I’ve heard cow tongue can be a delicacy but I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean on the first date.
“Mom?” My freshly bathed son snuggled into my lap as we read through Moo Moo Brown Cow with Jelly Bean before bedtime.
“Yes, honey?” I answered, prepared for one of his silly existential questions he likes to pose right before lights out. (“If I had a googleplex of licorice would you make me share it with my brothers?”)
His big sweet brown eyes looked up at me through those long lashes he got from my husband. Laying one little hand on my cheek he asked, “Do baby cows taste as delicious as mommy cows?”
Cough, choke, splutter. My baby wants veal?!? All this time I thought he loved Brown Cow because of the snuggly baby animals and the cute way I sing the text (I do a very fancy trill on the last “No kittens, no kittens, but many many friends!”) but apparently he was reading it as a cookbook. I panicked – you do realize there is a goose in that book, right? How am I supposed to explain Foie Gras to a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old?? But in the end, what could I say? The boy has always loved his meat. He once ate five bratwursts at friend’s birthday party; he called them “meat sticks” and carried one in each fist, alternating bites. That would be another thing he got from my husband – I was a vegetarian then.
My history with meat and with dead cow specifically has been long and tumultuous. I was a vegetarian for years, then a vegan, then I realized one day that for my health I did need to eat some meat. Then I went on a meat bender for a few months. I’ve tried the Primal Blueprint which has you eat meat at essentially every meal. I investigated Gary Taubes‘ (of Good Calories Bad Calories) claim that one could eat nothing but meat – yes you read that right, no fruits and veggies necessary – and be perfectly healthy. And then I embraced Intuitive Eating which may have ended up teaching me more about what meat eating means for my body than I learned from 100 books.
And I’m not the only confused person out there. These days it takes much less than a children’s book though to bring out people’s mixed feelings about meat. There are two main controversies surrounding red meat: Is it healthy? Is it humane?
Is Eating Red Meat Bad For You?
One of the things I’m lamenting about leaving behind in Minnesota is Farmer Bob, my dealer for all that amazing grass-fed, grass-finished, pastured, kissed-by-angels beef we got from a local farmer – seriously that stuff was so amazing I didn’t even bother seasoning it when I cooked it. So I asked a new acquaintance here if she knew of a local farmer where I could get my next beef hit. She gave me a funny look and said, “Ew, no! I don’t eat red meat. It’s so bad for you!
But is it?
For years the advice given us from everyone from our doctors to the government to celebrities was to “eat lean meats” like the perennial favorite, the Almighty Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast. (See what I did there? I proper-noun’ed it!) We were told by our doctors to avoid red meat especially because of the “artery clogging saturated fat” and told that if we must eat it then to stick to the leanest cuts we could find. Indeed it seemed that the research backed up this position with studies linking red meat consumption to higher incidences of cancer and heart disease. A report issued by the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research concluded, “red and processed meat increases the risk for colorectal cancer, and the evidence that foods containing fiber offer protection against the disease has become stronger.” CNN.com in reporting a different study, declared definitively, “Want to live longer? Cut back on red meat.” It became one of those nutritional facts that everyone just “knows.”
But when you really look into the research that knowledge becomes a lot less sure. The main problem is that most studies are looking at people who eat factory-farmed animals whose meat has an entirely different nutritional profile than cows raised as they were meant to be. Conventionally raised cows are fed a diet of grains, sugar (seriously), and a melange of other things that can include beef blood, chicken feathers and even arsenic. They are also injected with hormones and antibiotics to help speed their growth and for infections brought on by crowded, unsanitary conditions.
However, left to their own devices cows prefer to eat grasses and roam Home On The Range style (no word yet on if the deer and the antelope want to play today – I hear they’re under investigation for becoming rowdy neighbors now that we’ve killed off the wolves that used to shut down their redneck parties.) The end result is a meat that is naturally “lower in fat, calories, and omega-6 fatty acids linked to heart disease. It’s also higher in vitamin E and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. (But not that high: You’ll get two to five times more omega-3 fatty acids from grass-fed beef than regular beef, but you’ll get 5,000 percent more from salmon.)” It also contains more CLA, a known cancer-fighter. The research supports that people who eat grass-fed beef get less cancer and have lower blood pressure and better lipid profiles than people who don’t.
