In one of the meals, she had part of the family visiting her, and she made burgers. While eating, she would ask them, “how do you like George? Isn’t him delicious?”
Even if I disagree with her belief that we need to eat meat to have proteins, that cynicism of talking about the meat you are eating as living beings that once had a life and maybe a particular personality and traits are something that I appreciate.
And, of course, it leads us to the next step: the practice of cannibalism and making sense of it.
When I told this story to some people, the reaction was going from laughing out louder to seriously state that it does not feel comfortable acknowledging that you are eating a being that could be called George, or Nancy, or any other name. But look at these piggies coming to play with my shoes. I pet them, and they are adorable.
Some people say that plants are also beings, and that is true, but when I come across that boysenberries on the road, I can clearly see that they have a lot to give, and I am not taking their lives when I pick some of the fruits. All the ripe fruits not taken will get dry, and others will be born.
I will not make this post long. As I mentioned in the previous post, “I understand if, in the past, out of the desperation of hunger in hard winters, individuals from the northern hemisphere needed to kill animals in order to survive.”
It is also possible that a need created a habit and subsequently an affective memory of how to make the food available look desirable, delicious, memorable. And once it became a culture there are more layers of attachment followed by distorted believes of the need and essentiality of the nutrients available on this kind of food for our survival.
Yet, the farmer got surprised when I said broccoli has proteins, like green bell pepper and other vegetables. And I got surprised to realize that a person with a lot of knowledge about health, nutrients, and the care of animals, garden, orchards, did not know about all sources of protein we can have.
By the way, isn’t it that impressive that big and strong animals like horses and cows only need grass to survive? Ok, we are a different species, but we take far more than what we really need.
There are many reasons to stop eating animals and products coming from animals. First of all, this is compromising the environment. Exploiting the bees, stealing their provision of honey make them work nonstop. It is killing them and we need the bees not only for honey.
Until a certain point, it was ok to use honey for specific purposes, but the whole world changing sugar for honey and wanting it available in big quantities on supermarket shelves is not sustainable and responsible. Try out the syrups made from plants and grains.
You can search for yourself “why we need bees”, the “carbon footprint of food” and all that. Many people already know that eating beef is not good for the environment. On top of that animal industrial farming is bad for health. You eat the milk and derivatives full of hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals. The same with the chicken eggs. Those are not my topics of research, so I generally mention what I know from the people who search and advocate in favor of veganism as a political position.
Most people don’t want to think of it and make a change in their daily life options on that matter.
To change habits is hard, but don’t wait for the industry to change it all for you, we need to be conscious about those things and change the industry.
The first step is to get stuff from local farmers. Whatever you want, or you think you want or need. Then you don’t remain alienated and ignorant about what you are eating and what it represents in terms of care and investment, to say the least.
The next step would be to have individuals or shared gardens for what is possible and exchange with neighbors.
We can live more sustainably and we need each other to make such a plan real.
Sereia Lab Sereianestesia Sereia Psinoe Seiren 