If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast

17 Jul 2008

Ready to meat its maker.

A few months ago, I decided to force myself to confront issues surrounding meat-eating head on -- so to speak -- by attending a hog-butchering class. Taught by Boston chef Jamie Bissonnette of KO Prime and offered through the Chefs Collaborative, the class focused on utilizing the whole animal, from head to tail.

As usual, I was beset by the dilemma of what to wear. What looks attractive, creative, and professional -- yet also looks good splattered in blood? I finally gave up trying to solve this particular sartorial puzzle and just decided to wear jeans and a T-shirt. As far as accessories go, I decided that this was probably not the moment to wear a charm bracelet.

My intern Anna joined me. A committed vegetarian, she too wanted to confront her ideas about meat-eating. Much of her childhood was spent in France where carnivory is an accepted and unquestioned part of life. She ate meat before going vegetarian three years ago.

Meat of the Matter

We had to check in at the door (it was like giving a password to get into a speakeasy during prohibition) to show that we were sincerely interested in learning about "whole-carcass breakdown" and that we weren't anti-meat activists.

Once we got settled in, I was both relieved and disappointed to discover that this would be a demonstration rather than a participatory workshop. I wouldn't get to confront my meat-eating issues as directly as I had expected to, but I wouldn't go home covered in raw pig parts, either.

After some mingling (will I ever learn to enjoy mingling?) the demonstration got under way. Jamie placed a whole hog (although it had been eviscerated -- i.e., the innards had already been removed) on the counter in front of us, with its little dead piggy eyes staring straight ahead -- and right at us.

Story continues below

ADVERTISING POLICY

I wasn't as disturbed as I expected -- and perhaps even hoped -- to be. For one thing, I've been cooking all my life and dealing with meat and poultry is second nature to me. Also, if you're a cook, I think that there's something inside of you that says, "People are counting on me to cook for them. I will do whatever is needed to deliver a delicious and nutritious meal." You ignore your own feelings and perceptions in order to accomplish the task at hand. There's no room or time for squeamishness.

Jamie worked his way from snout to tail, detailing all the ways in which he would use each cut. As he described each preparation ("this bit I'll turn into head cheese, this I'll use for choricio ... ") I could hear Anna -- committed vegetarian Anna -- moan softly with pleasure. What can I say -- you can take the girl out of France, but you can't take France out of the girl.

By the end of the demonstration, Jamie had used the hog completely, leaving nothing behind but a bloodstain. Using the whole carcass makes sense on many levels. Not only is it less wasteful, but it also shows respect to the animal being eaten by not letting any of it go to waste, as well as being more responsible environmentally because it squeezes as much food value as possible out of each animal.

When the demonstration ended, we all had a chance to try some of the sausages, pâté, and headcheese that had been prepared for the crowd. And, of course, there was more mingling.

Going in for the Kill

Jamie Bissonnette shows off a hog head.

Jamie mentioned during the presentation that he had been a vegan during his teens, so Anna asked him how he went from being a vegan to a top butcher and chef. He answered that during his stages (internships) in French kitchens, the chefs to whom he was apprenticed told him if you want to be a great chef you need to know how to cook and handle meat. Hearing Jamie relate this story to Anna got me interested in interviewing him about how and why he made such a dramatic transition in his life. My in-depth interview with him will follow in the next column.

In the meantime, I found that this experience didn't change my feelings about meat-eating at all. I eat very little meat for environmental reasons, but I don't think that it's morally wrong to eat a small amount now and then. Indeed, there are studies that show it's more environmentally responsible to eat chicken than cheese since cows (which produce a lot of methane and consume a lot of grain) have to be maintained in order to produce the milk necessary to make cheese.

Also, I acknowledge that I am an animal that eats meat, just like many other animals. I understand that I don't need to eat meat or poultry in order to stay alive, but I don't feel that it's wrong to include a little bit of meat in the mix of vegetables and grains that I do need to eat in order to sustain myself.

In short, I didn't find that this experience really tested me, which leaves me to assume that only if I had to kill an animal would I ever really know what it means to cause suffering in my quest to eat meat. Maybe someday I will arrange to put myself squarely in the hot seat to see if my feelings change if I am directly responsible for taking an animal's life, but for now I am OK with just eating very little meat and using it as wisely and thoroughly as I can.