The second issue with a lot of these studies is that they don’t differentiate between processed and unprocessed meats. Nitrates and nitrites among other preservatives commonly used in hot dogs, sausage, bacon and lunch meat have been linked to cancer but when you look at beef that has been naturally cured the link between cancer and red meat disappears again and it even reduces your risk of diabetes.
The third issue is that the link between saturated fat and heart disease has not held up under scientific scrutiny. I’ll give you a few minutes for that to sink in. I wrote about this before when I shared how I learned to embrace eating fat (all kinds of fat except man-made ones!) and how it increased my health but saturated fats are not the villains we’ve been taught to believe. A lot of that advice was based on Ancel Key’s 7 Countries Studies – a great body of research but his conclusions didn’t account for some important variables. Mark’s Daily Apple debunks this one more thoroughly and intelligently than I ever could.
A third consideration that I found buried in the studies is that ancient populations like the Inuit and Masai who subsisted almost entirely on meat, prized the fatty organ meat and often discarded the leaner muscle meat – which is exactly the opposite of how we eat it. Unless you’re a zombie (the apocalypse is here!) you likely have never eaten braiiinnnnnssss. When I asked on FaceBook and Twitter the best way to cook liver, the majority of cheeky answers said “Remove from fridge, throw directly in garbage.” (And no Naomi, I still haven’t had the guts – ha! – to try your liver recipe yet. But I’m going to, I promise!!)
My Personal Conclusion
It appears to me (remember I’m no expert in this, just a neurotic speed reading overthinker) that it is the type of red meat you eat that makes the difference to your health. Indeed it seems that eating some grass-fed beef, especially the offal (organ meats), can provide a wide range of important health benefits that are difficult to get from other food sources. I eat it. Not every day. I love it.
Is Eating Red Meat Humane?
From here on out I’m only taking of my sweatshirt by sliding it down over my hips.
Remember when Mark Zuckerberg (creator of Facebook for any of you that aren’t geeks or Justin Timberlake fans – although there is a surprising overlap between the two groups. Venn diagram anyone??) announced that he will only eat meat that he has killed by his own hand? He says,
“My personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat. I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have. This year I’ve basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I’m eating is from animals I’ve killed myself. So far, this has been a good experience. I’m eating a lot healthier foods and I’ve learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals. I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house. A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn’t want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don’t have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from.”
Zuckerberg also makes it a point to eat all parts of the animal including the organs and even used chicken feet to make stock.
Have you ever killed an animal that you then ate? Other than a few fish as a kid, I haven’t. Honestly I don’t know if I could. I remember my dad deciding one day that he wanted to hunt a deer, kill it, skin it and butcher it (my dad’s big on survival skills). He was successful – a fact I discovered when I came face to face with the dead animal hanging by its feet under our deck as I tried to sneak in past curfew late one night (saying I screamed like a girl does not do justice to that scream. or girls.) – and it took us an entire year to eat all that venison which he insisted we do because it would be inhumane to kill an animal for sport and not nutrition. This is the house I grew up in.
You know who has killed a cow? Gym Buddy Krista. And not with her car, either. (I’m telling you, this girl has got stories. And they’d come out at the most random times in the gym.) As a practicing Muslim, she can only eat “halal” meat which means it must be slaughtered in a particular way with specific prayers. “Ḏabīḥah (ذَبِيْحَة) is the prescribed method of slaughtering all animals excluding fish and most sea-life per Islamic law. This method of slaughtering animals consists of using a well sharpened knife to make a swift, deep incision that cuts the front of the throat, the carotid artery, wind pipe and jugular veins but leaves the spinal cord intact.” You catch all that? Big knife, throat slitting, lots of blood – and she’s done it. When I looked like I might faint she told me to stop being such a baby. And I think she’s right. While it sounds awful, I think that it is a powerful way to connect people with what they are eating. Most of us who eat meat like to pretend it magically appears on store shelves in shrink-wrapped irradiated (there’s another issue for another day) packages. But every time we have “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner!” or “Pork, the other white meat!” or even “Chicken, we don’t need no slogan ’cause we make tasty nuggets!” we are, in effect, causing the death of another living being.
