Our Meat

There was such a great article in the Times yesterday, that I was almost sorry I had to work and couldn't write about it immediately. Let me make up for that now.

"Meet Your Meat" was the name of the article and the reporter, Jenny Slafkosky, didn't pull any punches. Kudos to her. While a goodly portion of the article was in defense of carnivorism, she also used a lot of space talking about the dangers of eating meat and putting the blame right where it belongs: at the feet of our food industry and Big Ag.

Humans have always eaten meat and for most of our history, we haven't eaten an awful lot of it. For most people, meat was an occasional and lucky thing, enough to make the brain grow and intelligence to evolve, but not so much that we got fat and clogged arteries. A bit more regular meat in our early diets might have been a good thing, health-wise, but what we had was generally enough.

When meat came along, our ancestors used every bit of it. No animal died to provide just a T-bone steak and filet mignon.

We all know what it's like now. Our country is dotted with feedlots filled with sick and distressed animals, shot up with antibiotics and growth hormone, fed corn and muck and the meat of their own kind, until they are big enough to slaughter. Only the "good" cuts of meat are sold to consumers, the rest is ground up to be fed back to other animals.

Animals that don't eat meat. Animals with digestive systems that evolved to eat grass.

For once, a reporter is very clear on all this and clear on its connection to the way we shop and what we eat and the state of our health. Clear on environmental damage done when rivers of feces from the feedlots flow into our rivers or seep into our groundwater supply or nearby crops.

She doesn't shy away from telling us that our generations-long diet of convenience food has separated us from the food we eat and that we are poorer people because of it.

To me, the issue is not whether humans should eat meat or not. We evolved to eat meat, most of us still do, and I don't see the point in apologizing for it. We should eat a lot less than we do. And we should absolutely be aware of what we are doing and do it thoughtfully. We should insist our animals are raised in kindness, eating the food they evolved to eat. We should insist they are slaughtered with care, as much as possible without fear. We should use the whole animal.

I'll admit, I balk at the idea of eating brains. I've had heart, tongue, liver and while they aren't my favorite, I suppose I could have them once in a while. I guess my preference is to find something else we can use them for, like the Inuits use seal oil for their lamps (although they also eat it). I don't know what to suggest, but it's worth thinking about.

Eating less meat would really go a long way toward solving some of this problem. Recent recalls of meat have been in the millions of pounds range. Millions of pounds. And that's just what was recalled. How much meat to we need to slaughter in this country? To me, this is an incredible number.

I think it's all done just because our meat is in the hands of factory farmers. I'm sure there's a point where the market is saturated, but it seems that the more they slaughter, the more we buy. I'd be interested to know how much is thrown away in this country. If thousands of pounds of meat spoils because it wasn't purchased, how do the factory farmers account for it? And does the government (meaning you and I, the taxpayers) subsidize them for it? How accountable do they have to be for every pound of meat they raise and slaughter?

The immediate solution is the same old litany you hear every time: buy local, buy sustainable. Look for a CSA that delivers meat from local ranchers who raise their animals in the pasture. Find a farmer's market that has a meat vendor. Find out which ranchers in your area raise sustainable meat and sell it to the markets. Don't buy Tyson chicken or ConAgra meat or any of the junk in the pretty plastic packages at Safeway.

Be aware.