Pâté Campagne

By Jamie Bissonnette
Makes 1 terrine or loaf pan size pâté

To make this pâté, Jamie recommends that you use a terrine mould or a loaf pan. He says not to worry about using exact amounts in this recipe, but to use it as a guide for what the ratio of ingredients should be (e.g., if you only have one pound of pork belly, make only half a batch).

Espelette is a kind of pepper. Jamie uses powdered Espelette.

2 pounds pork belly, rind on
1 pound of meat -- pork, veal, chicken, venison, duck, rabbit, or a mix of any of them
1 pound liver, from any animal (kidneys and gizzards can be substituted; hearts will work, but only from poultry)
3 cups bread crumbs
6 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon curing salt (use Cure Salt #1)
Kosher salt, to taste
1/4 teaspoon powdered Espelette pepper
3/4 teaspoon mace, ground
1/4 cup Cognac, Armangac, or Brandy
6 slices bacon
Optional: 1 cup toasted hazelnuts or pistachios

Cut the first three ingredients into a 1/4 inch dice. Grind through a meat grinder on the 1/4 inch setting into a metal bowl resting on another bowl of ice. Mix in other ingredients. Scoop out a "test" spoonful and pan fry on a lightly oiled hot skillet until cooked. Taste for seasoning. Adjust with salt, Espelette, and mace as you see fit. Keep in mind that the pâté is served cold, and that flavors become somewhat muted as food cools, so adjust seasonings accordingly. When warm from the pan, the "test" mix may taste over-seasoned and even overly salty, but remember it will be less so when served cold. Fold in nuts if you are using them. This mixture is called a pâté farce.

Preheat oven to 325 F. Lay three slices of bacon length-wise into a terrine mold, roughly covering the bottom. Pack in the pâté farce. Top with the last three slices of bacon. Cover with foil. Bake in a water bath for 1 hour to 1 hour 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 150 degrees.

Allow to cool to room temperature, and then press with a 2-pound weight while cooling in the refrigerator. Wait at least one full day to eat this terrine.

Roz Cummins is a food writer who has worked in every possible permutation of food co-op, natural foods store, and granola-type restaurant. She lives in the greater Boston area and feels it is her mission to put the "eco" back in home economy.

Comments: (41 comments)

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have a Gristmill account, log in below. If you don't have a Gristmill account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

pork chops

When I was raising my four children on an old farm
we bought a small pig many years ago with the intention of turning him into pork chops in the fall as most old time farmers used to do.
As the summer rolled by we became friends with george(yes the pig had a name) and by the fall george was about 500 pounds and eating 100 pounds of food each week. When the time came to turn george into pork chops I considered keeping him as a pet but george consumed 100 pounds of food per week and it was too costly.
Very sadly(understatement) we took george to the greek farmer who assured me that the end would be very quick. We never raised another animal for food again.
A true story--
Bill and his four grown children.

by hondavx at 11:53 AM on 17 Jul 2008

Thats sick!

Reading this made me a little sick (literally). However I do wish more people would experience where and how the meat gets on their plate. I feel so many people (especially younger city kids) think that burgers are neat little packages and not the year sof cruelty and pain and suffering that a cow has to live through!

For me eating dead animals is extremely pointless and complete waste of sooooo many resources. But atleast you have the balls to to know more about the animal you are eating!

I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change. --- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---

by javaearth at 12:42 PM on 17 Jul 2008

Roz....you definitely missed the worst part...

The demonstration you watched was next to pointless. As a kid, I helped to slaughter all of our own animals every year (chickens, turkeys, ducks, cows, pigs) and I have to say that the actual killing is a big part. Next, gutting and bleeding the pig, which makes a huge bloody mess and smells everywhere of blood, guts, and shit. After that, you boil up a huge tub of water and drop the pig in it to scald the skin, making it easy to scrape the hair off. I found the stench of scalded pig skin to be much more offensive than the smells of blood, guts, and shit combined.

So what you saw was a killed, cleaned, de-haired pig carcass. That's like saying you want to learn what it's like to murder someone and cut them up like Jeffrey Dahmer so you go the morgue and watch an autopsy. Actually, that's a bad comparison since the pig you watched get cut up didn't have any guts left in it.

I recommend you head out to a rural area if you want the experience. Getting it from a chef who serves the interests of the meat industry is clearly not what you need to really experience what a slaughter is like. I've (personally) known pigs that didn't go down with their throats slit and 12-guage slugs in their heads. The "back-up" tool in this case is a large iron sledge hammer, with which you beat the pig until it stops breathing or its heart stops. Slaughter is an extremely dangerous season where I'm from because if you don't kill a 500-lb pig with the first cut/bullet, it becomes a bezerker that can tear you up so you have to be prepared to take it out if you have to with any means available.

