11–20 of 45 posts
Because I think it's just meat eater apologism. The issues with eating meat don't change if you do the killing yourself or in an artsy way.
Weird, the second article of this kind I encounter within a day (the other was in German, though). Meat industry submarine? Because I think it's just meat eater apologism. The issues with eating meat don't change if you do the killing yourself or in an artsy way.
"The way I see it, it's not that there's a desire for the blood and gore, but rather we’re hardwired to deal with the blood and gore, and when that innate machinery goes unused – as it does in a postdomestic society – humans are left with a gap, with something missing."
The fact that we're hardwired to crave something does not automatically imply we should do it. This is part of what being human is about. If men crave sex, it doesn't follow that they should rape women lest they are left with a gap or something missing. I used to love eating meat more than most people I know, but stopped eating it years ago since it didn't make any sense to me that for my pleasure a sentient animal should suffer and die. I have no trouble dealing with the gap...
Note that I'm not judgemental about my friends or any other people that eat meat. Life is not black and white - everyone can make their choices and I know vegetarians and vegans who can take morality lessons from meat eaters - but at least we should call a spade a spade. Unless it's crucial for your own survival, I believe eating meat brings more suffering than joy to the world.
Weird, the second article of this kind I encounter within a day (the other was in German, though). Meat industry submarine? Because I think it's just meat eater apologism. The issues with eating meat don't change if you do the killing yourself or in an artsy way.
On one hand, I don't think this is some meat industry propaganda and there probably is a link between the disconnect of meat consumers and the act of butchering to the increase of meat consumption, but I don't agree with the core idea here: "The way I see it, it's not that there's a desire for the blood and gore, but rather we’re hardwired to deal with the blood and gore, and when that innate machinery goes unused –…
Almost all of the meat I cook is raised by someone I know and butchered by myself and/or folks I know. I've never been as satisfied with a piece of meat as I've been since I started participating in the processing. I highly recommend trying it if you know someone who can show you the ropes.
Squirrel is difficult to skin. I'm impressed that she did it with hands and knife alone. Typically we would nail the front feet to a solid post or similarly immobile piece of wood, in order to use both hands on the hide.
You're doing it wrong (I was lucky enough to have someone show me this when I was young [a long, long time ago]).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c8OyexZ10E
I haven't hunted in years. When I was young a friend's mom would fix our squirrels with home-made biscuits and gravy .. good times.
The meat tastes really really good, and is much cheaper than buying it at the store-- For example, my ducks cost less than $4 each to raise, and the whole herd takes about 15 minutes of effort per day. I never thought of duck as 'poor person food' when I was a kid...
Butchering is a huge pain in the ass, but it's fundamentally similar to taking apart computers/machines etc. and doing butchery is a good way to practice your surgical technique, if you have to do that kind of stuff for work or whatever. The downside is that you might start getting hungry whenever you have to cut up rats.
I used to be into squirrels and rabbits-- Truly 'poor person food--' but have gotten increasingly paranoid about disease, as transmissible prion diseases have been 'tentatively reported' in squirrels [0] and tularemia is endemic in rabbits where I live [1].
[0] http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736%...
I've long wanted to learn butchery. I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but it seems a good way to become familiar with how we're all put together (by taking an animal apart.)
I would recommend you start by butchering to pieces a whole chicken or rabbit. They're the closest you can easily get to an unbutchered animal, as they're available at most butcheries, supermarkets, etc. They would already be cleaned of feathers or pelt and emptied of viscera, so it would be a simple exercise of cutting into pieces, separating meat from bones, and so on - literal hacking. If someone who knows how to…
For example, while you are eating a wing, count how many bones each part have and compare it with a (picture of a) human skeleton. Repeat this with a chicken leg and thigh. (Remember to count that thin bone as another bone.)