I take that very seriously. Even after examining all the health issues and research, this still weighs heavily on me. I know some of you are going to think I’m nutty (not that you need another reason) but for me when I decided to eat meat again, I also decided to stay as connected to the animal as possible. I’m not going to go slaughter my own cow – Krista, I’m getting pale again – but I can say a prayer of thanksgiving both to the animal who gave up its life for me and to the God who made it (the same God who notes the fall of every sparrow is surely going to miss something as obnoxiously flatulent as a cow). It also means that it’s very important to me to find a farmer who cares about his animals and raises them in ways where they thrive, even if I have to pay more for it and drive home with a minivan stuffed full of bloody cardboard boxes like the dumbest serial killer ever. (Although price wise I’ve found it pretty economical when I buy 1/4 of a cow at a time.) Farmer Bob always kind thought I was unbalanced but I always asked him how the cow was doing, what it weighed, if it was happy and if it had a name. (For the record, he does not name his cattle.)
Hippy-dippy feelings aside, a lot of people are very concerned about the economic and environmental impact of raising animals for food and rightly so. Animals, but beef especially, are very inefficient food sources and therefore take a lot of natural resources like water and grain that could be used to help a huge number of hungry and thirsty people. In a world where millions, including 15 million children, die of starvation every year it seems we should be focusing more of our attentions on how to best raise enough food and the most efficient ways to get it to where it needs to be. (Often, sadly, the issue isn’t so much a shortage of food but an issue of politics and logistics that keeps the available food out of needy mouths.) The environmental cost is also large. Pasturing cows is awesome as I pointed out yesterday but just like conventionally raised cattle, they take up a lot of land, contaminate water sources and – I swear I’m not making this up – cow farts (methane) account for 18% of global warming. In addition we accrue environmental costs in the methods we use to farm animals, butcher them and transport them not to mention the antibiotic resistances that we’ve introduced by injecting our food sources with antibiotics.
My Personal Conclusion
These reasons are exactly why I will never ever tell someone they “should” or “need to” eat meat. The larger ethical questions of whether it is humane to eat meat and whether it is acceptable to do that kind of damage to the environment will have to be answered by each person in their own way but for me I need to eat some meat. And I will do it in the kindest, cleanest way that I can. It’s an uneasy compromise.
And just in case you don’t think fish are cute enough to warrant existential angst, check out this adorable vid of a toddler catching his first fish. (He names the fishy “Free” because he’s “beautiful” and then asks his dad “Does it like me?” The father wisely does not answer, “Well you put a hook through his mouth and are now suffocating him with air so he probably hates your guts right now.” because that would not have been adorable.)
Do you eat red meat? Is there any particular meat or meat dish you avoid? Have you ever killed an animal? Do moral/ethical concerns change the way you eat?
Well, personally, I don’t think you HAVE to eat meat to be healthy. I do think you CAN eat meat and be healthy, though I tend to believe that all foods are better if you get the version with fewer chemicals, hormones, and processing. And frankly, meat raised and butchered by farmer Bob and his band of angels is more humane (and a more sustainable practice) than the way it’s done on big factory farms. Of course, it’s more costly so not always an option for everyone. I guess ultimately I think the best way to go health-wise is what works for your body, and the ethical part is what you can live with.
If you’re looking for good angel beef, do you have a good local co-op there? The one here is all about organic and local. They might have some of what you’re looking for and be able to help you find a farmer.
I eat red meat occasionally when I really crave it or someone else has cooked it. I couldn’t have made it through pregnancy without it though. I got so anaemic and it was a huge help. I agree you don’t have to eat it to be healthy but including it in your diet, especially the way you do, it can be a healthy addition.
I think that to be healthy, you have to eat a balanced diet that includes a good ratio of protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals and you have a lot of sources to choose from to get all of those nutrients. I also think that different people can, to some extend benefit from a different balance of those nutrients and that at different times in your life, you might need a different balance. (This is my way of saying that while Atkins/Paleo is probably great for some people, I’d whither and die if I tried to eat like that.)
