Quote:
Originally Posted by mr dave
i think you're absolutely spot on with what i bolded. the modern disconnection with where food comes from is becoming incredibly sad. like the letter sent to a newspaper about how barbaric hunters were and how they should leave the animals in peace and just get their meat from the grocery store like civilized people. 
although i don't think the idea that people desensitized themselves to seeing animals as 'things' is quite accurate as well. the emotional connection that a pet would have wouldn't be there but most sensible people could see the animal as a necessary living sacrifice. while large scale commercial slaughterhouses might be cold and mechanical the average farmer most definitely gives a crap about their livestock even if they know it's their last season. they don't want to harvest an unhealthy / dying animal as that wouldn't translate to a healthy family.
as for meat = murder... do i really need canine teeth to eat nothing but beans and sprouts? |
Looking at what I wrote, I did generalize a bit. The parents of one of my friends own a pig farm and her mother still cries sometimes when they slaughter one of the pigs. What I should have written is rather that they
may have a different perception of animals and either way, they know how it happens, they've come to terms with and they choose to do it.
I like to think I'm a bit the same. The first years of my life were spent around a farm, my father taught me to fish and pick crabs, I've helped slaughter reindeer. I feel like I'm reasonably aware of what having meat in the stores entail in this country and while there are negatives, I'm overall for it. Vegetarianism hasn't really caught on in Norway yet (there's a reason for that too), but I've studied with vegetarians from Finland and Germany. It seems much more popular in those countries.
Something related which I really don't like is when people criticize hunters while eating their industry meat meals. At least an animal which has been hunted has had the privilege of living a natural life up until the point it got killed for better or worse and I'd take my chances with that over living the life of the average McDonald's burger pig.