Think Twice.

A friend sent me this link, a video called “Meet Your Meat.”

While I don’t consider myself any sort of animal rights activist, some of these images are horrifying and disturbing. In a way, the video reiterates the notion that I, as a consumer, am fairly ignorant about to the history of the food I eat. On the growing list of books that I would like to read are a couple on food politics, genetically modified foods, etc.

At the end of the video, there’s a plug for vegetarianism. While I don’t have a problem with being vegetarian (although I could never do it myself), I don’t think it’s a feasible solution. Of course, it works for some people, but for the rest of Western society that enjoys their meat, I think a better solution would be the promotion of organic, or naturally-bred animal products. I’ve heard of “free-range eggs,” and my family used to buy grain-fed chickens from a local farmer at our church. Alternative meat options should be explored, I would love to look into the subject, to find out where I can get “healthy” meat. Ideally, if these safer alternatives were explored, it would take a toll on the traditional, treat-the-animals-like-garbage way of farming. Ideally.

Who, after all, would want to eat a steak that came from a cow that had cancer? But we’ve already seen something like that – a little disease called Creutzfeldt-Jacob’s Disease. Also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Also known as Mad Cow Disease.