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bookofmirrorsI made this post a while back, and 
ErosIssa
BlckwngdOrcl and I also went and saw Food, Inc. recently, which discussed similar things. At any rate, I've been thinking a lot lately about food - its impacts on the world, smaller societies, our economy... and not the least of these things... how it affects the animals we eat, and how it affects ourselves.
I like being a vegetarian. It suits my personality in many ways, especially that part about animals not being hurt. Lord knows I advocate that. In the 5-ish years I've been a vegetarian, though, I only for a short time developed a real distaste for meat. The smell of it cooking, once it's past the raw state, still makes my mouth water. The thought of the texture of it in my mouth is about 50/50 when it comes to whether or not it touches a primal part of me that wants to rip flesh from bone, or whether it makes me nauseous (steak or "whole" meat is more likely to evoke the former, ground beef the latter). For a while, I couldn't stand to even cook meat for my husband, which is why we pretty much don't have it in the house any more. I haven't tried to cook meat in a very long time, so it's hard for me to say if that's still the case. The thought of it isn't as disgusting to me anymore, though.
I keep reading more and more about the subject, and more and more about the vast nutritional differences in organic vs. non-organic vegetables, the difference in the impact of local vs. non-local produce in terms of carbon footprint, effect on local vs. global economy, and the "true" cost of food, rather than the false cost of the subsidized market. It's beginning to appeal to me more and more to eat these things consciously, and if I don't get around to joining a farm co-op before I move, I'll most certainly do it when we get to Champaign. Certainly, it'll be interesting to eat foods in season again.
But mostly, I've been thinking about meat. Animals as food. Mostly beef. Cows. The more I discover, the more it seems that all the literature out there about the dangers of meat, red meat especially, are due to the current diet that's fed to the cows. 100% grass-fed cow-meat doesn't seem to have all the detrimental properties that your typical steak/burger does. There is, in fact, a good deal of evidence that shows that's it's, in fact, probably even good for you. Not, of course, in the quantities that Americans eat meat, of course. Historically, meat was a bit of a luxury item (depending on one's geographical region, of course), and it would seem that, especially during the growing season, the diet of our ancestors focused more on the greenery than the local fauna. (I need to read up more on this... waiting for a few more paychecks.)
There are a lot of good reasons not to eat meat, certainly. Most of them are ethical reasons. Again, certainly, there are health risks of eating animals that are fed things that make them sick (cows being fed corn, for instance, much less other cows), but setting that aside for a moment. Something that I read when I was getting into the vegetarian thing was that eating meat was like eating packaged fear. This made a lot of sense to me, in a metaphysical way. Certainly I think that energy clings to things, and if there was a lot of fear and unpleasantness associated with the life and death of an animal, I really didn't want to take that into myself. I still believe that. The more I see about factory farming, the more strongly I believe that. All the good work that Temple Grandin is doing to try to make that industry better for the animals aside, there's still a very long way to go. So, if the slaughterhouses themselves aren't quite as bad as they used to be, and the animals don't seem to be afraid at the actual times of their deaths, certainly their life up to that point didn't honor them as a living creature. There are exceptions, even in the factory farms, of course, but the rule isn't pretty. Even, it would seem, for the organically-raised cows.
But the more I explore the more local movements, the so-called "grass farmers", the more I see that it doesn't have to be that way. There are people who honor the animals in life and death. There are people who seek to ensure that the animal is nourished... nourished in both body and spirit, in a way that (to my way of thinking) would allow anyone who takes the flesh of that animal into their body to have similar nourishment. So, I've been wondering if I should re-think how I eat.
It's a hard thing for me, to do that. The do-no-harm aspect of my eating has been a big part of my life for quite some time, and I keep thinking about, no matter how good the cows have it, how humane and painless their death is, it's still death. I also think about how cows are prey animals, and how, when it really comes down to looking at the research, humans do, in fact, appear to be omnivores, with a fairly unique set of hunting skills among other predators. Also how even herbivores get part of their diet from animals, namely in the insects that are eaten incidentally in their foraging, and that if their diet doesn't include this, their health suffers. There is very much a circle of life thing to be seen in this process, even for humans. Strangely enough, even several of the vegans on various lists I'm on acknowledge that humans are omnivores - but that we can choose to go against this nature for the good of all living things, including ourselves.
