Do you eat meat?
What do you think/feel about eating meat?
What animals do you eat?
Do you or would you consider killing animals yourself to eat?
Do you buy organic meat or consider where and how the animals were farmed and butchered?
I'm in the process of transforming my entire view of food and I'm quite astonished at the changes going on within me.
I've been vegetarian in the past and it seems I'm moving that direction again. Only this time - I am more aware of what is good for me and what's not.
I quit eating pork years ago - although it took me a while to completely give up bacon and sausage. Those are staples of a southern US breakfast and dang it if my taste buds thought they were essential to my survival. :w:
30 years ago when I found out how veal is obtained I became intensely ill just at the thought of it. I grew up on a farm and played for years with calves. Sweet creatures and so lovable. I could imagine what it must be like to be raised in a small stall with NO sunlight - just so one could have white beef served on a plate with tomato sauce. It's soooo sad...
I have cried so many tears when I saw pig farms. I just couldn't bring myself to eat an animal that is so smart and familial as a pig after it was kept in conditions such as those. As a chicken farmer myself I have seen first hand the complete lack of awareness of animals for meat and the brutality of their existence in those farms. You think humans are mean to other humans? You should take a look at where the meat on your plate comes from...
When I went vegetarian this last time my body was already crashing from extreme stress and my doctor urged me to start eating meat. So I did. My body kept on crashing and I find myself very debilitated these days.
So...I'm looking for other answers and solutions.
Yes. I will eat animals that are wild raised and/or caught. On occasion when I visit my cousins. They hunt deer and wild hogs and I figure the animals lived a normal life before they died. Occasionally I'll buy range fed chickens and eggs. I won't eat commercially caught fish anymore. It makes me want to throw up when I contemplate it. Most of that is concern for the environment and species depletion.
Yes. I have killed and butchered my own meat. I have also fed/watered/cared for animals that were destined to be meat on the table. There is something very visceral about watching an animal grow just so you can consume it. When I was young and at home doing this for the family I became very attached to the animals. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and put my foot down. I told my father I would not do it anymore as it made me sick to see it on the table for dinner. So we stopped raising our own animals.
I cry to think about it all. To me there is something honorable about hunting - killing - and consuming what was hunted. This seems to fit with the natural order of things. The animal lived the life it was designed to do - it played out it's role in the ecosystem - and the human consumes good organic chemical free food.
Today's system of getting meat to your table is rife with torture and antibiotics and drugs and chemicals.