I think that healthy forms of red meat (as opposed to factory farmed) are expensive so I choose to eat them rarely, if ever. (Partially because I am pretty lost when it comes to cooking steak at the best of times.) Personal taste compels me to get a lot, but not all, of my protein and fat from non-animal sources.
That being said, I ate some flank steak last night, mainly b/c I’m pregnant and trying to up my iron intake b/c I’ve been feeling tired lately. And I think veal is delicious.
🙂
I could write a long comment on this if I let myself get going, but I’ll try to keep it short. I agree with Zuckerberg (never thought I’d hear myself say that); not that I’m about to go out and slaughter an animal, but I do think we should be aware of where our food come from, and we should be respectful of the animals that are giving their lives.
I don’t love meat, red meat in particular. It is a personal food preference; I just don’t really understand why anyone would get excited by a steak or roast beef dinner. Not to say I don’t enjoy dishes with meat in them, but that’s generally to do with all the extra stuff that has been added.
And, I do have ethical concerns about it. It bothers me a lot to think about killing animals to eat when I feel like there’s lots of other things I could eat. I’m not vegetarian – you could say that the reasons are complicated, or you could say that I’m just too lazy or not willing to take a stand, I don’t know – but I do try to limit how much meat I eat (I try to do vegetarian until 6, and if Husband is away on business I’m likely to be vegetarian most of the time). I also think some people eat more meat than they need to. But. It’s not my place to tell others what to do, so I just try to do the best I can for myself.
I do also agree with trying to find sources of ethically raised meat. Husband and I have talked about it, and when we can eventually make the space for a deep freeze, we will definitely look into it.
Yep, that’s me keeping it short.
As a kid growing up on a farm in western Wisconsin, we were not allowed to name animals destined for the table….we did name the animals that we raised as part of 4H (FFA) because we showed those animals and generally sold them after getting our ribbons. And coming from a family who lived on what was grown or hunted, I can eat the meat if someone else kills it, just not if I do…and that includes fish. I suppose if it was a matter of survival I would ‘get over it’, but I know from past experience that I just can’t eat what I kill. And yes, I eat red meat…net every day, but when I crave it I will. Some meals are vegetarian, some are not…I guess that would be in line with the intuitive eating thing, did not realize that until I wrote it 🙂
The only bits I don’t like are heart and tripe. I eat red meat every day and I’m picky about where it comes from. Meat from special breeds raised on family farms, slaughtered older and with minimum stress really does taste a lot better and I’m quite happy to pay more money for it. I’ve never killed an animal but if I had to I suppose I would. In the meantime I’m happy to let the experts do it for me.
I have eaten brains, by the way. And tails, ears, cheeks, feet, kidney and liver. I plan to roast a whole pig’s head soon. Yum!
Ahhh, the meat debate. I’ve given up trying to discern this study from that, since for every pro there is a con and an equal number of studies with the two opposing conclusions (sweet science, why have you forsaken us?) I eat red meat. Not a lot, but I do eat it. When I do, I try to make it the “ethical” meat (whatever that means for you), but where I still get hung up is on the environmental side, not the nutritional. I’m fairly convinced that red meat isn’t going to kill you (provided you eat the good stuff) but is “ethical” and “environmentally sustainable” meat possible?
Luckily, I’ve never been a huge red meat eater, so I don’t think about it much. I also don’t mind splurging on it when I do it, since it is so rare an occurance. I’m making Applegate Farms hot dogs tonight, in fact, for a birthday BBQ. Throw back to growing up!!
Just yesterday I discovered that I’m a Natural Born Killer. I volunteered to help with chicken processing at a small nearby farm. Drop ’em into a killing cone, slit their throats, let them bleed out, scald and remove the feathers, then eviscerate. After trying out all the steps, it turns out I’m best at getting the chickens calmly into the killing cones and slitting their throats. Out of the 50 chickens that we processed, I killed about 30 of them. I have new respect for the amount of work that goes into every single chicken I eat. It took six of us about 5 hours to finish.
