http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATz3AdbjyRI

Just last week I had sent the link that Charlie Talbert left in the comments section of my Meat Hand post to some family members. My wife and my sisters all emailed me just raising hell that I would send something like that out. They thought watching it was horrible so they did not get all of the way through it. But they will sure eat meat just as much as I will.

My youngest daughter would not eat a chicken sandwich for months after seeing a load of chickens on a truck on the way to be processed. The way they had them stacked in the boxes just broke her heart.

My eldest daughter, who I love dearly and would take a bullet for but who I also believe could probably work in the office at a concentration camp did not see the big deal. She says if you are going to feed 300 million people hamburgers every day there is no other way to do it.

But as for me I love meat. What can I say? But believe me my meat consumption is way, way, way down from what it has been in the past. The only time I eat meat is on the weekends. But on the weekends I don’t screw around with a piece the size of a deck of cards either.

As a younger man I took part in hog killin’s. Shoot ‘em. Gut ‘em. Drop them in boiling water and scrape off the hair. We also enjoyed seeing the chickens run around with their heads cut off when that time came. It entertained us. It never occurred to me that what we were doing was cruel.

But watching that link that Charlie sent can change things for you. It is eye opening. It is some horrible, horrible shit. I don’t see how anybody can get up in the morning and go to work at places like that.

But everytime the waitress brings out that plate of ribs I have to admit that I am glad they do.

But don’t get me started…

Please?

A description of my life up until the age of 25-ish. I played basketball and tried as hard as I possibly could to put on weight “naturally” (no supplements, just via food) and I’d burn it off as soon as I ate the high-calorie meals. Trust me, I know all too well. That’s why I put the “every @#$%ing day” part above, as that’s what it’s taken to both put on some size AND take away some of the fat that came about because of that venture. Now, I constantly battle an expanding mid-section while not losing any of the size that I’ve gained elsewhere. A never ending battle, I might say.

Plus there’s the fun of feeding the chickens & growing the chicks.

A traumatic experience from my youth was having my own set of 6 chicks & raising them in a pen in our backyard. Came home one day & my dad was “processing” them because they’d matured. Killed me, inside, as I’d grown to love those little animals. Actually, I mentioned that to him earlier this year & he chuckled and said “well, you know now where that food comes from and you know that I was unemployed at the time and we couldn’t afford to buy chicken”. As I told him then, sure, he was right and did nothing wrong. But that 9 year old boy sure didn’t think so at the time.

No way I could be a farmer/rancher. I’d get too attached. Always do.

Meat is expensive. Eat less, and you’ll spend less

Very true. The best shape I was ever in came after a fitness program that entailed high intake of protein via clean meat & protein shakes. To be honest, I could literally eat that diet all the time, even though it was a sacrifice to do without so much of the great tasting stuff out there (white potatoes, most beans, most fruit, all juices, etc. And that’s not including the ‘good stuff’ like chocolate, pizza, beer, etc) but I just couldn’t afford it. The 12 month process, which both my wife & I undertook and had unbelievable results, left us with an average of over $700/month in grocery bills. That didn’t include meals where we dined out, just receipts from Kroger/Publix/Costo. $2100 in three months is just too much to justify for groceries.

Worked, though. Worked like a charm. The last time I had a six-pack was at the end of that program.

I need the protein, though, so I needs me my meat. Protein shakes are processed, too.

Oh, and honesty compels me to admit that the tastes ranks higher than protein on my “why I eat it” list. Not the reason for the volume, which is probably more than both of you combined. But, yeah, I enjoy the steak more than the salad/potato/bread. Marinate a ribeye or sirloin right & grill it the proper way and you can have a moderately priced meal at home that tastes just as good as something you’d pick up at Longhorn’s for a lot more money.

Costco (left leaning company) has great steaks, btw.

That’s partly a problem with “the system” and I have no idea how to fix it.

I can understand the high prices for some of the manufactured items for recycled goods; startup prices & depreciation for new equipment add a lot to the price of goods. But, people pay a LOT OF MONEY for high quality beef. The stuff Limbaugh advertises on his show, Allen Brothers, is so far priced out of my budget that getting a Ferrari is more plausible. There’s no way that the stuff Allen puts out there is processed crap that came from animals that were stacked on top of each other while they lived. No, that’s the high quality stuff, and there’s a market for it. Not the majority of folks, especially in this economy, but there is a market for quality stuff. The right marketing campaign could work. No, I’m not going to give my kids $3 hot dogs in order to comfort my conscience, but I most certainly will pay more than market value if I can get something more in return than feeling better about myself.

The guy at Whole Foods is the shining example of this. Done the right way, it can work.

Meat is expensive. Eat less, and you’ll spend less — unless you also switch to more expensive, local, humane meat, and then you’re only trading costs. But, most Americans eat way too much meat, so eating a bit less and paying a bit more is a healthy step forward, and the costs end up balancing out. Plus, you get the the health benefits of eating grain-fed (vs. corn-fed) meat, and, if you’re concerned about food-borne illness, then eating meat that comes from a processor who deals with only one animal at a time is going to improve your chances of avoiding scary diseases.

But don’t get me started…

An unfertilized chicken egg? Almost sacrosanct.

You know I have to say something about this… of course I have known some Vegans for whom that “almost sacrosanct” is an apt descriptor. And of course I see the disconnect. But even from the point of view of a non-vegan non-ethical eater, there is a difference in terms of the amount of cruelty involved in producing it. I know you know that, but it with veganism as with much else, it’s easy to overlook one set of concerns and focus entirely on “obvious” things like what “speicies” and whether the chromosomes are single or double stranded.

FWIW if I did get permission to have chickens it would be for the eggs. Even a cramped hen house is better than a factory farm by orders of magnitude. Plus there’s the fun of feeding the chickens & growing the chicks. I doubt I would ever raise chickens to kill & eat – I doubt I could make it cost-effective & I’m not thrilled at the notion of having to do that last bit of dirty work myself. My dad-in-law already raises them, though & we get most of ours from him. Those I eat in good conscience – those hens have a well appointed pen and house.

The rest – it’s like I said… a complicated issue. But I do feel I need to do better.

There are nutritional and health concerns apart from general metabolic ones.. there is pollution, there are toxins, and there is the possibility (as the article in the sermon mentioned) of increasing cancer susceptibility. Honestly, nutrition and health are the least of my concerns. I’ve never put the kind of work I should have done into maintaining my body… If I did, I probably wouldn’t start with food. You’re right… too right. I cannot gain weight no matter how hard I try. I can gorge myself every day with protein drinks and creatine and sometimes put on 5 or 10 pounds. But left to its own devices, my body will always find a way to make me little again. I don’t mind too much. I’ve always been little, so I’m kind of used to it.

The biggest issues I’m feeling are those of cruelty and sustainability. And I do want to do something different to reduce my contribution to the cruelty and pollution. You’re right – we have some advantages from living away from the city… there’s a chance we can know some of the people who grow our food. We can get venison from our sporting neighbors (though I have rarely done so… and I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to be out in 10 degrees at five o’ clock in the morning looking for lunch)… but you’re also right that alternatives may not be as advertized, are sometimes of inferior quality (though usually not, really, except sometimes in terms of shelf-life) and are often overpriced compared to the more cheaply but unethically produced factory meats & vegetables. That’s partly a problem with “the system” and I have no idea how to fix it. I’m willing to start with trying to be aware of it and to try and decrease my own contributions to the problem where I can reasonably do so.

Looking forward to your edition of the “meme”.