Now, the bad part is that by encouraging people to think that eating meat is ok and not qualifying that you're talking about only organically-produced, small-scale farm operations, you're helping to keep a system of slaughter in place that is much more disgusting than the one I just mentioned above. Factory farm slaughterhouses (where your slaughter, gutted, cleaned-up, and chilled pig came from) are places where animals are often stunned or don't lose consciousness before they are slit open and gutted, skinned, etc.

Thank you for the totally meaningless article. I hope it made you feel good about eating pork chops to see a meat-industry representative chop up a sanitized porker in a sanitized environment.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 1:21 PM on 17 Jul 2008

BTW...

Jamie Bissonnette looks like what I would call a "cochon." He should eat less pork. You are what you eat.

May he someday be a vegan again and have a smaller eco-footprint.

Or may he buy a farm in Maine and raise his own damned pigs and slaughter/eat them himself. Doing dirty work in a restaurant for a bunch of careless, clueless Americans who couldn't care less about the crap they're eating doesn't seem to me to be anything an environmentally-conscious person would do.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 1:26 PM on 17 Jul 2008

One redeeming point

The one thing Roz got right in this total fluff article is that eating factory-farmed chicken technically has a smaller eco-footprint than factory-farmed cheese.

I also noticed that in the photo, Jamie's arm is covered in tatoos. He probably got them when he was a vegan...because he didn't give up eating irresponsibly because it was the right thing to do, he did it because he's a vain, faddish person who also wants people to notice his arm artwork. I've actually met quite a few former vegans with tons of artwork plastered on themselves. I guess they just thought that veganism was part of the rebel-without-a-clue fake-counter-culture they were a part of. Then, when they realize that the cute hippie chick still isn't interested in them even after they've gone vegan and got some cool tatoos, they go back to being an uncaring, clueless chef serving thoughtless food to thoughtless people.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 4:11 PM on 17 Jul 2008

John Former Marine

Good comments.

Yup, what he said.

Thanks.

by raevynn at 4:13 PM on 17 Jul 2008

The recipe looks God-friendly...

Roz,

I'm so glad that Jamie's recipe says to use Kosher salt. It's so important for us environmental folk to use salt that has been properly bless by one of God's holy representatives. Godly salt makes any meaty recipe carbon neutral.

Then...since God has dietary preferences for cloven-hoofed animals and against swine (which, by the way, are prone to being possessed by demons called Legion and running over cliffs), it seems to me that the pork would neutralize whatever holy properties the Kosher salt put into this totally meat dish.

I'm glad you're only eating meat a few times a week now. Geez...when your family eats meat, they really eat it in large quantities. Three pounds this, four pounds that....you probably eat a whole cow at each "meat" meal. Maybe instead of eating it only a few times a week, you should focus on eating smaller quantities overall.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 5:45 PM on 17 Jul 2008

So everyone who isn't Vegan is thoughtless?

And Clueless?

What is it with environmentalists? Not only are they a depressing lot, but they're arrogant pricks as well.

Victory in Pattani

by MAD MAC at 2:01 AM on 18 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

"whole beast"

Instead of the "whole beast", how about no beast?
Let's live and let the beasts live.

Please visit Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg for another version of the "whole beast", including whole health, whole life, and whole sustainability.

Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at www.brook.com/veg

by CyberBrook at 10:16 AM on 18 Jul 2008

The slaughter

I've only killed small animals (trout, rabbits, one rooster), but I'd say the tough part is certainly the kill, when the animal goes from a living creature to a dead one. If you can't face that moment, you probably shouldn't be eating meat.

Earlier this year, we had a couple of vegeterian friends over for a rabbit slaughter. They had been on the receiving end of some irresponsible rabbit breeding and felt ethically required to eat some of them. We taught them how to quickly and humanely kill their rabbits. They did very well, and it was very encouraging to me that not only did they do well at the moment of the kill, but through the whole, messy dressing process. They reported that they ate all of both rabbits and are interested in raising their own.

I think that rabbits are, like grass-fed ungulates, a great way of turning food that humans can't eat (in the case of rabbits, alfalfa and fruit tree trimmings) into food humans can eat. Pigs also can have this quality, especially when they're raised in apple orchards with non-food-grade apples and fed garbage for the balance of their diets. Feeding meat animals grain diets doesn't work on many levels, for the animals, for the humans and for our planet.

