On the Joy of Meat and the Folly of Science in the US

Remember the post I wrote about the Canadian radio show that featured a butcher who used to be a vegetarian and the author of Carnivore Chic? Well, they're back, and though you undoubtedly will find their sentiments and their sensibilities offensive, what's important is the message.

In "Rediscovering the Joy of Meat" by Allison Hanes in yesterday's Canadian National Post, we (re)visit The Healthy Butcher.

Here are the highlights, for me, that make me more certain than ever that talk of animal welfare rather than liberation has been a complete failure:

• It is just one example of a recent revival of the joys of carnivorous eating.
• Butcher shops are the new shopping grounds of a hip, elite and socially conscious clientele. Full-fledged meatfests are back in vogue as community events.
• Perhaps more significant, even some vegetarians are abandoning the moral high ground to emerge from their meatless exile.

"I do think something fundamental has shifted in our culture," said Susan Bourette, the Toronto-based author of Carnivore Chic: From Pasture to Plate, the Search for the Perfect Meat, who said that a lot of the shift began, ironically, with the vegeterian movement.

It is not that eating meat ever fell out of favour, she said, but it definitely went out of fashion for a spell with all the fuss about what the industrial food complex was doing to the environment, waistlines and health.

Now meat is in again, she said – and people are consuming it, albeit more discriminatingly, guilt free and with a renewed gusto.

• The author of The Shameless Carnivore, Scott Gold, said: "Vegetarianism I suppose became equated with being more emotionally or morally evolved, but now the tide is really turning. If you try grass-fed, locally, humanely raised meat, it's not only significantly better for your health, it's better for the animal. It's not just good for the environment, but also, ultimately, once again, it all comes down to taste."

I recently posted on Rethos: "Is Compassion Carnivore and Oxymoron?" If you're being honest with yourself, you'll admit that it is.

Finally, if you haven't seen the Washington Post article by Gilbert M. Gaul entitled, "In US, Few Alternatives to Testing on Animals," you might want to read it, particularly for the comparison between the US and Europe which makes us look like idiots.

Comments

[Alex]

The Washington Post piece on "LD 50" testing is a remarkable example of the inherent immorality this practice. I wonder if those non-vegans reading the article considered for even a moment the absurdity of forcing death by poisoning onto another sentient being for the end of mere vanity? I wrote a post about this today...

[Mary Martin]

Here's Alex's post: http://www.not-quiteright.net/tvg/

[Joseph]

"If you try grass-fed, locally, humanely raised meat, it's not only significantly better for your health, it's better for the animal."

It's funny how people believe that killing an animal and consuming its flesh is better than not breeding the animal at all. *sigh*

[Judy Stone]

I think the meat-boosters are whistling in the dark. The fur industry keeps announcing that fur is back, even as fur-store numbers decline. The fur industry has even claimed to be green in P.R. ads. It's all swan songs, or death rattles. Video on the internet deserves the credit.

Even among my daughter's age group (early 40s), many people are giving up meat. They do it for their health (especially their husbands'), for the environment, because it's cruel, and for the sake of their children's future health and eating habits. Among my grandson's age group (15 years old) there are several boys on his football team who are vegetarians, and when the coach sends out for pizza and orders a vegetarian one too, no one bats an eye. My friends are cutting back with the stated purpose of being vegetarian as soon as they are able. Some see that logic requires veganism.

What is unsustainable can't be sustained. The elephant in the green room is population. At last, articles on the unsustainability of population growth are starting the be a feature in the mainstream media. It's either less meat or less sex. Which will humans choose?

[Susan C.]

In your last bullet point you quote Gold, who, because of the way his words are put together, almost sounds as if he is saying, "Vegetarianism used to be popular, but the tide is turning. Eating "humane" meat is better for your health, for the animals, and for the environment, than vegetarianism." Now, I realize this is a misreading, but it seems to me a revealing and useful one.

There is also an odd sexual undertone to the whole passage. The article mentions diners grabbing buns; people reaching and grabbing waiters and getting as much as they want, shameless meat lovers, bison tongue, bull's penis, 31 meats in 31 days... Oh, and the picture of the guy with an entire pig's body slung across his own? So sexy. What was that about a "nose-to-tail approach"?

This makes me think that many vegetarians are closet-carnivores coming out of hiding, now that animal welfare is condoning "humane" treatment of non-human animals. Vegan animal rights would never fall for such fluff.

[Bea Elliott]

I found the article amusing in that there was an under-tone of "if we say it's so, it is"..... If anything I'm meeting more vegans/vegetarians than ever before - Thirty years ago I was quite alone in my beliefs and my plant based diet - now, seems like many have either changed their eating habits or are seriously considering it.

Veganism has so many valid points - I think it's beginning to shake the under pinnings of the carnivore culture. Awareness and information will continue to disclose it's health & environmental impacts. And all but the resisting neanderthals recognize that killing animals for "food" is not 21st century and not "PC". At least in their hearts I think they know it -it's a matter of (short) time before they fully awaken to these truths.