First Draft:
Meat Meet Meat
Chicken is in fact chicken, but to some people, it really is not. When many of us grow up, we eat meat. To children, broccoli along with any other vegetable, though to many kids may not taste as good, is seen in a very similar light as any meat we are fed. It might as well have been picked from a tree or pulled out of the ground. A little kid generally will not spend too much time thinking about where their food comes from as long as they get to eat and what they are eating tastes good. At some point, when we get older and more mature, someone has to break the news to us. For others, we figure the truth out for ourselves. Chicken is really chicken. This meat we are eating once had feathers and wings, walked around on two legs, and went bwak. It is not like a vegetable that grows from the ground, it is the meat that comes from an animal that was killed in order for us to be able to eat it. However, even after we find out about this crucial, but questionably disturbing and upsetting piece of information, many of us decide to continue to eat meat, maintaining the mindset that it is just like a fruit or a vegetable, just food for us to eat. When we choose to eat meat, we are able to easily remain shielded from the reality of what it is and the process through which is moves. When you go to the grocery store or even a meat shop, the meat will be nicely packaged or, if not, displayed in a glass counter to be picked out, weighed and wrapped up in paper to take home for dinner. These store fronts protect us from truth of millions of animals raised for the only purpose of being slaughtered and butchered for our consumption. If this shield and these services were not present, we would likely be forced to raise our own livestock for this purpose, in which case, it is extremely that many of us would choose instead to not eat meat and find other sources of nourishment to fulfill this portion of our diet. However, because we are able to keep this curtain up to shield us from the truth, we can stay happy in the dark.
As long as we do not have to see or even hear about the animals being killed, we are just fine as we are. This concept is extremely contradictory. The idea of any animal being killed is extremely upsetting to most of us and many would choose anything to avoid having to do it ourselves. However, as long as we are not involved in the process and do not have to know anything about it, we can eat animals just fine. In the article “Animals Like Us”, by Hal Herzog, the comparison of cats to snakes is explored. Many people tend to prefer a cat as a pet over a snake for a number of reasons, one of which being the food they eat, alive versus canned meat. “Consider the Lobster”, an essay by David Foster Wallace, discusses a less shielded side of the meat industry that many of us remain comfortable with, likely mainly based on how much we value different animals and their lives. In her podcast, American mortician Kaitlyn Doughty discusses in depth the concept of death. Specifically, she dives into the idea of cremation and the involvement of families in this process for their loved ones. We, as a society, turn our heads away from and deny the truths we do not want to accept and take responsibility for, choosing to value our emotions and desires over all else.
- Herzog:
- Snakes are generally fed live mice that are dropped into their cage about once a week. In comparison, cats are fed canned food twice a day, every day. The canned food is made up almost entirely of meat, but because we do not see it in its living form and are not witnessing the death of whatever animal it came from, we feel significantly more comfortable feeding to our pets.
- Cats eat more meat than snakes:
- “The pet-food shelves of my local supermarket are piled high with six-ounce tins of cow, sheep, chicken, horse, turkey, and fish. Even fried cat foods are advertised as containing ‘fresh meat.’”
- “If each cat consumes just two ounces of meat daily, en masse they consume nearly 12 million pounds of flesh-the equivalent of 3 million chickens-every single day.”
- “A medium-size pet boa constrictor needs less than five pounds of meat a year. A pet cat requires far more flesh. At two ounces a day, the average cat would consume about 50 pounds of meat in a year.
Final Draft:
Meat Meet Meat
Chicken is chicken, but to some people, it is not. When many of us grow up, we eat meat because that is what our parents feed us. To kids, broccoli, along with many other vegetables, is likely not their first choice in food as it may not taste nearly as good as other options. Therefore, many of these kids will choose to eat the tastier meat on their plate because, to them, that meat has basically the same origin as the vegetables. It might as well have been picked from a tree or pulled out of the ground. However, even after we find out about the crucial, questionably disturbing and upsetting piece of information that this food comes from a living thing that once had eyes and legs, just like us, many of us decide to continue to eat meat, maintaining the mindset that it is just like a fruit or a vegetable, just food for us to eat. When you go to the grocery store or even a meat shop, the meat will be nicely packaged or, if not, displayed in a glass counter to be picked out, weighed and wrapped up in paper to take home for dinner. Because we are able to keep this curtain up to shield us from the truth, we can stay happy in the dark.
In the article “Animals Like Us”, by Hal Herzog, the comparison of cats to snakes is explored. Many people tend to prefer a cat as a pet over a snake for a number of reasons, one of which being the food they eat, alive versus canned meat. “Consider the Lobster”, an essay by David Foster Wallace, discusses a less shielded side of the meat industry that many of us remain comfortable with, likely mainly based on how much we value different animals and their lives. In his piece, “Against Meat”, Jonathan Foer directly discusses what it is like to experience the AHA moment of what meat really is and where it comes from. We, as a society, turn our heads away from and deny the truths we do not want to accept and take responsibility for, choosing to value our emotions and desires over all else.