Regarding the pate recipe: Mushrooms make the best pate. No pigs required.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

by PermieWriter at 11:27 AM on 18 Jul 2008

Missing the issue

If you gut the animal's body ahead of time, and you leave all of the feces in the streams running past the factory farm, OF COURSE there won't be any waste! It's like bleaching the stains out of clothing, washing it in Tide, then washing it in eco-friendly detergent. Some people could claim (with a straight face) that you've eliminated all bleach from the clothes-washing process. That is a prime example of greenwashing.

How can minimizing meat for environmental reasons be a moral imperative for someone who says they ca

I try to stay positive and constructive, but this is the most disappointingly short-sighted article I've seen in a long time. You've managed to top USA Today in the "lack of a basic understanding" category. Blogging about an experience is great. If you're going to write an article, you need to add some research to the "experiencing."

by sje333 at 11:52 AM on 18 Jul 2008

Disapointed in the thoughtless comments!

Roz has just published something which she has obviously thought long and hard about and come to a decision which in her mind is a correct choice. I wish that every person who eats would have the same thoughtful process to eating. It does not help when someone thoughtlessly and ruthlessly eviserates those arguments in a quick pounding of the keyboard! We need to learn to respect people as well as animals!!

Like snowflakes we are each frail but together we can stop traffic

by ruth117 at 12:31 PM on 18 Jul 2008

butchering is different from hunting

Roz I totally encourage you to get out and see the rest of the story ie the Kill. I love getting out each fall for an annual deer hunt and am starting to get involved in duck/geese hunts. The butchering is a messy job but the end product is the key. I am a trained biologist who realises that just as we can harm the environment by reducing a species to extinction through habitat loss we are also creating habitats where certain animals thrive to the detriment of others. Deer and geese are considered "nusiance" animals by some and are vastly overpopulated in certain areas of the country. This overpopulation makes for tasty eating!! Ethical hunting means making sure that you are responsible for the animal that you kill, using as much of it as possible. Thanks for the great article, I'm sure it would taste great with venision and geese too!

Like snowflakes we are each frail but together we can stop traffic

by ruth117 at 12:51 PM on 18 Jul 2008

passing over from life to death

It's an itsy bit ticklish for me to read through this thread, because Roz, John former Marine, and MAD MAC are all friends of mine, and they are all over the place on this issue.

At heart I agree mostly with John (no surprise there!). But I admire Roz for what she is attempting here. In her online column, she has always been very respectful of us vegetarians/vegans, and she deserves our thanks for that.

She is absolutely right to suggest (implicitly) that at this stage of our moral evolution, we must constantly encourage people to understand what they are doing, eating-wise, always to look, to feel, to learn, to think. She has all along been doing terrific work.

The great majority of people are anthropocentrists, and have opinions similar to those of MAD MAC and Ruth117 (whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting before). They should realize that they are far and away in the (backwards-seeking, prejudiced) majority, and so should not get too hepped up in slamming the (teensy, forwards-looking) minority. Still, to quote a recent American president, "Bring it on!" That is how martyrs are made. And as the great Asian martyr, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, said, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of saints."

(Mon petit cher Jean, autrefois Marin,
comme tu sais, nous allons bientot en l'Arcadie! C'est a dire, nous allons d'abord a la ville de Quebec, qui celebre cette annee son quatrecentieme anniversaire; depuis, a la Gaspesie; depuis, a la cote du nord de NB; depuis, a PEI!, "Anne of Green Gables" country!, ou nous voulons visiter les villages arcadiens a l'ouest; depuis, a Halifax, pour visiter la "vieille dame" -- a real piece of work, dont je te parlerai peut-etre a l'avenir. On an earlier visit to la Nouvelle Ecosse, we had visited the Acadian Coast, too too briefly, from Annapolis Royal down to Yarmouth, and made a point of returning some day. The only thing that was off-putting was the gold star stuck up in the corner of the French Republican tricolor, bizarrely unhistorical. The lady in the church at Saint-Bernard was very sweet. Bon, tu seras dans mes pensees, et je regrette que tu ne pourras pas nous rencontrer. Saluts affectueux!)

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 2:05 PM on 18 Jul 2008

Don't be Hating

John Former Marine: please tell me what name-calling and personal attacks have ever accomplished? And this from someone who grew up to murder humans (aka Snipper). Did you gut, bleed and eat the humans you killed?

