Confession.
Being around cooked flesh makes me a little queasy. I know, you’re probably not surprised. Some find the smell of cooking bacon, sausage, or other flesh food appetizing. I can’t explain it, because it hasn’t always been this way, but when I smell meat cooking, I think of the animal that used to be. Like, that chicken breast used to cluck. And that bacon you’re eating, used to squeal. Those thoughts just stop my appetite cold. This is why I can’t bring myself to enter most fast food restaurants where brightly lit screens, showcase various versions of cow, pig, chicken, fish muscle snuggled in between a fluffy white bun for only a $3.99!
I guess that’s whats changed in me. I used to see meat as well, meat. You know, food. Now I see it as something that used to be alive, that was once a feeling/breathing being, before it’s parts became what’s for dinner. I don’t have any particular attachment to an animal (I’ve never been a dog-lover, or anything like that), but how can we abhor the thought of eating our dogs or cats, or other pets, but eating cow or chicken is perfectly acceptable?
I don’t get all animal-rights activist very often. But sometimes, I just can’t ignore the glaring hypocrisy and downright false marketing of the industries that use and abuse animals for profit and gain (so we can enjoy a juicy, groundup cow, ahem, hamburger).
There are billboards on the side of the freeway that I pass by everyday. I pass by them in the morning on my way to and from work. And at night, again, to and from work. A few of them I have memorized (way to go marketing people, your message is in my brain) mostly because everytime I see them I get sad.
The first billboard of note, has a picture of a happy family standing next to some chickens and a chicken coup. The sign reads: “It takes humans to treat chickens humanely.” Sponsored by Gold-n-Plump. Hmmm…What does that even mean?! It also takes humans to treat chickens inhumanely, don’t yah think? But maybe I’m the only one thinking about it. Other consumers may read it, get the warm fuzzies (which is exactly the point), and think, “I’m gonna buy that brand of chicken, the chicken that was raised humanely.” (A great podcast that speaks more to this issue of chicken raising, is the Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast episode “Aren’t free-range eggs better than eggs from battery-cage hens?” and “How humane are ‘humane’ meat, dairy, and eggs?”).
Another billboard:
“Our earth. Our passion. Our product.”
A picture of a smiling woman with her arm around a cow. Sponsored by the Utah Dairy Council (check out their site, you can learn all about how to lose weight by consuming more dairy products! and how to get the calcium you need from milk!). Really? Don’t tell me you’re concerned about the environment. Especially when dairy cows (and cattle raised for beef), are the main contributors to the number one greenhouse gas, methane, contributing to more greenhouse gas emmissions than all of the other sources of emmissions combined. And what about all the soy, corn, and water (resources that could be put to much better use, like, perhaps feeding people?) wasted to produce the milk?
And call me crazy, but what about the fact that milk is for baby calves, not humans? I’ve recommended this before, but Dr. McDougall has given a great lecture (it’s free. scroll down a bit.) on why milk is not a proper food for humans, or in his words, “milk is poison.” I don’t want to argue semantics here (what is poison? isn’t that a strong word?), but if you think of a poison as something as hazardous to your health, I think I agree with him.
The last billboard is from the good people at Red Robin. It’s a picture of a huge hamburger. I mean, like two patties, some bacon, cheese. It’s big. It takes up the whole sign (you’ve probably seen it) and reads: “Get in my belly!”
So I look at the happy lady, who’s best friends with the cows, and cares about the environment, and the family who treats chickens humanely, and the hamburger that wants to get in my belly and think, no wonder we eat the way that we do.
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