the grotesque an inhumane treatment of "downer cows" is that our taxes are going to pay the contracts for these suppliers! We're PAYING them to provide ground beef to our schools! Potentially infected meat is making its way to our school children, many of whom are on free or reduced lunch programs to begin with. For some of these children, the food they receive at school is the "best" meal they receive all day... I shudder to think of hungry, disadvantaged students receiving tax-payer subsidized meals made up of sick animals that should have been humanely euthanized but are instead sent into our food supply.
I've already tried to be socially conscious with my meat purchases but really, what incidents like this drive home is that I don't have the stomach for typical American-style meat consumption. I will continue to support local producers, like the fine folks at Skagit River Ranch other farmer's market suppliers. I will buy the free-range, grass fed veal that comes from the family farm and not an industrial complex. I will buy my meat sparingly, from reputable, humane, sustainable merchants and use it wisely. Meat supplied to restaurants (and schools!) is a stickier subject but I'm making this commitment as far as meat in my home goes. There will probably be many other steps after this one but this is the first step I'm taking.
That's where my head is on the matter of inhumane meat for the moment.
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