I certainly agree with parts of both the blog and your posts however you also made me sad about the human race ever solving anything.

Keep in mind that the greatest ecological damage one human can do is to breed themselves. Suicide is also a great way to reduce ones carbon footprint.

by Pandion at 7:39 PM on 18 Jul 2008

thank you, javaearth

I agree with your comment wholeheartedly. I don't understand the desire for meat. We don't need it-- so why eat it? It is cruel to take a sentient creature's life when you don't need to. That's that. No arguments or theories or anything like that. Besides, I eat a much broader variety of foods since I've become a vegetarian/vegan than I ever did before. I am a (very) amateur chef and I never feel like my meals need meat to be complete.

I commend the writer for trying to be more informed, but I will never understand why some feel compelled to eat meat. We don't need it, it's usually unhealthy, it's usually bad for the environment, and a living, breathing animal has to die. Rather than win-win, it seems more like a lose-lose to me. But then again, I ate meat for a long time. I've been one of those very same people, so I've no right to judge anyone. Oh, what a difference in viewpoint I have nowadays :)

by askantik at 9:24 PM on 18 Jul 2008

suicide

Hello Pandion,
what a curious mythological name you have given yourself! The story of the metamorphoses of Pandion's daughters, Philomela and Procne, as well as of Procne's husband and Philomela's rapist Tereus, is treasured by many classicists who cultivate an especially precious sense of aesthetics.

John-former-Marine will (or will not) answer your comment as he sees fit. But the suggestion about suicide that you raise at the end is generally very interesting.

"To be or not to be, that is the question": And the option of suicide was indeed the most profoundly interesting question to Albert Camus, himself the most engaging and persistently respected of the existentialist philosophers, who died at a relatively early age.

There can be no doubt that it has occurred to many environmentalists, if not all, even quite independently, that the Earth's huge human population is not good news for the environment, or for the biosphere. And many environmentalists do indeed try, more or less often, to bring up the need to urge everybody to stop having children.

In view of that, it does indeed surprise me that there has not emerged (thus far, to my knowledge) a fringe environmentalist sect of super-committed activists who have publicly killed themselves, or have declared that they intend to kill themselves, with full and eloquent video statements done beforehand, analogous to the suicidal "martyrs" within Islamist extremism.

Also, in consideration of that, we should realize that the "environmentalist movement" is what can technically be considered "diffuse," because environmentalists are far from agreeing on, say, so important a set of issues as the value of their own personal lives, the value of other human lives, the value of animals' lives, and the value of the lives of other living creatures. It is indeed a "movement"; but we should acknowledge that we enter into solidarity with one another, only after coming from very diverse backgrounds, with quite diverse values.

Please God, may nothing I have written encourage a suicide sect of environmentalists to form! : (

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 10:19 PM on 18 Jul 2008

Suicide is painless

It brings on many changes.
And I can take or leave it if I please.

try to find a way to make

all our little joys relate

without that ever-present hate

but now I know that it's too late

but suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

And I can take or leave if I please

Victory in Pattani

by MAD MAC at 12:06 AM on 19 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

"painless"

Well, the poet may so say, that committing suicide is painless. But we do not know, really, do we. Few tend to return to tell us.

In a recent NY Times Magazine, in an article on suicide, a man who tried to kill himself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge, but survived, said, "After I let go, and my hands left the railing, I asked myself: Oh no! What have I done?! Why in the world did I do that?!" And now, he is a counselor, for depressed, suicidal patients.

Cf. Sylvia Plath, famous suicide:

<<
Dying is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I have a call.
>>

What I do not understand about Albert Camus is, why our sadness, and aloneness, were inadequate for establishing "meaning" to human existence.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:44 AM on 19 Jul 2008

Hello Pandion,

I've never killed another person and I don't intend to unless in defense of myself or another. I consider the choices I made to have been the best choices available to me in my economic class and personal situation at the time. Had I been born into a comfortable middle class family, I never would've dreamed of signing up to kill Amerikka's enemies.

That being said, the reason I wrote to Roz is because her article was pointless and fluffy. She didn't get any closer to what she was seeking and I can say that from personal experience in slaughter. I also can say honestly that when I became a vegan it was for environmental and ethical reasons and I never intended to remain a vegan for life. I may, someday, go back to eating eggs or chicken or other flesh, but only if I raise and slaughter it myself. And if it requires no additional energy inputs from beneath the Persian Gulf in the form of grain, fertilizers, etc.

