Eating Animals

www.eatinganimals.com

I'm currently reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Every single one of my friends who's read it has become a vegetarian, so I thought I'd give it a go. I've been trying to be convinced to become a vegetarian for quite a while now, but find myself quite set in my beliefs that it is natural to be an omnivore. In addition, it is usually more sustainable to be a conscious omnivore than a vegetarian or vegan - take for example soy, which is monocropped on industrial farms usually with large amounts of pesticide and is ravenously consumed by the two groups.
I'm up to page 100, so we'll see if I'm convinced in the last 100 pages of the book.

On the same topic, I seem to be very interested in food sustainability recently (as my Klout meter has also showed), so any suggestions to broaden my knowledge on the topic would be much appreciated :)

Meat Week

Meat Week Official Website

This week is officially Meat Week. I just discovered this, well, interesting, actually more like disturbing, holiday…
The week celebrates meat, and participants eat BBQ every night of the week. There are already 20 chapters in cities all over the country, including one right here in NYC.

Visit their official website here: Meat Week Official Website - but please do not follow their example...

On the topic of EGGS

"A new Mercy For Animals undercover investigation reveals shocking abuse at New Englands largest egg factory farm - Quality Egg of New England (QENE) in Turner, Maine. The hidden camera video shot in early 2009 gives a startling glimpse behind the closed doors of one of the nations leading egg producers, exposing the rotten truth behind battery cage egg production heinous cruelty to animals. 

The findings of MFA's newest investigation are similar to those documented at numerous egg farms across the country in recent years - illustrating that animal neglect and abuse are the egg industry standard, not the exception. 

Thankfully, consumers hold enormous power in ending the exploitation of egg-laying hens. Every time we sit down to eat we can choose kindness over cruelty by adopting a vegan diet."

"These eggs are so-called "Barn fresh eggs"

I visited a *small* facility - where "only" about 1,000,000 eggs are laid per week

They pay 50p per bird to get them at 1 day old

After 18 weeks they start to lay, and at 72 weeks killed

They are tranported live to Norfolk last day of life for slaughter

They are so skraggy and skinny at the end of their life that that they can only be used where the poor quality of the meat can be "disguised" - so they end up in things like Chicken soup, sausages, pet food, etc

Hens would normally live for 7-8 years

Each hen lays around 6 eggs a week per hen - in a nature, though, you would be lucky to get more than dozen eggs a year

but years of selective breeding has created these "super layers"

what a MISERABLE existence these poor hens have...

Location: Rimswell, East Yorkshire"

Those 2 videos are truly appalling. I completely support vegetarians and vegans (although, I myself am still an omnivore) and respect their cause. The animal cruelty that goes on in the country to provide us with the excessive amount of meat we consume is horrible. Animals live in horrendous conditions that are not only horrendous for their physical well-being and mental sanity, but also makes the unsafe for human consumption. Many factory farms have been found to have animals (cows, pigs, chickens, hens,etc.) literally living in their own feces, so close to one another that transmission of disease is inevitable. To counteract this, companies give animals large doses of antibiotics, which in turn end up in our food creating more bacterial resistance to these drugs consequently superbugs. 


There are many more issues than just that in the food system, including how unsustainable it is - and that is the topic covered in Omnivore's Dilemma (which I will soon write a review of). 


I have personally decided that I will continue to be an omnivore because I believe that humans have evolved to eat meat, but do my best to only eat animals and animal products that have been treated humanely and raised in a friendly environment. 


Vegetarians continue to eat eggs and other animal products often without knowing about the intense cruelty that goes on in the majority of production. I believe that it is worse to eat eggs from one of the factories shown above than to eat beef or chicken or pork from small, local, sustainable farms where they are able to live outside. It is hard to watch the videos above, but I believe that if you are going to fight for animal rights and even be a vegetarian, then you must know the facts. 

Here is a great article about the unsustainable food system in America that appeared in today's New York Times online blog - Opinionator - A Food Manifesto for the Future.

Vegetarianism...

Here's another disturbing video. I have considered vegetarianism many times, and ultimately decided that as long as I get my food from local, organic, sustainable, and ethical stores and companies, humans are meant to be omnivores. But I'm not sure I'll be eating chicken for dinner tonight after watching the video above. I found it in this post on Elephant Journal. It's not the first of this type of thing I've seen - reading Omnivore's Dilemma is a pretty good wake up call along with some other YouTube videos that I've seen.

Meatless Monday is a great initiative to start cutting meat out of your diet without completely becoming vegetarian.