I urge all of us today to seriously consider where the food we eat comes from. We are no longer shielded children. We are now mature enough to realize that food doesn't originate ready-made from the supermarket. We now know that hamburger was not plucked fully packaged from the hamburger vine - its origin was a living animal, just like we are. Using the terminology "meat", "beef" and "steak" instead of "cow," we trick ourselves into disassociating the animal from the food that ends up on our plate.
But "beef" means "cow." You say you new that? But do you think about it as you're biting into the hamburger? Of course not. We couldn't handle that. How could we eat decomposing flesh and muscle of an animal we have all seen swishing its tale and roaming green pastures?
We can't so we don't. Instead, we convince ourselves we are eating neatly wrapped patty of sanitized substance. "Beef" is a vague idea in our minds of something edible, even tasty, but surely not an animal carcass. I once babysat an eleven-year old girl and sat with my mouth agape, as she, dipping her Chicken McNugget into its sauce, asked with a concerned brow and straight face, "Does chicken come from chickens?"
How do I answer a question that is so innocently out of touch with reality and so subtly disturbing? This girl is not just one flaky fifth grader; she represents a whole generation of children who are purposefully taught by the billion dollar meat industry to abandon their natural empathy with animals and eat up.
And those children grow up into us - intelligent people who just have no clue that our food comes from a cow who endured years of suffering in cramped "factory farm" stalls, unable to turn around, let alone enjoy those green pastures we imagine her to be in. She is injected with so many hormones and antibiotics that she grows disproportionately large. This unnatural state of being which causes pain and discomfort and leads to an array of illnesses including bone structure problems and udder infections.
To say that it is "natural" for humans to eat meat may seem to be an accurate statement, as we as a species have consumed meat for hundreds of years. But this statement does not take into account that the process by which meat is produced today is so perverted from "the natural order of things," that eating meat in our mass-production oriented society can hardly be considered natural.
The cows were not raised on bucolic family farms. The animals who were slaughtered are factory-produced in a conveyor-belt setup with no respect or concern for well-being, only quantity and profit. We no longer go out and hang the animal for our own dinner. Ask yourself the simple question, "If I had to kill that cow myself, would I be able to? Am I hiding behind cowardice and letting someone else do what would be unbearable for me to do?"
Many people, when finding out that I eat vegetarian, respond with a guilty and sympathetic smile: "Yeah, I know if I saw one picture of a slaughtered animal, I wouldn't be able to eat meat again." We know that the animals don't just go to sleep one night and wake up as happy hamburgers. That's not real life, and that's not how slaughterhouses work.
Rreal life is too painful for most normal people to confront, and so we don't. Confronting the reality of the meat industry in this country is too painful. But it is so important to wake up and open our eyes to the suffering of millions of farm animals every day in this country. I know many people will see the horrific images and still not care, but I am imploring everyone to just look at those images anyway. See the world. See our world. This is not some long-ago myth or far-away account-this is here and now. Each person will reach his or her own conclusion about the truths he or she sees. But it is important to look. To know and remember that we are not detached from the natural world, that our actions affect people and animals outside of our direct vision, and that we can control these actions. It may be hard, or it may feel like a waste of time, but sometimes the pleasurable sensation on your palate is not the only thing at stake.
Shari is a senior majoring in child development and German Area Studies.