Thank you for this thoughtful, even-handed post on something that can be quite a sensitive issue for many people. I choose not to eat meat (I’ve been a vegetarian for over 10 years now) and I’ve realized that people on both sides of the issue can get crazy when it comes to meat-eating! Last weekend a friend’s father accused me of “infringing on [his] right to free speech” because I told him that some people might be offended by his bragging about slaughtering animals. My policy is “I won’t harass you about your diet if you don’t harass me about mine.” I’m a vegetarian for a combination of reasons (most of the ones you described above- health, ethical, concern for the environment) but I don’t necessarily have a problem with others eating meat as long as they actually consider what it is they’re doing (as you clearly have).
This has been a subject close to my heart ever since I did a college term project on factory farming. It really is amazing how disconnected we are from something we do every day. It’s also sad that we can find so little real information unless we develop relationships with farmers. I do eat meat, but I try to eat higher-quality, locally- and ethically-produced meat, which does mean that I eat it less often and that I try to avoid ordering it in restaurants. Someone I respect once said (about a different issue) that he couldn’t ask somebody else to do something that he morally felt he couldn’t do himself. That has stuck with me, and I do feel that I should be able to slaughter an animal if I am asking others to do it for me. I have yet to “walk the walk,” though. Thanks for such a thoughtful post!
Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms wrote a great book called Folks, This Ain’t Normal that talks about how farming the way farming was meant to work (i.e. NOT industrialized mono-crops and giant feedlots) is the way to heal the earth, the climate, our health, etc. There’s also a TED talk by Allan Savory called “How to fight desertification and reverse climate change” that advocates many of the same ideas:
http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html
Definitely food for thought!
I was JUST about to post about this TED talk and book! Laura, we should be friends – both of those are two of my favorite resources. Charlotte, definitely check these out – they’re totally illuminating. As for me, I only buy grass-fed, local beef from my friends Kym and Geoff, who are beef farmers. Though I never have, I would absolutely slaughter an animal, even though it would be tremendously hard. They have to sacrifice their lives for my sustenance, so why shouldn’t I have to sacrifice my comfort?
I was a responsible and balanced vegetarian for 5 years, and had such low iron that the doctor was surprised I could climb stairs. Some people are amazingly adept at being vegetarian, others, like me, survive better on an animal protein-based diet. I used to have tremendous mood-swings, mental fog, anxiety, bloating, fatigue, snappiness, you name it. Once I introduced meat and animal fat back into my life in a big way, I am a happy, vivacious, and joyful person.
I do believe there is a fully sustainable way to raise beef, and I don’t think the word organic has anything to do with it. The transport of animals in refrigerated trucks, plus the incredible amounts of petrol required to transport in grain and truck out manure contributes a tremendous amount of CO2 and greenhouse gasses to the environment. I choose to spend my hard-earned money not on going out to eat or on fancy clothing, but on supporting local, grass-fed cattle and the graziers that raise them. I know the name of the cuts of cow that is in my freezer – it’s name was Horny, which is weird but who am I to judge – and the graziers, my friends, have been to my house for dinner. It’s worth every cent, and tastes phenomenal to boot.
I have a very protein-heavy diet, so I eat a lot of meat. To bring up the obvious joke, I am the one who “for any animal you don’t eat, I’ll eat two” just because that’s how meaty my meals are. 😛 I don’t outright diss anyone who is vegetarian for moral reasons, but I came to my own conclusion as such:
I like meat. I will not stop liking meat. There are hundreds or more of moral causes I could be supporting, that warrant time and money and effort, and in my life I will have to choose which ones I will throw my weight behind. I can’t support all of them; then I will do nothing and spread myself too thin.
So I kicked the whole “animal defense” thing. I hate battery farming; I think modern slaughterhouses are horrible to their animals; it all sucks. But I am not willing to be price-gouged and I’m not willing to give up meat, and I bring home a paycheck that I have to spend on food, so until organic/grass-fed/cage-free/whatever becomes viable, they’re just not getting my money. I can’t do it. I will not buy all my meat at Whole Foods because I eat so much meat that this will be a big hit on my wallet. (Granted, their meat is delicious, but my local supermarket has sales on steak.) If I’m going to eat grass-fed, grass-fed better be affordable.
