Whether you eat meat or not I highly recommend you give these podcasts a listen.
All three go into the ethics of eating meat from various viewpoints. Farmers who practice bio-diversity really do seem to be the answer when it comes to sustainability. From the perspective of holistic management, the practice of eating meat plays a very important role in sustaining local ecologies. Also highlighted is that humans need to think of themselves as in a symbiotic relationship with the land and animals rather than as outside of it.
At this point no animal meat that is not pastured and cared for in a matter that is congruent with my ethical standpoint comes into my home. This was not a single decision that I made but rather a whole series of decisions and choices. The next thing I am tackling is the whole question of dining out. There are only a few restaurants in the city that buy meat that is local and ethically produced. I guarantee that if you eat at a chain restaurant you are eating factory farmed meat. I have started asking on occasion where a restaurant's meat is from. In some ways this is more of a rhetorical question because I know it is beef or chicken coming from an industrial feed lot. I do not think it need be combative to ask for meat that is pastured and raised sustainably. Local places such as The Fainting Goat and The Willow are both very upfront about where they get their meat and surprise, surprise both establishments are much more conscious about making responsible food choices.
I do not eat at big chain American restaurants which are abundant in Regina and whose presence, for some strange reason, are celebrated as a signpost of 'big city' life! I do eat at Earls (Canadian owned) though, mostly because I love their mojitos, so I am also implicated. Eating out is tough for me because it is something that I really enjoy. But again, at what cost?
Update on Flux heifers. Seems one of them got herself in trouble last fall and will be having a calf in the next month. The farmer I bought her from has agreed to exchange her for another. One of the others lay down on a ridge of dirt with her legs above her body and couldn't get up. Luckily someone came along or she would have died. Seems the brains have been bred out the modern day bovine.
ReplyDeleteha ha ha... Funny... cows are soo stupid and apparently pretty easy.... lol
ReplyDeleteThese are fine examples of contented cows (steers or heifers or whatever!).
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