After the presentation by Laura in class and reading the article by Wendell Berry on the Pleasures of eating I felt it was necessary to address this issue from a more rural point of view. The Article as well as the presentation, and class discussion the philosophical point was that people should eat responsibly and I definitely have no disagreements to this but I feel like it’s not just eating but living responsibly.
I am going to start with confessions from my eating habits and my credentials when it comes to eating. First of all, I believe I am in the minority of our class that will confess that I am not a vegetarian, nor have I ever been a vegetarian; however, MEAT DOES SCARE ME. As much as Berry emphasizes preparing your own food, (which I do) I have a hard time handling raw meat. The texture color, blood and the like kind of grosses me out. Mom says I will be a vegetarian one day but I doubt it. I plan to continue to overcome my aversion of meat handling. I usually don’t eat red meat when I go out to eat out of fear of food poisoning but recent research from knowledgeable people have educated me about the safety of eating red meat in public restaraunts.
My small tidbit of information I didn’t know before. I always order any type of red meat well done because I am fearful of food poisoning. A friend well versed in the industry informed me that the inside of a steak has never been exposed to oxygen thus, it cant have been tainted from bacteria making it safe to order your steak rare. But in regards to hamburger meat, never trust a place that asks you how you want your hamburger cooked. It has all been exposed to oxygen, thus they should all be cooked well done. Now moving on to philosophy.
First I want to share some observations that I have made with no intention of passing judgement. I will be discussing my observations of two separate groups: My hometown, population 1,011 and our philosophy class. Population 18(or so). My Hometown goes by the name of O’Donnell and is located in west Texas. Most all people that live there are farmers, mostly cotton, or Ranchers. That isn’t everyone, we have teachers that teach at the school district and few bankers, one postmaster and a few people who work at the two restaurants in town. All kids are raised around agriculture with most of them participating in Stock shows and FFA. Stock show is where students raise steers, pigs, lambs, goats and chickens. I might add they are fed often, cleaned, clipped and exercised to put them in the best show shape. After their last show, they are sent to the truck, which means they are to be slaughtered. People in my area, I would say are very knowledgeable about animals. Agriculture and horticulture are all they know. I grew up in that town my whole life, I would say I know everyone there and I have only ever met one girl who transferred in who is a vegetarian. Guesstimation ratio non-veg to vegetarians: 1,010/1.
In our class, we are comprised of 18 or so students, they are all intelligent, very educated honors students. From what I know, (and I have made observations and asked questions) none of these students have agricultural backgrounds but have watched videos and read articles about animals and their treatment and our of those 18 people there are at least 5 vegetarians. I find this a very interesting statistic.
In the article and in class we discussed lying a lot. Is it morale? When is ok to lie? And the discussion of Pork providers lying. I feel like this is a necessary to discuss. In the video we saw a mistreatment of animals. There is no argument that it happens, that companies try to lie about it and cover it up. In my view, lying about this is wrong. I will discuss my philosophy on lying and then discuss why what these companies do is morally wrong from my point of view.
Once again we are going to start with the basis of my moral compass: The Bible.
The 9th commandment states : Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
In class I started to wonder well, what exactly does it mean? How do I interpret that. I looked it up online and the most easily comprehended and complete analysis can from Wikipedia. Every group of people that follows the ten commandments, interprets the commandments differently and each interpretation is listed. I am protestant and this is the interpretation give on the wiki page.
“Requires the maintaining and promoting of truth between people, and of our neighbor’s good name and our own, especially in witness-bearing.
Forbids whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our own, or our neighbor’s, good name.”
This is my basis although Im still unsure where I fall on the Santa Clause issue but I am sure that I believe that companies who hide the way they treat animals is lying and immoral and the things that they are doing are immoral in other ways as well, but does this mean that out of respect for animals, we should stop eating meat?
Now in the article and in class, we discussed the concept of eating responsibly. I have no problems with that philosophy, but my philosophy goes deeper than that and is for the purpose of survival, and my philosophy is to Live Responsibly. In class, the same day we discussed eating responsibly and educating ourselves of where your food is coming from, we also discussed the end of the world. I do not believe that the end of the world is in December of next year but I do believe tough times are coming and that people should be able and capable to live if things become worse and we cannot be dependent on imports, exports and prepackaged food.
What I mean by this is people should be educated on the things they need to know in order to survive. This is how to grow all kinds of food, not just knowing how to check out in the grocery store. That includes fruits, vegetables, grains and animals. Everyone wants humane treatment for animals. Do they even know what a humane death of an animal looks like or how to do it? Someone who has grown up in a large city their entire life makes it improbable. Do they know basic survival skills? Like how to build a fire or tie a knot? All of these skills have faded from our society as it has advanced and I think it’s a very scary thing that the children of this country aren’t learning these things. Instead they learn to use a computer at age 3.
I have discussed previously in a blog my views on animals so if you are unsure on them you can review my previous blogs.
To tie the lying and this industry together, I will state why the lies of some people in the meat industry should not be the basis of vegetarianism. Disclaimer: I hope my views have never come across as anti-vegetarian. I have absolutely not problem with it, but I do have a problem with people making that decision based on limited information. Here is my claim.
There are people that are immoral and lie in every industry. Would you stop voting because many politicians have been exposed of their lies? Then why would you quit eating meat because some of the meat producers have been exposed of their lies? If you like meat, and you don’t feel like its too much effort, step out and find out where you meat is coming from, how the animals are treated, and evaluate whether they violate what you feel like moral responsibility entails.
But if you would like to follow my philosophy, go spend the summer with the Amish or with a family member that lives on or near a farm and learn the basics of survival so that you might be able to be responsible for yourself.
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