As a little kid, we eat what is put on our plates. Clearly, we prefer some food over others, but this is only based on the taste, not where they we think something comes from. Children, in general, do not know the difference between broccoli and chicken, only that one tastes better than the other. A little kid generally will not spend too much time thinking about where their food comes from as long as they get to eat and what they are eating tastes good. At some point, when we get older and more mature, someone has to break the news to us, while for others, we figure the truth out for ourselves. Foer was able to directly discuss this topic remembering the exact moment the news was broken to him. At the age of nine years old, “[He] had a babysitter who didn’t want to hurt anything. She put it just like that when [he] asked her why she wasn’t having chicken with [his] older brother and [him].” (Foer) Following this, she directly stated to him, “You know that chicken is chicken, right?” (Foer) In this moment, he had to quickly process the new information, “Our mouths full of hurt chickens, and had simultaneous how-in-the-world-could-I-have-never-thought-of-that-before-and-why-on-earth-didn’t-someone-tell-me? moments”. (Foer) After this revelation as a child, Foer decided to, in that moment, change his lifestyle, becoming a vegetarian in order to no longer hurt animals.
I do not remember at what point in my life I realized that meat comes from an animal, but I do know that this idea never fazed me. It was normal to eat, and I thought it tasted pretty good, so I continued to eat it and my parents continued to cook it. Chicken is really chicken. This meat we are eating once had feathers and wings, walked around on two legs, and went bwak. It is not like a vegetable that grows from the ground, it is the muscle and flesh that comes from an animal that was killed in order for us to be able to eat it. Despite this gruesome idea, many of the population of the world chooses to continue to eat meat.
When we choose to eat meat, we are able to easily remain shielded from the reality of what it is and the process through which it moves to be prepared for us. The store fronts of grocery stores and butcher shops protect us from the truth of millions of animals raised for the only purpose of being slaughtered and butchered for our consumption. As long as we do not have to see or even hear about the animals being killed, we are just fine as we are. When I choose to eat meat, over becoming a vegetarian, I do so because I do not have to think about the animals. In general, the meat products I eat look nothing like the animal they once came from. Therefore, the origin of protein can easily my mind and I can just enjoy my meal. Not once in buying the food, cooking it and eating it do I have to even consider the animal it once was. This concept is extremely contradictory as the idea of any animal being killed is extremely upsetting to most of us and many would choose anything to avoid having to do it ourselves. However, as long as we are not involved in the process and do not have to know anything about it, we can eat animals just fine.
Our inability to directly deal with the idea of the death of animals, and instead to value our emotions over anything else, continues to animals eating other animals. As we need protein to survive, which we tend to fulfill with meat, animals living in the wild also need this. Despite this, we do not like to think about one animal chasing after, biting down on, killing, and eating another animal, even if this is the only way for the predator to survive. This concept includes pets we may keep in our house. Snakes are generally fed live mice that are dropped into their cage about once a week. In comparison, cats are fed canned food twice a day, every day. This amount of food significantly adds up. Herzog focuses in on this comparison of a snake’s diet with that of a cat’s. As he states, “A medium-size pet boa constrictor needs less than five pounds of meat a year. A pet cat requires far more flesh. At two ounces a day, the average cat would consume about 50 pounds of meat in a year.” (Herzog) These food cans of cat food are made up almost entirely of meat. As Herzog describes in his article, “The pet-food shelves of [the] local supermarket are piled high with six-ounce tines of cow, sheep, chicken, horse, turkey, and fish. Even fried cat foods are advertised as containing ‘fresh meat’.” (Herzog) Despite this significant piece of information, because we do not see it in its living form and are not witnessing the death of whatever animal it came from, we feel significantly more comfortable feeding it to our pets.
Though the trend of not wanting to acknowledge the death of an animal for the production of meat is popular, there are a few exceptions. When we cook lobsters, the traditional way of doing so is dumping the live animal into a pot of boiling water and closing the top so it can steam until it is ready to eat. With this process, it seems as though you cannot be any more a part of the manufacturing process of meat. So, why is it that we are unable to imagine the death of a cow for our burgers, but we can boil alive a lobster ourselves and crack it with a hammer to get at the meat inside? Wallace explores this idea in his article when he mentions the nationally famous Maine Lobster Festival, where large tanks of lobsters are trucked in for thousands of people to choose from and eat. Many people, in this case, are okay with this idea of lobsters being killed and technically watching it occur, “It’s not just that lobsters get boiled alive, it’s that you do it yourself – or at least it’s done specifically for you, on-site. As mentioned, the World’s Largest Lobster Cooker, which is highlighted as an attraction in the festival’s program, is right out there on the MLF’s north grounds for everyone to see.” (Wallace) Wallace develops this idea, while bringing in a comparison with another animal, to continue with, “Try to imagine a Nebraska Beef Festival at which part of the festivities is watching trucks pull up and the live cattle get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there on the World’s Largest Killing Floor.” (Wallace) Likely, it is more bearable and acceptable to kill a lobster simply because we value its life less than the life of say a cow. In this case, simply because we are able to stand killing this animal, instead of having to value our emotions as more important, we choose our desires over all else.
The human race can be immensely selfish. In the end, we choose ourselves over anything else on the planet. Animals dying, for any reason, is an upsetting idea to think about. If these animals are dying for our own gain, we choose to ignore the fact that they were killed and processed before being packaged for dispersion and consumption. Therefore, by ignoring the pain of the animals and denying the truth, we choose to value our own emotions over everything else so we can continue to eat meat. Even when we are able to emotionally cope with the death of an animal, like dropping a lobster into a pot of boiling water, we continue to choose our desires. Our desires and our emotions are some of our largest and strongest drives in life leading us to favor them over anything else.
Works Cited
Foer, Jonathan Safran. “Against Meat.” The New York Times Magazine, 7 Oct. 2009.
Herzog, Hal. “Animals Like Us.” UTNE, Aug. 2011.
Wallace, David Foster., et al. Consider the Lobster. Ascensius Press, 2011.
