meat

I don't care for meat. I'm no vegetarian though as in a pinch, i will have a little chicken or turkey or fish. fish i enjoy, meat - well it's rare. but, i don't care for meat. I also don't care for cars yet i truly enjoy driving my subi. i try to commute by bike as much as possible but i will admit - driving is fun. i don't always buy organic food - it's expensive but better for one and all. i don't care for processed food either, yet sometimes, i crave french fries, or chips or candy - mmmm twix or jelly candies or m&m's...i love animals yet no longer have a shelter dog.

During the post-swimming phase of (re)finding myself i sought meaning to make life feel whole. Since i've never been one to go "small", I gave up meat entirely, soon after became vegan, denounced drugs and alcohol of any kind and became involved with groups like amnesty helping to organize events like a 2 day fast / camp out in the name of a free Burma. I dreamed of post school years invested in Peace Corps and working at animal shelters. (Which was down graded to AmeriCorps and being a shelter volunteer). However, the more I read, the more discouraged I became. For every "cause" there were 10, 20, 100 other causes that seemed to be equally significant. How could I chose just one? How could I live honestly?

Why Meat is Bad

There are dozens of reasons to not eat (intensely produced) meat. From an environmental standpoint, agriculture is arguably one of the most detrimental of landuses. Hundreds of thousands of acres of forests have been converted to intense commercial agriculture (often non-sustainably practiced) over the years resulting in extreme soil erosion and modified hydrologic cycles (water flow). Modern day, intense agriculture, relies on fertilizers and pesticides which runoff into nearby, unbuffered streams (streams without forests on either side) and seep in to the water tables eutrophic-induced (nutriend buildup) fish kills and serious water quality degradation. Animal rights extremists will show videos of the way animals are tortured and confined via high production agriculture.

But, let's forget the environment, and animal rights... What about us? After all, it is about us, isn't it? Put heart disease and all other directly related health issues, most farmers inject the animals we eat with hormones that have been proven to mess up our reproductive systems. And those fertilizers and pesticides are also suggested to be equally harmful - case in point blue baby syndrome.

But I digress as this obviously isn't a post about convincing the world to not eat meat, eat mass produced veges or drive cars. This would be hypocritical. I do, on occasion, eat meat! I no longer am involved with amnesty and my days of fasting, protesting and a straight edged vegan lifestyle are long behind. And, we won't even get into the post straight-edge extreme i lived through in my later college years... this wild period is hardly blog-publishable.

In short, what i'm trying to say is - unfortunately for us all, no "position" is simple.

The Hypocrisy of It all

For one is it possible to truly take an extreme position without being hypocritical. Ie - animals rights activists that release helpless animals that will inevitably suffer in the real world, or activists that cause harm via their efforts. On a lesser extreme, vegetarians that eat marshmallows, jello, and even lowfat yogurt, wear leather, or use most of the cleaning and hygiene / makeup products found on the shelves these days because they are not informed. Or those who shun the hummer for it's MPG yet drool over an aston martin or a bentley.

If you love animals should you donate all of your time to the local shelter? Adopt 100 stray and homeless dogs and cats? Can you never own a pure bred pup? Should we all hunt our own food?!! If you are a solid environmentalist, can you eat meat and sleep at night? What about free-range meat products? If you eat meat, what about the genetically modified veges we all consume that are also grown on fertilizer and pesticide shocked farmland? Is that OK? Can a PA native eat a banana and sleep at night (eat local)? And following that thought, if you can eat meat or vegetables, can you drive a car contributing to not only a fossil-fuel based economy but also greenhouse gas accumulation and global climate change? IF, you are a human rights activist can you actively lobby for Burma while ignoring pressing issues in your own country, state (old data) or county? Can you drink only coke and not pepsi (or gatorade... etc) when coke is potentially equally offensive in their abuses? and on and on and on it goes...

And this all is not even beginning to consider a broader economic perspective... ouch!

Not a Soap Box

If you're reading this as a soap box, then you've got it (and me) all wrong. I've always wanted my life to be meaningful, in some way. To make a difference be it in someone's life. To contribute to something bigger than simply my happiness (even though the desire itself was contributing to happiness). To help those close, and be there for people for whom I cared even if it meant putting myself second. I've always wanted to live my life honestly staying true to my beliefs and convictions. Needless to say, I don't always achieve that goal. And honestly i'm not always sure how to get there.

But the question becomes, what "causes" and "issues" are can / should / do we support? Consider, the clothes on our back, the stores where we shop, the hygiene and cleaning products we use, the means of transportation we select, the foods we eat, and more. There is hardly enough time in a life time let alone a week or a day to consider it all.

So, really I don't like meat. I can't feel good about saying I avoid it for environmental, political, social or economic reasons. I just don't like it. Honestly, it doesn't taste good to me. But I eat it - sometimes. Don't like milk either so no hormones for me; however if that's all there is on the breakfast table for my cereal, I'll deal. Just like I drive my car - sometimes, and play with the first non-adopted pure-bred pup i've owned.

I have no interest in making anyone else feel uncomfortable about eating meat, or drinking milk, or driving a car - big or small. There is simply not enough time on this planet to absorb and understand it all. I do however have an interest in everyone thinking about these things - at least from time to time; critical thought is good as is living life in a way that brings not only happiness but growth. And I have an interest in making informed decisions. Perhaps this is why I aspire to teach and study in an environmental field. Perhaps this is why I do have an interest in understanding what makes us 'tick' - make the choices we do every day - what issues we chose to embrace and why. And how we go about living our lives while simultaneously feeling good about everything around us.