From a health perspective, it's difficult to sift through the rubble. I'm not going to provide links here, but most of the studies out there that compare meat-free diets to non-meat-free diets are comparing veg*n diets to the typical meat-eater's diet - that is, to the corn-fed factory beef that's in most supermarkets and fast-food restaurants (not to mention most restaurants, period). This, I have come to see, isn't really a fair comparison at all. There are most certainly health advantages to veg*nism compared to that. But when you look at the very few studies that compare a veg*n diet to an omnivore diet that incorporates 100% grass-fed beef (and other animal products that are fed what those animals are actually designed to be fed), the benefits of one over the other are less clear, and actually seem to point to including animal products as being the healthier of the two options. With the exception of raw-food diets (the ones that don't include meat, that is, and there are some that do), there seems to be a lot of artificial enhancing of a veg*n diet, in order to obtain what would come naturally from including animals in one's diet. In general, I'm against artificial things, so it kinda stopped and made me think.
But, of course, one can find research to support just about every point, and my main dilemma in thinking about adding meat back to my diet was about the animals. I didn't want to contribute to their deaths, their suffering. That was a huge thing for me.
So, today, I finally got around to doing what I'd been intending to do for a long time - I Journeyed to Cow.
Cow lives on the prairie, a vast grassland as far as the eye can see, with trees off in the distance, in such a way as to seem like they were there only to acknowledge their existence, and also to seem like one could never really reach them, like one can never walk to the horizon. Unlike other times when I have Journeyed to a particular species, only one came forward. He was a big steer, with large horns, which were decorated everywhere. (When I left, I gave him another ornament for his horns, as thanks.)
I should add here that, when I told my Power Animal what I was planning, he carefully dressed me all over in leather, something very similar to traditional Native American garb. I was a little horrified at this, thinking it rude, but he assured me that this was the proper way to honor Cow. Something about using all the parts and not letting them go to waste.
Cow did, in fact, seem honored by this, and commented on it, saying something very similar to what I had been told. Even when I said that many people refused to wear leather where I come from, he simply shook his head and said something to the effect of implying it was a waste, almost an insult.
So, I talked to him about ...well... eating him and his kind.
He was a quiet, sage type. He didn't come across as the wise old guru type, but more as the older quiet thoughtful type. He did a lot of quiet nodding as I spoke, and his answers were somewhat slow and deliberate. They were also more felt than heard, so anything I say about what he said will be a paraphrase. Anyway, he said that Cow was definitely sad about the state of the factory farms, but that being incarnated into them was a choice, and a message. Eventually, lessons would be learned from this... notsomuch for the cows, but for the humans... and then they would be no more. (I didn't get the impression that this would be anytime soon.) As I'm writing this, I'm kinda wondering why this lesson had to happen, considering that we (humans) didn't used to have that sort of thing, and we could have just skipped that phase altogether, I'm thinkin'... but I didn't think about it to ask at the time, and I'm getting no impressions about it now. Anyway. To his thoughts, the small farms that honored the animals were the better way to go, but he said that the most natural honoring thing would be to go back to the time before humans domesticated animals, and got their meat from hunting. That, he said, was the way things should really be. But he obliged me by talking more about the so-called grass farms a bit more. He basically said that the cows who chose to share their lives with humans in that way were giving a gift. I started to compare this in my mind to what we typically think of... Jesus on the cross... humans who give their lives to save another's... that sort of thing. Even some of my darker fantasies which involve bloodletting and a slow descent into eternal darkness, where I would gladly give my life over. I had trouble comparing the sacrifice of the cows to these sacrifices I was more used to, and said so. He tried to help me see it a little more clearly, from the cows' point of view. All I can say about that is that it would be impossible for me to put it into words, but that it had something to do with the purpose of cows in general, and their role as an incarnation of a prey animal. I remember countering with the idea that a soul wouldn't always choose to be a cow vs. some other life form, so how would that apply, and he said that each time a soul chose to be a cow (or whatever else they chose to be), they were fully that thing, and fulfilling their quest to manifest that life in whatever form and function it was. It was at this point that I had a sense of other cows with him. I couldn't see them, though. I did eventually ask him about this, as to why he was the only one to come to talk to me, and he said that, since I had so many issues about this subject, that having a bunch of cows around would likely intimidate me, and I would end up feeling un-necessarily guilty about the idea of eating them, and even feel that they were a jury of sorts, ready to convict me for the crime of eating them. I figured he was probably right about that.