Roz says that she's working to reduce the meat consumption in her family, perhaps the most important thing anyone can do to reduce their eco-footprint. And yet her article wasn't about reducing meat consumption and excitement about finding some delicious new meatless recipe of stewed pumpkin or pilaf or wheat berry salad. No...she's trying to reduce meat consumption so she writes on an environmental blog site about watching a sanitized pig carcass get butchered and then offers a recipe that is entirely meat (probably about 30 servings worth).

I would suggest that if Roz acknowledges that eating less meat is something that can reduce one's eco-footprint, then she should write articles about people eating less meat and offer vegan recipes to inspire people to eat less meat.

If she was just trying to better "know" her meat, she didn't get close to anything meaningful.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 9:39 AM on 19 Jul 2008

and btw...

It was my older brother who was a sniper and, as younger brothers do, I looked up to him. He did, I'm quite sure, kill people for America...although he'd never tell me about it other than to say which country he had been in.

I have other siblings that you probably don't have anything in common with as well...

My sister is handicapped and, fortunately, the much older Harley-guy that fathered her son turned out to be a really great guy.

My oldest brother has been a drug addict all his life and starts drinking before going to work. If you get a call from a telemarketer, it may be him.

My other brother works in a nursing home washing baby-boomer asses for $8.50 an hour. He considers this better than his former life working in processing plants, convenience stores, and call centers. And having a "serious" job also keeps him from going back to all the drugs he did as well. During his messed up drug years, I had to call ambulances, police, or go get him myself many times to keep him from killing himself.

My younger brother works as a security guard, is aggressive, and can literally put down a case (24) of beers in one night.

And my youngest brother just found out that his girlfriend is pregnant despite the fact that he's been making $8.00 an hour and has battled with heroin addiction and other problems. He's leveled out but now he's got an ulcer because he's working 12-hour night shifts 6 or 7 days a week at a home for disabled kids.

So....you see, people who aren't in your social class have a hard time understanding why they should care about the environment. Should that surprise you?

I will tell you one thing that working class and poor people do much better than rich people....their in-your-face no-BS honesty. They speak their minds. And they're not scared to break every single knuckle in their hand busting in your face (I've had brothers with broken hands before).

If "environmentalists" like you don't want to encourage people to make immediate, proactive changes to their behaviors to make life more sustainable, prepare for many poor eco-refugees to make your life a lot less comfortable. And believe me, if my older brother Joe moves into your backyard, you're not gonna even have a chance against him. He's an animal.

And my little brother who has stolen purses from old ladies is definitely going to be breaking into your comfortable middle-class home when the price of food gets high enough that he can't feed his baby on minimum wage.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 9:56 AM on 19 Jul 2008

"Et in Arcadia ego" -- not!

Sorry, John. Since I am by training a classicist, the name of the hilly region in the central Peloponnese, Arcadia, famous for its association with pastoral poetry, creeps into my head too quickly. Therefore I disgracefully inserted an unwanted "r" more than once into "l'Acadie."

My bad!

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 12:57 PM on 19 Jul 2008

why

u all make me sick

One World- Don't let it die!

by freakdreads at 5:26 PM on 19 Jul 2008

Hot Dogs

MTV released the first season of Wonder Showzen on DVD March 28, 2006.

Watching is more harmful than doing it yourself, if one has compassion for non-kosher eating hot dog conoissuers. Oh, a French word! Imagine that.

by Baa at 6:04 PM on 19 Jul 2008

P.S.

Harley Davidson.

by Baa at 6:06 PM on 19 Jul 2008

Camus was a freak

He is in a long line of self-indulgent idiots who enjoy pontificating on the meaning of life that can't be found and seeing the human condition in essentially negative terms. This is typical of writers, especially European writers, who seem to think that you have to be a depressed jerk to be taken seriously. None of them are nearly as intelligent as they think they are or want us to think they are.

Victory in Pattani

by MAD MAC at 10:39 PM on 19 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

Could be, MAD MAC

Camus has a big following, but he is no hero of mine. That is, not that I dislike him, but I have read too little by him. I read "L'Etranger" in a French lit class in high school, and barely remember it.

Still, we should ALWAYS avoid stereotypes. Camus is not to be lumped with Jean-Paul Sartre, another great French existentialist, who was once very fashionable but nowadays is increasingly loathed.

