February 22, 2010

I found Chapter Seventeen of The Omnivore's Dilemma especially interesting in this assignment of reading. This chapter is entitled The Ethics of Eating Animals and it discussed just that. Michael Pollan says "it seems we either look away or become vegetarian." This fact intrigues me because even if you look away the fact still remains the same that the meat you are eating was once an animal and it suffered in order for you to have the pleasure of consuming it. I relate a lot to this idea because I always knew that animals were treated horribly, but once I actually saw the horrible conditions they are exposed to and the genetic alterations the often undergo when we watched the movie Food Inc. I could not believe I had been consuming meat for 17 out of the past 18 years (I was a vegetarian for a brief time at the age of 10). After viewing this movie last Tuesday I decided that I was going to give up meat for at least the next forty days, not necessarily for Lent, but it dovetailed nicely. However, this relinquishing of meat probably will not last for the rest of my life, I am going to make the effort to eat meat that is free range, humanely treated, and organic.