Regarding Meat

[aka: Kristina's first post,
with some apologies to my husband for changing the layout of his blog without his knowledge]

The debate over whether vegetarianism/veganism is better for people and/or the world will probably rage on forever.  I can see compelling arguments for both sides and I don’t believe one could say that either side is “right” or “wrong.”  Just different.  (oh why is it so hard for us to sometimes just accept difference and  Let.  It.  Be. ?)

So, I’m not going to even broach that whole issue.  Rather, I’m going to talk about MEAT.  If you have decided to remain/become a carnivore, then there are two ways to approach it, that I can see:

1. The CAFO way

CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, and it generally means you’ll get the most meat for your buck.  Animals are: corralled into unnaturally cramped confines with their peers, made to stand/sit in concentrated fecal matter, fed diets that their systems were not designed to be fed (e.g. corn-fed beef), given antibiotics and hormones liberally to ward off disease (induced by aforementioned conditions) and increase weight, and slaughtered in a manner ranging from acceptable (“humane”) to brutal.

Whether you consciously think about it when you buy meat or not, you have probably been made aware of CAFOs and the conditions under which their animals are raised, so I will not belabour the descriptions too much.  A plethora of books has been written on the subject and I’m sure a YouTube search will yield more videos of grueling intensity than you could possibly have imagined.  I do encourage you to further educate yourself on this topic, though, if it’s a new one for you, and to at least watch a few videos of CAFOs at work if you haven’t already.

In any case, there are reasons people may opt to follow the CAFO way:
 - limited income but desire to eat meat
 - ignorance of the origins of what they are consuming
 - apathy, when aware of the conditions of CAFO livestock
 - the view that animals as meat are commodities rather than living beings


2. The OTHER way

The OTHER way is a conscientious decision to do things “better”:  better for your family’s health, better for the planet, better for the animals involved.  These three, though intimately connected, are not mutually inclusive.  Let’s explore that issue:

The impetus behind my writing this little piece was a whole chicken that we recently bought at Earth Fare (“the healthy supermaket”), part of which my family greatly enjoyed eating last night for supper.  (You can see a photo of said chicken attached).

When one goes into a supermarket such as Earth Fare and reads its stated philosophies, which include “NO inhumane treatment of the animals providing us with dairy, meat and eggs,” one tends to get a warm, fuzzy feeling (or at least I do).  Indeed, it really is nice to be able to shop in a store where there is a higher regard for the origin of food and its constituent ingredients.  The problem is when the warm, fuzzy feeling makes us so comfortable that we cease to question some of the assumptions we may automatically make in a store called such as “Earth Fare.”

I know it is one of my failings, but I suspect that it holds true for others as well, that when I tend to think of “personal health” in conjunction with food, I automatically associate with it “health of planet,” and “health of animals” (in the case of meat).  And so I buy a whole chicken from Earth Fare and happily oven-roast it for my family, along with a selection of locally-grown and organic produce.  Except, not quite happily.

You see, I have come to the point where I can no longer delude myself entirely, much as I might like to.  The chicken I bought was raised on organic feed without animal by-products—check!  No antibiotics or hormones administered—check!  No seasonings or salt water added—check!  Probably slaughtered in a relatively humane way (we’ll never know for sure, but I can hope)—check!  Free-range—check!

Uh oh.  And here is where my trinity of “healths” starts to unravel each from the other.  I believe strongly that it is in an animal’s best interest (for mental and physical health) to live in a way whereby it can exhibit its natural behaviours.  For chickens, this means being given:  adequate clean space, a place to forage/scratch and dustbathe, a clean and dry place to perch and roost/nest, and access to nutritious food and clean water.  Having these requirements met is what one generally conjures up when one comes across the term “free-range”:  we picture an idyllic setting where chickens are free to roam through the vegetation, scratching at the ground and pecking at insects to supplement the high-quality grain they are fed, returning at night to a daily-cleaned dry coop to roost and rest.

But even as I happily picked the whole chicken out of Earth Fare’s refrigerated section (“happily” because we hadn’t eaten chicken for some time), I knew that the term “free-range” was not quite used here in the same way as in my ideal imaginings above.  Because, a chicken with this quantity of breast meat would scarcely be able to walk well, if at all.  So, even if given access to the outdoors (“free-range”--and that can mean a piddly little enclosed run that is devoid of grass, all vegetation having been scratched from the area), this bird may not have been able to make much use of it during the later weeks of its short life of about 8 weeks’ length.

This is but one example of how one must be truly aware of what one is buying.  If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is primarily for the personal health of your family (ie. decreasing your family’s direct exposure to potentially harmful chemicals), then this organic chicken from Earth Fare would fulfill that purpose admirably.  If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is generally geared towards lightening your environmental footprint on the Earth, then this chicken probably adequately fulfills that criterion (as its feed was organic and thus did not require pesticide use.  Here I would still question what exactly is done with the poultry waste products, though).  If your purpose in buying non-CAFO meat is to support the TRULY humane raising and slaughter of the animals you are planning to eat, then it would be my opinion that the Earth Fare chicken does not satisfactorily measure up, as it was bred to maximize quantity of muscle tissue at the expense of allowing the chicken to locomote in a normal fashion.

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Whether you decide to eat meat raised humanely, inhumanely, organically, locally, etc.,  my point is simply that you ought to be aware of what you are buying (and buying into).  Try to make the best choices that you are able to, with the information and resources you have.

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Just FYI:
The cost of cheap chicken:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/chicken.html