Anyway, it is a rather pathetic characteristic of the American body politic (wow, look at all those Greek derivatives!), that Barack Obama and his people have to be afraid that a too friendly reception of him in Europe will render him more questionable and alien in "Middle America."

Some of us, who deplore the state of education in geography, world history and foreign languages in this country, remember bitterly that during the 2004 campaign, John Kerry, who knows French well, having studied as a child at a school in Switzerland, could not dare to reveal that he speaks French.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 1:33 AM on 20 Jul 2008

I can't speak for Europe

But the US educational system is FAR, FAR, FAR superior to the German one which I was so heavily exposed to (and which my son had to suffer through).

I have read a fair amount of European literature and watched a fair amount of European art house crap in German movie theaters and there is a fairly consistent theme of self loathing for the human condition that is sanctimonious and annoying espoused by people of inferior intellect to myself who think they are highly intelligent. A very annoying penchant I was forced to frequently suffer through in my quest to sleep with college women in Germany.

Victory in Pattani

by MAD MAC at 8:41 AM on 20 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

WOW what a list of postings!

I am speechless about what has been said before, but it just shows that Americans have opinions and will express them no matter what! I LOVE you guys!

I am a hunter and am proud to be one. There is nothing more majestic than seeing a Rocky Mountain Elk and getting the opportunity to harvest one for your family. These honorable beings deserve our respect and I am very protective of them and their habitat.

I too use all of the animal for steaks and burger scraps, the hide I turn in to a local processor and receive two pairs of well made gloves, the leg bones go to my dog for a years worth of chewing and gut piles, chest and any other unused food scraps are left in the woods for the coyotes, crows and other scavengers.

This is the way the Native Americans harvested wild animals and all is done with the respect for that animals sacrifice.

"For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world." - Shantideva

by mtvyfan at 9:35 AM on 21 Jul 2008

a little anger management or meds might help

you are on a rant about so many things.. woe poor underclass boy who is now attacking everyone and anyone. stop seeing everyone as your enemy and put a little joy out into the world instead of whining.

by macwoof at 5:27 PM on 21 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

for John THE MARINE

the above post was meant for John THE MARINE

by macwoof at 5:30 PM on 21 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

judgemental attitudes never changed anyone

In my 40 years of living I have found that judging and labeling how others choose to live does nothing to further the cause you care about, and in fact drives people the other way.

In college I studied animal science until I could take it no longer and had to switch majors and go vegan. My choices were just that- my choices. They were the result of a process of personal growth and experience.

The comments I have read here are a perfect example of why the general public thinks most vegans are weird, hippy freaks. When you encounter someone who tells you are doomed to hell for not believing as they do, has it ever caused you to instantly convert to their beliefs? Of course not. It typically pisses you off and causes you to label them. Listen folks; if you want to help others live more conscious, sustainable lives learn tolerance before you shoot off your mouth! You are NOT HELPING your and my cause even a tiny bit.

by jedibabe at 10:07 AM on 22 Jul 2008

The essay...

... would have been more impressive and powerful had Ms. Cummins lived up to the title, subtitle, and photo caption. As others have pointed out...

(1) Confronting your inner scavenger? Granted, not all carnivores are predators. But when a person declares they are about to confront their inner carnivore, one sort of expects them to start by staring into the eyes of an alert live creature. Not really hard to confront a clean carcass. Most of us who consume meat manage to dismantle a turkey each year without difficulty.

(2) If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast? A dead beast is not a whole beast.

(3) The first photo shows pig who is ready to "meat" his maker. Sadly, the butcher-in-training did not really meet the pig. Whether the pig met his maker, we'll never know.

There was a great article in The Isthmus -- a Madison, WI, weekly alternative paper -- last year about a guy who decided to slaughter and process his own turkey for his Thanksgiving dinner. Now THAT'S confronting your inner carnivore.

"To Kill a Turkey: If you're going to eat animals, shouldn't you be willing to do the deed?"

Bill Lueders, Wednesday, 11/21/2007

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=1 ...

