Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

rollingstone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 211 posts

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#31

Post by grecy »

A couple of years ago I moved to the Yukon and had the opportunity to go Moose hunting. I really didn't know if I'd be OK with killing such a large animal and "getting down to it" and have found to experience to be quite powerful.

There is a lot of respect for the animal and we treat every square centimeter of edible meat with the utmost care. It's quite a strange sensation to be working so hard (it's extremely heavy and time consuming to field dress such a large animal) but have this feeling that it's the right thing to be doing. Somehow, I know my ancestors have been doing this for tens of thousands of years.

When I cook at home I make certain that every plate is eaten or saved for leftovers. I would never let someone simply scrape that into the trash, as I might have done when buying shrink wrapped meat from Safeway.

It's a highly rewarding and enlightening process which I highly, highly recommend to anyone that eats meat.

UPDATE: I've been putting the finishing touches on a blog entry about this experience and photos from my first moose hunting trip.... I'll try to have it done later today, the post will be at the top of http://theroadchoseme.com when it's done.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#32

Post by MartinCron »

nimble wrote: post #10

I think its unfortunate that opposition to torturing animals is often lumped in with opposition to merely killing animals.

I agree entirely. I was particularly taken by an interview I heard (NPR probably, was years ago) about a rancher who raises high-end free-range veal.

He said that these cows have exactly one bad day in their lives, as they spend their entire lives with their mothers in grassy pastures.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#33

Post by epochwolf »

asciimo wrote: post #28
nimble wrote: post #10

I think its unfortunate that opposition to torturing animals is often lumped in with opposition to merely killing animals.

If we have the right to kill, why don't we have the right to torture?

The very act of torture requires a level of emotional depravity that merely killing does not.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#34

Post by gambiting »

contextual wrote: post #26

If the suffering of animals matters, then eating meat is morally wrong. Animals are non-human persons who are aware of their own existence and who feel a wide range of emotions, just like we do. Killing animals may still be acceptable in western society, but it's wrong. It's wrong just as slavery in the United States in the 18th and 19th century was once acceptable but wrong. Just as hanging, drawing and quartering t…

So is there no middle ground then? Is it a simple case of you can't have one without another?

I believe that you can eat meat, provided that animals live in a decent,stress-free environment. I know it's very hard to find meat that carries any sort of a guarantee on it,but at least here in EU "free range" and "organic" mean something that is legally enforceable, so every time I buy chicken/beef/pork that is organic I hope that these animals were kept in good conditions.

I do feel sorry for the American readers,for whom the meat industry is just a massive black box with no way of finding out what is going on - and I genuinely believe that if I lived in America, I would have stopped eating meat too,for that very reason.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#35

Post by MartinCron »

codex_irl wrote: post #29

ugh...this is the reason I have not eaten poultry for the last 10 years, except when I am back in Ireland where I can buy organic, free-range chicken from a farmer....it might cost $27 a pop, but as my grandma says....it tastes & has the texture of what chicken used to be like. I used to love bacon / pork, but cannot eat that stuff anymore after reading about how toxins are formed / retained in the meat. The only bee…

You can get good poultry in the US if you go out of your way for it and are willing to pay for it. Even if you leave ethics out of it, the taste and texture difference between a $17 chicken and an $8 chicken is pretty huge.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#36

Post by MartinCron »

asciimo wrote: post #28
nimble wrote: post #10

I think its unfortunate that opposition to torturing animals is often lumped in with opposition to merely killing animals.

If we have the right to kill, why don't we have the right to torture?

That's easy.

They are different things that inflict a different amount of suffering and distress on a creature capable of feeling suffering and distress.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#38

Post by iambateman »

"If you’re a broiler chicken... you weigh at least double what you would in the wild, but lack the muscle even to waddle, let alone fly."

So...yeah chickens don't fly.

Otherwise this article is good. There's a lot to be said for responsible consumption.

Re: The Price We Pay for Cheap Meat

#39

Post by timjahn »

contextual wrote: post #26

If the suffering of animals matters, then eating meat is morally wrong. Animals are non-human persons who are aware of their own existence and who feel a wide range of emotions, just like we do. Killing animals may still be acceptable in western society, but it's wrong. It's wrong just as slavery in the United States in the 18th and 19th century was once acceptable but wrong. Just as hanging, drawing and quartering t…

Where does the food chain fit in? The idea of certain species and groups of animals being higher and lower on the food chain than others.

Do we just ignore that? Genuinely curious.

Post reply on HN