This is not an anti-meat node.
This node concerns the names we give different types of meat, and how we delude
ourselves as to what it is we are eating (or more to the point, what it was, and how it
got to be what it is).
We give many forms of meat names that don’t relate to the animal from which it
came. Take for example beef. Beef is cow, there is no two ways about it. The only
difference between cow and beef is that beef is dead. Yet I am the only person I know
that calls a beef burger a cow burger.
This is important, as we are deluding our selves to the reality of what we are eating. A
slice of pork was a living pig. It was kept in dirty confines it’s entire life, with the
sole purpose of being slaughtered When this purpose was fulfilled, it was done so
with mechanical efficiency, along with many other living breathing mammals.
Have you ever thought, while eating a beef rump steak, “wait a minute, this is a slab
out of a cow’s arse”? Chances are you haven’t, but that’s the fact, and you should
own up to the fact. It is then that you can examine whether you believe it is morally
acceptable.
So why the fuss?
This is a relatively uncontroversial and simple example of how we can ignore how
what we consume got to us. If we can accept that pork was in fact a living pig, then
maybe we can start to think the same way about other things.
“Gee, I paid $100 for these shoes, yet the person who made them got
paid 5 cents for their effort”
“Hell, a whole region of the world has been shat on for my petrol to be this cheap.”
It’s worth thinking about