Barbara at Tigers and Strawberries has written a great blog post about her pet peeve and mine: People who say that they can't eat meat that "looks like it came from an animal," preferring to eat meat that has been processed and de-boned and de-skinned. When I was about 14 years old, my vegetarian aunt, who I credit for making me as aware of food as I am today, told me that if I was going to eat meat, then I needed to read Diet for a New America by John Robbins. So there I was, just a teenager, reading all about pigs and cows and chickens and the conditions that they were raised under in industrial agriculture.
I still eat meat, but I think that this awareness makes me a much more conscious eater in all aspects of my diet. This early learning really made me intolerant of people who would rather not think about their meat that they are eating. I think that those of us who are meat eaters really have a responsibility to be aware of what we are eating.
If you have a chance, read Barbara's post ... being raised on a farm, she brings some great insight to the debate. Here's my favorite excerpt:
We named our hogs and cows. The chickens--well, when you have fifty of them and many of them look much alike, they are harder, but I still had some that I named every year, because they had distinct personalities or looks, and I could recognize them. We named the steers were were going to eat, and my cousins and I, when we marked the wrapped packages of meat, would put the name on the package, along with the cut and the date.
For example, we had an Angus-Hereford cross steer we named Raisin. So, when we butchered him, we put on the package of a chuck blade roast, "Raisin, chuck blade roast, 11/74, 2 lbs."
And when we sat down to eat that chuck blade roast, Grandma would say, "This is from Raisin." And whoever said grace would say at the end, "and thank you, Raisin, for being such a nice steer and making such good meat for us to eat, amen."
