Preachy Post About Eating Meat

I think I might be done with red meat.

And I'm leaning toward passing on chicken and turkey too. 

(Seafood however is screwed. Sorry shrimps.)

Before you go rolling your eyes at my upteenth declaration about quitting meat--- something changed in me recently on some sort of soul-ular level.

Yah, having a dog and realizing it's as smart as a hog is disturbing to think about. (I'm sure if any of us visited a hog slaughter house that would be that for bacon forever.) But my recent attempt at change is not just because I love and respect animals and feel bad for their situation-- I've been sort of obsessed lately with the overall 'process' of processing meat. I read a book called "Eating Animals" and watched a movie called Food Inc. And it's apparent that something has gone super wrong with our food system. I do now believe that the meat industry is friggin flat out dangerous and getting worse.

I know it's nice and all to think that the USDA has a handle on the situation-- but I'm now convinced they officially don't. Nor do they genuinely care. There's too much money in it. It's like oil and tobacco and health care and everything else that is way too big. It goes beyond human into some other world. It has detached from us. The whole thing has been infiltrated and corrupted. The soul has gone dark.

The meat industry now works non-stop to still keep the classic image of Old MacDonald style farm in our heads. Chickens clucking around in some yard. Cute cow mooing by a fence. That's done now. Everything gets cranked out factory style now. It's all hidden from us. It's indoors. The way animals are treated is basically sacrilegious. It all boils down to giant-mega corporations and turning animals directly into products fast. Reducing costs at all costs. Increasing speed. Every problem is treated with drugs. Animals are growing crazy fast and being tweaked genetically and they're all on weirdo drugs. It's creepy. With one foot in evil.

I know it's way easy to feel like it's not that dangerous. It's not that unhealthy. It is how it is. Shrug. But that's how they like us to be. Anything to keep us eating animals. Most meat-eaters first instinct is to make fun of people who don't eat meat. That's some seriously good marketing...

Sure, there aren't people dropping dead all over the place or whatever. And every e-coli scare seems contained and managed. But it seems like the meat system is about to implode and then explode fecally all over us. I am now paranoid that something is going to go very wrong very soon. And maybe the time has come to stop trusting that the government is on top of this situation. Of all the things we don't trust about the government-- there is a good chance that food management is the thing we should trust the least.

I know I sound paranoid. And I might be. I'm paranoid about alot of things. I love a good steak. I love a chompy good burger. And hot dogs and all that.

But something in my gut is telling me to stop. Right now.

(Unless I can confirm it comes from a grass-fed source. Then I'd probably buckle... ;-)

Sorry for the bummery hoitytoity post. I know what I sounds like. I really do. But there is something going on that, at the very least-- is very wrong.

ok bye!

tOdd

PS. Not to mention the workers (imagine the jobs in there) and the environmental damage (doody lagoons) and the animals who never ever have one good day.

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Warning: Some comments below may annoy you or make you roll your eyes...

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