what are you going to eat?

the question i seem to get a lot. i always say...i'll find something.

why? is a question i've gotten A LOT in the past year. Why don't I eat meat...

in mexico they didn't understand it and due to my lacking spanish i couldn't really explain it super well either. so last week when we went on a family vacation and my brother asked i was kind-of happy because i could actually explain myself with words.

i almost feel like i was rarely asked in chicago. there are a lot of vegetarians. i guess people either assume why (i think most vegetarians have different reasons) or just think 'oh another one.'

so i figure this is an opportunity to explain...

as best i can anyway, it's pretty complicated to put into words...in any language.

if i lived on the sea i would definitely eat fish (i miss fish).

if i lived in an area where i knew how the cows were raised and how they are killed i would eat meat...probably (i don't miss meat)

transportation. so he asked me while we were eating at a local fish restaurant in south carolina...oh wait i think we went to north for that meal. when we were walking in i really wanted to get a big plate of fish too...yum. But now i've gotten to the point i get sick when i eat it...not something i want to deal with on vacation.

the amount of emissions it makes to transport meat around the country/world (i don't see any cows in chicago...) and on top of just transporting it the meat has extra needs because the truck has to be cold at the same time. so the price the world pays to transport the meat. one reason.

if i lived somewhere where it came right off the pasture or water than i would still eat it. i'm not sure they fish in chicago, but if i found a place that sold fresh caught fish. i would eat fish. but it would probably be expensive.

i struggle with this with fruit too. i know fruit is transported far too and often makes a lot of emissions to get to me. i try to buy locally, but sometimes i just really want a mango (from mexico) or papaya (from mexico) or oranges (from Florida or california) and how do i think it gets to my trader joe's?...emissions are involved. i like shopping at trader joe's because they have a philosophy about how they get their food and they try to do it as ethically as possible (great at trying to be fair trade) but at the end of the day it's still a business. their customers want fruits that aren't grown in the area too. and it's inexpensive...that's another reason i shop there.

but overall i try.

workers in one of my classes senior year of college it was supposed to be about advertising, but we ended up covering SO many topics. probably my favorite class at DePaul.

we studied how we obtain meat and this included reading about the slaughter houses. we read several articles about them, but one in-particular struck me. especially when they talked about the treatment of the people who work in them. they have awful conditions. and unfortunately they seem to get away with these violations because the majority of people working there are "illegal" so they can't complain to anyone. people have lost arms, legs, etc. even died. some people argue that it's due to carelessness, but when they don't have much time to rest because they are forced to work such long shifts of course tiredness leads to accidents. it's not helped by the extreme chemicals used in the slaughter house. they want to keep the place sterile...there's obviously a lot of blood, but this comes to the detriment of the workers.

i wish i had some of those articles with me. maybe i'll look through my old stuff for my syllabus.

growth hormones for the animals this is not proven by any means yet, at least not that i'm aware of, but the growth hormones they give the animals so they'll grow at an extreme speed obviously do not disappear from their bodies when they die, therefore people ingest them as well. and they can have bad effects on human bodies. so for right now i think it's just a murmur, but i think they're trying to figure the effects the medicines have on humans.

another reason if i knew the cows were just eating grass or whatever and not medicine, i would eat them. when they take the normal amount of time to mature as well.

and as the majority of animals are raised in factory farms where the animals are overcrowded farmers must give them regular doses of antibiotics to keep the animals alive in these unsanitary conditions. apparently half of all the antibiotics made in the US each year are administered to farm animals, causing antibiotic resistance in the humans who eat them.

and i'm sure what the chickens eat goes to their eggs...and i still eat eggs. so like i said, i try.

environmental impact on top of the emissions it takes to transport the meat to different areas, many of the cows live their entire lives in a little square cageish type thing and the small space is packed full of cows/chickens/pigs ______ (insert animal). the way they are raised they emit pollution into the air with so many in such small quarters. yes, the cows grazing the grass (they still exist i know, but unfortunately it's in the minority) emit the same type of pollution, but it's in smaller quantities and more reasonable...if that makes sense.

so...there it is. that's why i don't eat meat. this is what i've compiled up in my mind and the best way i can explain it. so it may not make sense and i respect anyone who wants to eat meat...i would hope so or i wouldn't have many friends. but for right now it's not for me.