I have no objection to killing an animal to eat it. I shot a squirrel and fried it up for dinner; I’ve caught loads of fish and cooked them; I made it a point in my life that if I was going to eat meat, I better be okay with the process, because I think I owe it to the animals to be able to see their deaths if I am going to take advantage of them. I’m not sure if I could knife a cow in the throat unless I was starving or something, but I like to think that I would at least be able to watch. (I can certainly shoot a cow. But something about slashing makes me think ‘slow death’ and makes me twitch.)
Anyway, I guess maybe it’s weird, but the moral thing I’ve done now is to try to be okay with the principle of this. I would be a hypocrite if I bit into a juicy steak but couldn’t actually watch the cow die for it. If I’m going to pick the Wrong Option (to some), I should at least go all the way with it. One day I do want to go out and hunt for deer or some such, just so I can feel like I am legitimately capable of doing the deed myself.
I can fillet a fish and I have no issues with meat. My husband, if left to his own devices, would likely be a vegetarian since ha can’t look at or handle raw meat, but I don’t mind as a means to an end. I do avoid liver (and kidney/other organs too) since I find them to be foul texture wise, but for me, if the animal was raised ethically I’ll eat it. Organic farming can actually be harsher on an animal, since an animal may get ill and need some medicine, but most free range ethical farmers raise and treat their animals well…and I am happy to eat them. I admit I’d like to know how to butcher an animal, just in case I’d have to if the world ended, but mostly I’m happy to buy locally and let the butcher do it and take it home to enjoy. I’ve been starting to make my own burgers and may try my hand at sausages soon… muahaha
Charlotte, I don’t know what’s local around you, but you could try the following sites:
http://www.grasslandbeef.com/StoreFront.bok – US Wellness, kind of pricy, but have a large variety.
http://www.grassfedbeef.org/ – Tendergrass Farms, a conglomeration of several independent farmers (including Joel Salatin), and I don’t think there’s a minimum order.
As for the rest, I really appreciate the balanced nature of this. I had a similar experience to you in that I was vegetarian and ended up pretty sick. Added the meat back in and ta-da! Not sick! So I know I do need to eat some meat.
For a long time, I swung the other way, believing that vegan diets especially were not healthy for anyone, ever. (Not out of blind ignorance – as you mention, there are a ton of studies that say it’s not – just like there are a ton of studies that say it IS.) And over the last few months I’ve FINALLY started to really internalize that, hey, PEOPLE ARE DIFFERENT. So a vegan diet might be great for some people, vegetarian for others, and all-meat-all-the-time for still others. (I will say that I still think that the more extreme the diet, the more likely it’s only good for a handful of outliers – all-meat-and-nothing-else probably works for as many people as vegan-without-grain-or-soy.)
Anyway. That’s my long-winded way of saying that you’re awesome, Charlotte. Thanks for writing about this kind of sensitive stuff with insight and balance. 🙂
I eat read meat several times a week and love every bite. I used to be vegan but it just didn’t work for me and I feel 1000 times better with meat, especially red meat in my diet. However, I try to eat responsibly sourced meat and we are looking at purchasing a 1/4 cow from a local farmer so we can have grass fed beef.
We eat meat nearly every day, be it bacon with breakfast or ribs for dinner. I try to go with wild/pastured versions whenever I can. And if that version is way too expensive, I consider how crappy the lives of the conventionally raised version must be and avoid it. Beyond that, I try not to worry about it because what would be the point. Having to think any more about my food turns me into a defeatist. 😉
I grew up mostly eating meat that other family members killed. My father, grandfather, and uncles all hunted, and we kids watched when the animals were brought home and butchered. When we visited my grandparents’ farm, we kids chased down a chicken, and then watched while my mom killed and eviscerated it (she also explained all the innards in great deal because she is a nurse). Beef was bought 1/2 a cow at a time, raised and butchered by my dad’s cousin. My aunt had a small egg operation and we got all our eggs from her. Once I came to an odd smell in the kitchen and asked my mom what she was cooking for dinner. She replied, “Beef,” then discovered that what she thought was a roast was actually a big chunk of moose that my dad had thrown into the freezer. I don’t think I had a store-bought chicken until I left home at 18. I grew up knowing where my meat came from and how the animal had died.
