Readers, for those of you who personally know me, you know that our country's food production system is one of my favorite, most passionate topics to discuss. When I first became a vegetarian, and then vegan my sophomore year of college, I didn't consider myself an animal right's activist. I chose to eat the way I did because it was more sustainable and healthier for our planet than choosing to consume animal meats, which takes roughly 13 pounds of grain to get 1 pound of animal meat to your table.
I recently saw this video and if you have 6 minutes, which if you're reading this then I know that you do, please watch this short clip:
Maybe you can watch this and it doesn't change your mind about the production of meat at all. If that is the case, I want to ask you how? Maybe you think this is propaganda, as many choose to take this stance when videos or books come out regarding animal slaughter, but how long can we keep turning our cheek the other way and calling it that? I am aware that PETA sells the propaganda pretty hard, but do your own research friends. I truly feel that this is more serious than we want to think, I mean come on, I'm writing a blog post about it (joke), but seriously.
Here's how I see it... Lemme break it down.
We, as a nation, have very little regard about where the foods come from that we stock our fridges with, feed our children, purchase at restaurants, and put into our own mouths. We just don't care. We've created this complete dissociation with the foods we eat, especially our animal products, and where they actually came from. We're detached and emotionally uninvested in the nourishment of our bodies.
Allow me to further elaborate on this idea of dissociation with our foods. Classic example:
Many people watched Black Fish and signed Sea World petitions and straight up mourned with these whales. I'm not attacking you, I was one of them. But there has to be that connection to the rest of our systems, especially the meat production system. We can cry, and cry, and cry as we hate on Sea World and how they contain these killer whales in these tanks that are comparable to the size of a bath tub for a fish of that size, but yet, we don't connect the dots. You can probably pay something like 99 cents to get some chicken from McDonald's that was never granted the liberty to stand on it's own two feet due to growth hormone injection and rapid increases in muscle size. Thanks to growth hormone, we can produce full size chickens in somewhere around 25 days so that we can keep feeding our hungry, hungry, underweight country (lol -_-). McDonald's can't sell their food that cheap for no reason, my friends.
Further, our country is quite frankly facing a healthcare crisis. Our demand and need for healthcare is so dang high, but yet we care very little for our bodies. It's too much work. It's expensive. We're very uneducated. I mean, really. Care and know what you are putting into your mouth. If it has more than 5 ingredients and you can't pronounce most of the words, I'd probably put it down. Help your body, friends. I don't care how old you are, the decisions you make now will absolutely effect your future health.
I truly feel like there is a solution in making our food production and purchasing system more localized. This would solve environmental issues by creating a more sustainable way to purchase the foods we want, as well as helping to boost the local economy.
I understand that local, humanely raised, hormone-free meats are expensive, and that's why many people don't buy them, myself included. Because I can't afford those types of meats is why I choose to continue eating a plant-based diet. I don't think I want to raise our children vegetarian, nor do I want to remain completely vegetarian, but I just can't afford to buy the kind of meats that I am willing to put in my body, or the bodies of my future children.
I really hope this impacts you in some way. I want to challenge you to take one day a week, maybe Meatless Monday, to not eat animal meat. It's so incredibly easy. And please, friends, don't eat fast food. It's not food. I don't consider myself to be a judgmental vegetarian by any means, I just want our country to stop giving into this demand for these quick, chemically enhanced solutions that has been labeled as "food." Work a little harder and spend a little more money on the right foods. Better yet, start your own garden or support the local farmer's market. If you have the means for it, raise and butcher your own meat. Use your noggins, you smart, able people, you.
*Stepping down from my soapbox now.*
Thanks for reading, friends. I hope this blog post finds you healthy and well. If you're interested in reading an awesome book about both sides of animal consumption, check out Jon Safran Foer's Eating Animals. You can buy it here, or you can borrow my copy.
"Let food by thy medicine, and medicine thy food."
-Hippocrates
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