One thing he did say, however, which I thought was interesting... he said that choosing to eat meat consciously, such as only eating meat from 100% grass-fed, humanely handled cows, would have more of an impact than choosing not to eat meat at all. I was a little confused by this, and his answer was something like that not eating meat at all was like wearing blinders, and avoiding the problem altogether, almost like plugging one's ears and going la-la-la. But choosing to eat meat, and putting a lot of thought behind it, forced the issue, and brought it out into the spotlight, and helped everyone to see better all the issues surrounding the process. I'm still wrapping my head around that. I mean, kinda makes sense, I suppose. I'll just take his word for it, for now.
I asked how, if I chose to eat beef (meat=beef for the purposes of this entry, since I only spoke to Cow), how I would honor that sacrifice. He said to basically say a prayer before consuming it. To honor the individual cow (something that would be impossible with, say, factory ground beef) and acknowledge its lesson, its sacrifice. To truly enjoy it with those things in mind.
I also asked him about my own personal body chemistry... if, for me, eating meat was the most healthful thing for me. He shook his head... he didn't know... wasn't his thing, so to speak. I'd have to look elsewhere for those answers.
I also basically finally put it on the line... should I eat beef or not? That was up to me, he said. He saw nothing wrong with me doing it in the conscious way I was talking about. He also said something about the factory farms, which I can't recall, but as I sit here trying to, I just get a sense of emptiness, like to take that in would give nothing - nothing to myself, nothing to Cow, nothing to the world. A void within me that sheds no light. He gave no moral judgment about this, but basically seemed to be saying that, based on what I was telling him, it certainly wasn't what I wanted.
So. I still don't know what I'm going to do about it. I do want to read some more, of course. I certainly don't want to go willy-nilly and devour steaks at every meal. But I'm leaving my options open, and I'm not going to be rigid about it. I'm going to try and pay attention to what my body, and my soul, want.
ErosIssaBlckwngdOrcl and I also went and saw Food, Inc. recently, which discussed similar things. At any rate, I've been thinking a lot lately about food - its impacts on the world, smaller societies, our economy... and not the least of these things... how it affects the animals we eat, and how it affects ourselves.I like being a vegetarian. It suits my personality in many ways, especially that part about animals not being hurt. Lord knows I advocate that. In the 5-ish years I've been a vegetarian, though, I only for a short time developed a real distaste for meat. The smell of it cooking, once it's past the raw state, still makes my mouth water. The thought of the texture of it in my mouth is about 50/50 when it comes to whether or not it touches a primal part of me that wants to rip flesh from bone, or whether it makes me nauseous (steak or "whole" meat is more likely to evoke the former, ground beef the latter). For a while, I couldn't stand to even cook meat for my husband, which is why we pretty much don't have it in the house any more. I haven't tried to cook meat in a very long time, so it's hard for me to say if that's still the case. The thought of it isn't as disgusting to me anymore, though.
I keep reading more and more about the subject, and more and more about the vast nutritional differences in organic vs. non-organic vegetables, the difference in the impact of local vs. non-local produce in terms of carbon footprint, effect on local vs. global economy, and the "true" cost of food, rather than the false cost of the subsidized market. It's beginning to appeal to me more and more to eat these things consciously, and if I don't get around to joining a farm co-op before I move, I'll most certainly do it when we get to Champaign. Certainly, it'll be interesting to eat foods in season again.
But mostly, I've been thinking about meat. Animals as food. Mostly beef. Cows. The more I discover, the more it seems that all the literature out there about the dangers of meat, red meat especially, are due to the current diet that's fed to the cows. 100% grass-fed cow-meat doesn't seem to have all the detrimental properties that your typical steak/burger does. There is, in fact, a good deal of evidence that shows that's it's, in fact, probably even good for you. Not, of course, in the quantities that Americans eat meat, of course. Historically, meat was a bit of a luxury item (depending on one's geographical region, of course), and it would seem that, especially during the growing season, the diet of our ancestors focused more on the greenery than the local fauna. (I need to read up more on this... waiting for a few more paychecks.)
