Eating Animals

I kind of have a hard time eating guys like this.

As you may have noticed to the left, I'm reading a book called Eating Animals. Eating Animals is a book I've wanted to read for a long time now for it's frank journalistic look at what eating animals means for us, for animals, and for the planet. The author has had a on-again off-again relationship with eating meat, often being a vegetarian who had bacon on Sundays and on burgers. The book is not, so far at least, an evangelical vegetarian piece. It proposes an honest look at our meat industries, doing research too involved to do on a smaller scale and too unbiased for Peta or other animal welfare groups. The author, Jonathan Safran Foer, is someone who really likes the idea of vegetarianism but also really likes how meat tastes. When his first son was born he realized that he would have to make decisions about food for him, and he decided he couldn't do that without knowing what that meant.

The first few chapters talked almost exclusively about tuna. I read those chapters while eating a tuna melt. The second time I sat down to read I was eating a banana with peanut butter. The third time I ate black bean and corn tacos. I feel I'm going to find it more difficult to eat meat as I read this book, an issue Safran Foer discusses. He points out that the automatic assumption we make when reading about meat, even when we see the title Eating Animals, is that it must be against the meat industry for its inhumane practices, and if that's the automatic assumption made by the majority of the people, what does that tell us? It tells us that we already know the meat industry is wrong, that even if eating meat isn't wrong in itself, that how we treat and kill the animals we do eat is wrong.

One of the reasons I like Safran Foer (so far) is his inquisitive manner and understanding way of writing. He likes meat. It tastes good. He gets that. He just also gets the importance of not supporting the way we obtain our meat. To him, supporting something he believes in is worth ignoring his cravings. He's not out there to convert you- just to provide any reader with the information they need to make a decision 3 times a day. If you make the decision to eat meat, fine. But here are the facts anyway.

Peta, take note. The whole "chickens are people, too" campaign doesn't work. Mostly because chickens aren't people.

Retaliation

I only drink Italian bottled water.

A couple of days ago a new tax on goodies from the European Union went into effect, including a 100% tariff on Italian bottled water. According to Italymag.co.uk, the US buys 40% of Italy's bottled water (Panna, San Pellegrino) so the tax, which will effectively double the cost of Italian bottled waters, is a big problem. Apparently this tax was one of the last ideas George W. Bush had before surrendering the office, as retaliation for the EU not importing hormone-laden American beef, and the EU is hoping Obama will make it all go away. 

American Italian restaurants are not happy about the new tax either. What used to be a $3 bottle of water will now be $6, and no doubt some patrons will switch to free tap and cost restaurants a good portion of their profits. I'm not a drinker of bottled water, much less bottled water from Italy, so I'm entirely unaffected. However, my former employer made the switch to exclusively Italian bottled waters right before firing me, and I was the one to make all the written changes. They'll probably have to switch back to Fiji and who's gonna make those changes now, hm? Fuck you, Sammy's!

For the record, the hormones in American beef are not proven to be a danger to people. It's safe to consume beef and milk products (including cheese) from cows treated with rBGH(rBST). However, the cows develop all sorts of terrible conditions when injected with these hormones. Remember that video a couple years back of the cow being fork-lifted to the slaughterhouse because it couldn't walk? Yeah, that's what happens. Buy naturally raise beef, people. The Europeans have a good point.