This morning, as I look out the window at a pasture quickly growing full of frolicking lambs, I am feeling very much that it might be wrong to eat meat, and that I might indeed be a very bad person for killing animals for a living.
April 30, 2011
It Might Be Wrong to Eat Meat
Posted by stonybrookfarm under Animal Welfare, Culture, Musings, Nature, Slaughter[10] Comments
April 30, 2011 at 11:45 pm
It might be wrong to eat meat. But it might also be wrong to do a lot of things. We live in a society that is basically violent and exploitative. Our everyday actions feed and sustain something that is wrong.
I don’t say that as a guilt-trip on anyone; guilt is irrelevant. It’s just reality. The only difference between you and someone who makes missile guidance systems, or the accountant to processes the taxes to pay the arms manufacturer who makes the missile guidance systems, or the college librarian who teaches the next generation of missile-makers, or the sales agent who distributes blockbuster movie that inspires the next generation of kids to become grown-ups who make missiles, etc., is that you face the consequences of what you do every day and you try to do it as humanely as possible. Most of us breathe life into a very complex, very destructive system in ways we can’t easily understand and therefore don’t have to take responsibility for. Are you a worse person because you have to see it? Is some other living going to be more innocent?
May 2, 2011 at 11:10 am
Mr Travis, How negative can you get? maybe the food produced on Stonybrook farm will give life to the person who will put an end to all war.Or maybe the food will end up helping a starving child who becomes the next Mother Teresa. All food, meat or plant, is Good for peace.
Politicians are screwing up the world.
May 3, 2011 at 3:57 am
As usual, I can relate.
I went from sleeping consumer, to conscious consumer and hunting advocate, to animal welfare in farming advocate, to vegetarian, to tee-total yoga practicing vegan (whilst employed in a war fighting vocation!)… to a less than perfect locavore and organic only kind of person raising sheep and hogs as well as I possibly can for human consumption.
What inspires me is that we are what we eat. Meat consumption is a hard thing to let go for a plethora of reasons. Vegans screeming bloody murder won’t change a thing. And most people don’t realize or don’t care that – like American global supremacy – meat requires murder.
My aim is to bring meat (=food =fuel =becomes those that eat it) that is untainted by the energetics of fear, suffering and the excesses of captivity/confinement operations.
People that ingest this kind of energy, themselves full of fear, create the world we live in and that David Travis so ably describes.
Bob, if you can raise and slaughter your stock humanely – after having ensured they had the closest thing to a natural and fearless life… and get that meat, that free happy energy, into other human beings you are doing us all a service.
May 5, 2011 at 1:06 pm
If anyone should be doing it, it should be someone like you, who is empathetic and willing to ask difficult questions.
July 28, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Ahhh. The idyllic white lamb in the green field… It’s almost as pretty as the 1,000 dirty lambs in the grazed sandy field or the 10,000 scrawny lambs in the mud. If you did not direct some of them to be slaughtered, which is a fate that awaits us, too, (Human life is a sexually transmitted condition that always proves fatal…), then you would be irresponsible to let them overpopulate and destroy each other and their habitat. The Icelandic sheep you had fared worse. So, raise them humanely, with some attention their welfare, slaughter them to thin your collection and turn over the carcasses to whomever you want, be it the carrion that fly or we that buy. It will all go to waste anyway.
August 6, 2011 at 10:14 pm
I eat a plant-based diet, wear non-animal shoes, carry money in a hemp wallet, grow food, compost, and buy locally if the product is good.
I also work for an artisanal animal food company. I study specifics in humane treatment of animals as part of my job. I have complete respect for what you are doing.
Just wanted to add that you don’t have to give up high-value animal farming to abstain from animal products yourself. Maybe consider it not eating your own profits if you do decide to go down this path.
October 18, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Bob,
I have empathy for you that you suffer from this turmoil. However being selfish I am happy for it. This does not make me happy because I agree with you thinking that it is wrong to eat meat. This makes me happy because it is that compassion that allows you to produce meat that is the most healthy. I fell strongly that is is not wrong to eat meat. But it is wrong to eat meat that has not been treated humanely. You give those animals great lives and then you give people like me an opportunity to purchase the type of product that is best for me. Thank you!
November 22, 2011 at 4:51 am
I too feel this tortuous pull whenever I go out and feed our animals, seeing them so happy in the fields and knowing that one day not too far away we’ll be ending their life prematurely. It weighs on me heavily. I then come in and read your blog, your words that echo my thoughts and feelings, and feel less alone. I have a feeling that it’s when you DON’T have these worries that you should be thinking about not raising animals as their life is no longer cherished and given thanks for.
October 6, 2012 at 9:35 am
Agreed! I also raise Pigs & chickens, and I can tell you I have those very same feelings and my animals are so well taken care of and incredibly happy & healthy because of the way I feel.
Raising my animals for meat has changed the person I am, the way I think about my food. I appreciate these animals & give thanks & cherish what they’ve given to me. I often hear remarks like “its so mean that your going to kill them” when people look or hear about my farm,., I then ask these people if they eat pork or chicken. The answer is always yes, and my reply is this “I cant believe you eat animals that are beaten, lonely, scared, living in artificial surroundings, unhealthy and unhappy”. They usually have a very stunned/sick look on their faces and usually dont respond. The way the meat is presented in grocery stores is not reality, society is blind, its truly sad.
I have a hard time finding people who want to buy my product because people just dont see.. I’m not sure how else to get the message out there. Its very sad and frustrating for me, but I know im doing the right thing and one day I hope all of our livestock is treated as lovingly as I treat mine. Juat because they are to die for out food, doesnt mean they cant have a fantastic life while theyre still here.
November 28, 2012 at 3:16 am
“maybe the food produced on Stonybrook farm will give life to the person who will put an end to all war.Or maybe the food will end up helping a starving child who becomes the next Mother Teresa”
It doesn’t even have to be something like that. How about this one then? I ate whole grains, lots of vegetables, a and healthy low-fat vegetarian diet and I became so sick I became housebound for years. I started eating really high-fat animal foods and became healthy and strong again… in less than a week! Really. I was *so* angry! I couldn’t lift one pound weights without pain. Now I can lift a person.
Eating fatty meats again changed my life so much, that’s why I want to become a farmer so I can ensure the animals have a good life. Eggs weren’t enough. Fish wasn’t enough. I had to eat meat, not only meat, but lots of fat like tallow, lard, liver, and heart!
Animals deserve a good life. I’m an animal too, though, aren’t I? Do I have to sacrifice myself for them? Tell chickens to stop eating bugs. Or cats to stop eating mice. Tell bears to stop eating fish. Not gonna happen!
I know, killing an animal still makes my heart crush, but… it would be cruel to make me, my husband, and my children unhealthy when I know they’ll be at their best by eating animal meat and fats.