There are a lot of good reasons not to eat meat, certainly. Most of them are ethical reasons. Again, certainly, there are health risks of eating animals that are fed things that make them sick (cows being fed corn, for instance, much less other cows), but setting that aside for a moment. Something that I read when I was getting into the vegetarian thing was that eating meat was like eating packaged fear. This made a lot of sense to me, in a metaphysical way. Certainly I think that energy clings to things, and if there was a lot of fear and unpleasantness associated with the life and death of an animal, I really didn't want to take that into myself. I still believe that. The more I see about factory farming, the more strongly I believe that. All the good work that Temple Grandin is doing to try to make that industry better for the animals aside, there's still a very long way to go. So, if the slaughterhouses themselves aren't quite as bad as they used to be, and the animals don't seem to be afraid at the actual times of their deaths, certainly their life up to that point didn't honor them as a living creature. There are exceptions, even in the factory farms, of course, but the rule isn't pretty. Even, it would seem, for the organically-raised cows.
But the more I explore the more local movements, the so-called "grass farmers", the more I see that it doesn't have to be that way. There are people who honor the animals in life and death. There are people who seek to ensure that the animal is nourished... nourished in both body and spirit, in a way that (to my way of thinking) would allow anyone who takes the flesh of that animal into their body to have similar nourishment. So, I've been wondering if I should re-think how I eat.
It's a hard thing for me, to do that. The do-no-harm aspect of my eating has been a big part of my life for quite some time, and I keep thinking about, no matter how good the cows have it, how humane and painless their death is, it's still death. I also think about how cows are prey animals, and how, when it really comes down to looking at the research, humans do, in fact, appear to be omnivores, with a fairly unique set of hunting skills among other predators. Also how even herbivores get part of their diet from animals, namely in the insects that are eaten incidentally in their foraging, and that if their diet doesn't include this, their health suffers. There is very much a circle of life thing to be seen in this process, even for humans. Strangely enough, even several of the vegans on various lists I'm on acknowledge that humans are omnivores - but that we can choose to go against this nature for the good of all living things, including ourselves.
From a health perspective, it's difficult to sift through the rubble. I'm not going to provide links here, but most of the studies out there that compare meat-free diets to non-meat-free diets are comparing veg*n diets to the typical meat-eater's diet - that is, to the corn-fed factory beef that's in most supermarkets and fast-food restaurants (not to mention most restaurants, period). This, I have come to see, isn't really a fair comparison at all. There are most certainly health advantages to veg*nism compared to that. But when you look at the very few studies that compare a veg*n diet to an omnivore diet that incorporates 100% grass-fed beef (and other animal products that are fed what those animals are actually designed to be fed), the benefits of one over the other are less clear, and actually seem to point to including animal products as being the healthier of the two options. With the exception of raw-food diets (the ones that don't include meat, that is, and there are some that do), there seems to be a lot of artificial enhancing of a veg*n diet, in order to obtain what would come naturally from including animals in one's diet. In general, I'm against artificial things, so it kinda stopped and made me think.
But, of course, one can find research to support just about every point, and my main dilemma in thinking about adding meat back to my diet was about the animals. I didn't want to contribute to their deaths, their suffering. That was a huge thing for me.
So, today, I finally got around to doing what I'd been intending to do for a long time - I Journeyed to Cow.
Cow lives on the prairie, a vast grassland as far as the eye can see, with trees off in the distance, in such a way as to seem like they were there only to acknowledge their existence, and also to seem like one could never really reach them, like one can never walk to the horizon. Unlike other times when I have Journeyed to a particular species, only one came forward. He was a big steer, with large horns, which were decorated everywhere. (When I left, I gave him another ornament for his horns, as thanks.)
I should add here that, when I told my Power Animal what I was planning, he carefully dressed me all over in leather, something very similar to traditional Native American garb. I was a little horrified at this, thinking it rude, but he assured me that this was the proper way to honor Cow. Something about using all the parts and not letting them go to waste.
Cow did, in fact, seem honored by this, and commented on it, saying something very similar to what I had been told. Even when I said that many people refused to wear leather where I come from, he simply shook his head and said something to the effect of implying it was a waste, almost an insult.