Having said all that, I’m now a vegetarian (sometimes a vegan or pescetarian–I willingly fall off the wagon for freshly caught salmon), mostly for ethical reasons, though I have no desire to eat meat and don’t miss it.
I eat the red meat my grandfather raises on his acreage. The whole family pitches in to buy the calves and we split quarters in December as a sort of Christmas tradition. I seem to be the only one who wants the bones and organs, so my quarter ends up extra heavy.
There’s nothing I won’t eat, though I haven’t had the opportunity to eat brains (damned BSE scare) or sweetbreads. Gotta try those someday though.
I have killed my own meat animals, hunting family in northern Canada means venison, quail, prairie chicken and ground squirrel. I think Dad was joking on the ground squirrel, but I ate it anyway.
I don’t think it’s morals and ethics so much as the better flavour that causes me to seek our well-raised animals when I have to buy off of non-family. Chicken that has been running around in a field and eating crickets just makes a better roast.
Hi, I’m a lurker here, but thought i’d respond. I grew up on a farm and my sister and I showed beef cattle in 4-H for years. It really changes your perspective on food when you raise the animal, feed it, wash it, and show it. Unless you only raise dairy cattle, you know that it is going to become someone’s dinner. I entered the carcass competition one year. You show the animal (alive) and it is judged and ranked, then all the animals in the contest are butchered (10-12 animals) and the carcasses are judged. You get to see your animal then as meat, as an actual side of beef in a meat cooler hanging from the ceiling. It was….different. We always sold our animals; we raised beef cattle, that is, for eating. We knew what was happening to them. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was a little “in your face” for me.
I still get all my beef from my parents farm. When we run out, i will get hamburger from Whole Foods. I like grass-fed beef. It tastes better to me. I also like knowing how my food is treated and how it was raised. We also hunted for deer or geese some as I was growing up.
Could I go out and butcher my own cow or deer? Do I have enough knowledge? probably. Will I do so? Not unless the zombie apocalypse comes. I’m not especially squeamish, but the city really disapproves of people butchering animals on their front lawn (or their back lawn for that matter). I’ll leave that to specialists. I think they would also frown on me keeping a cow in my garage, but I’ll have to check the ordinances on that.
That is really what our food supply has become. Specialists that raise one crop and sell it. My grandparents raised chickens, sheep, cattle and pigs for food and to sell. Gradually they specialized, and now my parents and my generation raise cattle. It’s the same with our vegetable crops too. Living in a large city now, I see how far removed people are from where their food comes from. There are people here who have probably never grown a tomato, much less seen an actual cow. That worries me when people with that background try to dictate how our food is produced.
That being said, I do eat vegetarian meals several times a week, and one thing I will not eat EVER is beef tongue. Otherwise I do try to honor the animals and not be wasteful.
We eat all types of meat and fish. Actually, we buy 1/2 side of beef every year from a friends of ours who raises cows.
The only animals I’ve ever killed were for my vertebrate biology class – rats and stuff for our collection!!! Oh, and I killed a rattlesnake once!
I just don’t like it. And now that I’m a grownup, I don’t hafta eat it if I don’t wanna, neener neener neener!
It is SUCH a personal decision, and I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone else whether to eat it or not. I do, however, wish for more humane conditions for ALL farm animals. (And I refuse to eat foie gras after seeing a video of geese being force fed. It breaks my heart whenever I think about it.)
Again, it’s my decision, made only for myself.
I grew up on a hobby farm where all the animals had names, my dad and siblings hunted and my siblings raised cattle for 4H. I remember once when my dad had butchered a cow named Lucky and when he was served my siblings all joked that maybe he wasn’t so lucky after all.
I’ve been a vegetarian for 16 years now.
My husband and kids eat meat and I’m fine with that although I don’t cook it for them. I don’t mind that my husband hunts and fishes when he gets the chance, but I completely expect him to eat what he kills. My nieces and nephews all hunt and it was a huge deal when one of my nephews killed his first deer last season. I think hunting just for sport is wrong. But I’m fine with people hunting for food. I’m also fine with people buying meat at the grocery store for food.
If the zombie apocalypse happens, I won’t last long. Mostly because I think the zombies would sense that I’m grain fed. But also because I know I couldn’t kill something to eat it myself.