(4) "Jamie Bissonnette shows off a hog head." What does this mean? He's proud of his ability to select a aesthetically pleasing hog head, his surgical skill, that he can hold an animal's head -- an animal as intelligent as a dog, no less -- without showing a bit of remorse? Look Mom! I'm holding a hog's head! Yahoo.

by wiscidea at 11:51 PM on 22 Jul 2008

Clueless

I never get confrontational about my compassionate and truly green life-style choices but this article makes me want to say...screw you meat eaters. These beings were here long before you and because of you, won't be here much longer nor will your specie be here very much longer when you make justifications for totally environmentally unfriendly choices. Foie gras anyone?

by Seastone26 at 1:52 PM on 23 Jul 2008

you can be thankful

blah,blah, blah...you can be thankful that certain of our "beliefs" keep you from being eaten.

by Seastone26 at 2:03 PM on 23 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

Another person

These posts made me remember something. I worked for a land trust. One of my fellow colleagues went to a frog monitoring class so that he could do that on our lands. A woman was there who asked if she had to be worried about coyotes (she preceded this w saying that she didn't go out into the "wild" very much and wanted to become more involved and more knowledgeable - hats off!). A man who was also there very smugly laughed at her and turned to one of his friends to mock her for it. Now, this woman admitted she didn't know much about being outside or doing this kind of monitoring. She was simply concerned about coyotes bc of what she had heard about keeping an eye on small pets and what have you, and furthermore, when you do this type of monitoring, you are to be out around dusk.
My colleague was so upset with this man for mocking this woman. Here is someone who simply wants to become more aware of her surroundings while also trying to help out by collecting data, and here is this man, mocking her. God forbid she ask a question that she thought was relevant. My friend spoke with her afterwards and explained a little more about the whole situation.

My point: have patience with some people who are trying. Instead of belittling them for their efforts that, to your standards don't go the whole distance, how about saying, well thats great you learned X and Y, but heres Z, something you may not have realized.

Thanks.

by green ewok at 9:52 AM on 24 Jul 2008

The ENTIRE Beast!

Not only is a more "complete" form of meat consumption needed, but no part of the animal - bones, feathers, hide - should be put to waste. And speaking of waste, let's not ignore the byproducts of raising livestock. Animal feces are an integral part of making such an operation sustainable.

Biodigestors are making a big difference in the incomes of former subsistence farmers, along with avoiding the pollution that comes from other forms of energy generation, while here in the states, entire livestock systems are becoming self-sufficient in this way. For example, a Michigan feedmill is set to begin using turkey manure to power its operation.

"Waste" only comes into being when a material is not put to appropriate use, and everything under the sun can find some place in our systems of production and consumption!

Source: http://www.biobasednews.com/node/17108

by acschwim at 11:16 AM on 24 Jul 2008

Don't worry...

I'm confident the pork industry is as efficient at utilizing the entire animal as the beef industry is...

Here is a Discover Magazine article describing the use of the rest of a cow...

http://www.discover.com/issues/aug-01/features/featcow/

Check out the list of products at the end.

Plywood adhesive?!

Jet engine lubricant?!

Until I read this article, I never realized how thoroughly some animals are used. Sure, the Native Americans used every part of a bison, but modern industry has taken this concept to a new level. Not a single molecule appears to be discarded.

by wiscidea at 12:46 PM on 24 Jul 2008
[ Parent ]

I mostly agree with John former Marine's comments

I thought his criticisms were spot-on, and appropriately scathing. The article comes across as little more than meat industry PR. The old standby, "former vegan turned meateater," is so hackneyed by now I almost always expect it to appear in these types of articles.

I've donated to grist in the past, but if you plan to publish more of this type of fluff in the future, I'd rather save my money as I can always depend on the NY Times for their slanted coverage on the food industry and environment.

by moyesii at 11:36 PM on 25 Jul 2008

All but the scream.

Wiscidea: not new. Back when it was the the center of that doleful business the Chicago hog butchers always boasted they used every part of the animal but the squeal.

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

by spaceshaper at 5:02 AM on 29 Jul 2008

They even use the litter!

Our super-green, goody-goody meat industry is so thoughtful and caring and respectful of the lives of the animals it raises for environmentalists to eat that they've even devised a way to deal with chicken litter (manure) in an environmentally-responsible way. I think we need someone to write an article about the practice of feeding livestock with the manure of other livestock and how "green" it is compared to dumping millions of gallons of waste into rivers.

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0557/ANR-0557.pdf

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forglvst/rations.htm

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/pub1998.htm

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 6:54 AM on 29 Jul 2008

The comments of Grist users reflect the opinions of those individuals only, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Grist, its staff, its board members, their psychotherapists, or their aestheticians. Got it?

Confronting Your Inner Carnivore