So, I talked to him about ...well... eating him and his kind.
He was a quiet, sage type. He didn't come across as the wise old guru type, but more as the older quiet thoughtful type. He did a lot of quiet nodding as I spoke, and his answers were somewhat slow and deliberate. They were also more felt than heard, so anything I say about what he said will be a paraphrase. Anyway, he said that Cow was definitely sad about the state of the factory farms, but that being incarnated into them was a choice, and a message. Eventually, lessons would be learned from this... notsomuch for the cows, but for the humans... and then they would be no more. (I didn't get the impression that this would be anytime soon.) As I'm writing this, I'm kinda wondering why this lesson had to happen, considering that we (humans) didn't used to have that sort of thing, and we could have just skipped that phase altogether, I'm thinkin'... but I didn't think about it to ask at the time, and I'm getting no impressions about it now. Anyway. To his thoughts, the small farms that honored the animals were the better way to go, but he said that the most natural honoring thing would be to go back to the time before humans domesticated animals, and got their meat from hunting. That, he said, was the way things should really be. But he obliged me by talking more about the so-called grass farms a bit more. He basically said that the cows who chose to share their lives with humans in that way were giving a gift. I started to compare this in my mind to what we typically think of... Jesus on the cross... humans who give their lives to save another's... that sort of thing. Even some of my darker fantasies which involve bloodletting and a slow descent into eternal darkness, where I would gladly give my life over. I had trouble comparing the sacrifice of the cows to these sacrifices I was more used to, and said so. He tried to help me see it a little more clearly, from the cows' point of view. All I can say about that is that it would be impossible for me to put it into words, but that it had something to do with the purpose of cows in general, and their role as an incarnation of a prey animal. I remember countering with the idea that a soul wouldn't always choose to be a cow vs. some other life form, so how would that apply, and he said that each time a soul chose to be a cow (or whatever else they chose to be), they were fully that thing, and fulfilling their quest to manifest that life in whatever form and function it was. It was at this point that I had a sense of other cows with him. I couldn't see them, though. I did eventually ask him about this, as to why he was the only one to come to talk to me, and he said that, since I had so many issues about this subject, that having a bunch of cows around would likely intimidate me, and I would end up feeling un-necessarily guilty about the idea of eating them, and even feel that they were a jury of sorts, ready to convict me for the crime of eating them. I figured he was probably right about that.
One thing he did say, however, which I thought was interesting... he said that choosing to eat meat consciously, such as only eating meat from 100% grass-fed, humanely handled cows, would have more of an impact than choosing not to eat meat at all. I was a little confused by this, and his answer was something like that not eating meat at all was like wearing blinders, and avoiding the problem altogether, almost like plugging one's ears and going la-la-la. But choosing to eat meat, and putting a lot of thought behind it, forced the issue, and brought it out into the spotlight, and helped everyone to see better all the issues surrounding the process. I'm still wrapping my head around that. I mean, kinda makes sense, I suppose. I'll just take his word for it, for now.
I asked how, if I chose to eat beef (meat=beef for the purposes of this entry, since I only spoke to Cow), how I would honor that sacrifice. He said to basically say a prayer before consuming it. To honor the individual cow (something that would be impossible with, say, factory ground beef) and acknowledge its lesson, its sacrifice. To truly enjoy it with those things in mind.
I also asked him about my own personal body chemistry... if, for me, eating meat was the most healthful thing for me. He shook his head... he didn't know... wasn't his thing, so to speak. I'd have to look elsewhere for those answers.
I also basically finally put it on the line... should I eat beef or not? That was up to me, he said. He saw nothing wrong with me doing it in the conscious way I was talking about. He also said something about the factory farms, which I can't recall, but as I sit here trying to, I just get a sense of emptiness, like to take that in would give nothing - nothing to myself, nothing to Cow, nothing to the world. A void within me that sheds no light. He gave no moral judgment about this, but basically seemed to be saying that, based on what I was telling him, it certainly wasn't what I wanted.
So. I still don't know what I'm going to do about it. I do want to read some more, of course. I certainly don't want to go willy-nilly and devour steaks at every meal. But I'm leaving my options open, and I'm not going to be rigid about it. I'm going to try and pay attention to what my body, and my soul, want.