I’m sorry, Charlotte, I thought it was just me, but perhaps it’s not. The first two links (need for meet and Gary Taubes) that I’m dying to click since yesterday don’t work for me, they just pop up “page not found error” (with text You 404’d it. Gnarly, dude.). For some weird reason the search does not yield any results either. I don’t remember those posts even though I’ve read everything on this page (my memory is not great, I know) and I really want to read or reread them. Do they work for everyone else?
This is a truly a wonderful post! So well thought out and researched. I do not eat red meat and my other meat choices are limited. While this has worked out for me weight and health wise it is purely based on preference. I don’t like red meat at all and don’t generally like other meats. I prefer and crave fruits and vegetables so that makes up most of my diet.
I do love in a farming community and can look out my kitchen window at the cows. So I do sometimes feel bad for them and get grossed out when I watch my fave vegan movie s. Luckily most of the cows around here are for dairy so I just try to pretend that’s what they are all for.
I don’t eat red meat. Became a vegetarian as a young teen, added salmon and the very occasional other seafood back in middle age. The exceptions I made were after becoming anemic through a difficult childbirth- I bought some extra-lean humanely raised beef at my food co-op to get my iron back up so I could have more strength to take care of my newborn- and in the last month of my other pregnancies. You’ve done a very good, thoughtful job in this post and I’m impressed that you included both animal welfare and global warming as concerns. It complicates life to be so thoughtful, doesn’t it? The Harvard School of Public Health Study article was a good one. I did note in that article that all cured meat was considered to be a health risk. That would include all bacon and sausage for example: “Processed meat was defined as any meat preserved by smoking, curing or salting, or with the addition of chemical preservatives; examples include bacon, salami, sausages, hot dogs or processed deli or luncheon meats.”
I do personally eat red meat as like you I find it suits my body to eat some. Another argument people often pose against red meat is that it is acid forming in our body but I try and balance it out with plenty of alkalizing vegetables.
I watched an interesting program recently regarding the global warming effect of livestock farts. They were investigating different plants to be included in the animals (in this case sheep) diet to reduce the amount of gas produced. They were getting quite a lot of success with some plants!
I’ve been vegetarian for 20+ years so nope no meat here, and I am making the transition to vegan. I don’t think you HAVE to eat meat to be healthy and honestly I am not going to say that veganism is healthier either because both “diets” can be bad exactly for the reasons you state. It depends on the OVERALL diet you have that makes you healthy, not eliminating (or not) certain food groups.
The current farming methods are appalling. I watched earthlings last week and it was the final straw in me making the switch to veganism. I will not be a part of that system that treats animals so cruelly.
The problem as I see it is that people are eating TOO MUCH meat, and of poor quality. This means the ‘farmers’ (can we even call these farmers anymore?) have to cut more corners, make more corn/soy for feed and the animal conditions get worse. There is the quote that “if we had to kill our own animals for food most of us would be vegetarian” or “if slaughter houses had glass walls…” and it’s true, we see the packages in supermarkets and it makes things easier. We don’t see the slaughter, the abuse, mistreatment, the hormones, antibiotics etc
Regarding methane, pasture raised cows produce FAR less of it than the cows fed on corn/soy. It’s their natural diet afterall!
Environmentally small farms can be sustainable, I beleive that. That’s the way it worked for 1000’s of years. The current system is NOT sustainable. Planting corn/soy year after year, robbing the soil of nutrients instead of rotating crops they just add more chemicals to the soil 🙁 This is NOT sustainable. Nor is breeding turkeys that are so pumped with growth hormones they cannot stand. Pigs confined to a crate and continually bred. All this waste has to go somewhere, and in such HUGE amounts… pasture grazing animals dump (hahah) their waste over more widely spread areas.
For me, I’m going vegan. I’m going local/organic for produce where possible. Things have to change and I don’t see it happening in my lifetime! 🙁
I live in a suburb of Denver, and we get our grass-fed beef from some nearby nuns. No, really. It’s the most smugly justified beef I could possibly find. We love it.
I don’t know if they have any available (or will this fall), but if you’re interested, shoot me an email, and I’ll get you connected. (And squeal like a silly fangirl, but you don’t have to know about that part.)
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