~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The title says it all. I am conflicted! I hate "farm factories" but I am a carnivore. Yes, my name is Linda and I eat meat. I like meat! I need meat with my meal to make it a meal! This goes back generations in my family. My ancestors never heard the word vegetarian and wouldn't have known what it was if they had.
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| Farm Factory |
They say that you can't tell the difference between a tofu burger and a beef burger. Let me tell you, they are wrong. That brainwashing doesn't work on me when it comes to meat. I know my beef. And even worse, I love chicken! Chicken nuggets, boneless chicken breast, chicken drumsticks, chicken.......well, you get my drift. How can I ever look my chickens in the eye again? I never met a meat I didn't like and that includes calf fries (if you don't know, don't ask).
This should not be a problem for a chicken farmer like me with a ready supply of meat.
The thing is, I can't kill anything I've named (and all our animals have cute names). Could you eat something named "Buttercup"? Well, I can't! So therefore, I am supporting "farm factories" which eats at my very soul. I am disgusted with myself for this weakness but what am I to do?
I know that part of being a proper farmer is killing for food. If I could kill anything, it would be the stray dogs that terrorize us. They would find out in a hurry if "all dogs go to heaven" or not. But I just can't. I want to be a good vegetarian but I'm not good at grazing on plant products. I need meat! Becky does just fine grazing and would rather not have meat. How do I explain to her my primeval urge for dead animals? Is there any way this can not be my fault? DNA? Cultural? Demented? Is there any hope for me?
After a lot of research, I came across this site, Life As A Human. It may not totally resolve my conflict but it gave me some possible alternatives that I can live with.
There’s a further complication to the decision to go meatless as an answer to animal cruelty. Crops are grown on land that was once the home of countless wild species. Think of the prairies. Where buffalo, prairie chickens and foxes once roamed in great numbers, we now grow wheat and other major crops to feed a human population that continues to grow. Some argue that just the annual planting and harvesting of crops kills millions of wild birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals.
So, what do I tell my daughter? She wants to do the right thing, but what’s the right thing? It’s not to replace her hamburger with a tuna sandwich. That would be putting the welfare of a domestic animal – one created by and dependent for its very existence upon humans – with the likely extinction of a wild species. It might not even be to go vegan as that would increase the already enormous pressure on farmland.
The answer might be that we have to rethink what we mean by animal cruelty. Yes, we can be cruel to animals one at a time, even one herd or flock at a time, particularly in a factory setting, but we can also be cruel to animals one species at a time and even one ecosystem at a time. A healthy ecosystem might be one in which a variety of plants and animals thrive, some of which are used or taken out entirely for food. There are healthy wild ecosystems and there are healthy domestic ecosystems. Many small farms fit this description. Animals feed on plants grown on the farm that are fertilized with manure from those animals. The animals are kept in small numbers and treated well. The plants are varied and some areas of the farm might be left fallow or completely unused to keep the soil healthy and to provide habitat for wild species.
Does this absolve me of the responsibility to prevent animal cruelty by becoming a vegetarian? Does this solve my dilemma? Does this instantly make me want to eat a tofu burger? Not really. This will have to be an ongoing process, made one choice at a time. I cannot undo years of evolution in one day.
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| The tofu burger is on the left. I can tell the difference just by looking. :( |
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