EAT
Diet Choices
Photos courtesy of Chipper Stotz
by RACHEL ALSHEIKH
We have seen the pictures and heard the stories of slaughterhouse walls branded with the blood of cattle whose doom is marked with price-indicating tags and nylon wrapping. This is the face of the commercial meat industry, ladies and gentlemen; toss your appetite from the window and watch it fall. So, we are familiar with this gory picture, but what do we do with the information that it presents? How can we detach ourselves from the practices of butchery? The first instinct, of course, is to go herbivore. According to a Vegetarian Times survey, over half of the twelve million Americans that have expressed interest in the alternative diet did so in order to promote the welfare of bovine or livestock. This is not to say, though, that they actually adopted the meatless lifestyle— only seven million decided to make the adjustment. More than ninety percent of the country continues to indulge in carnivorous cuisine. But the gap can be explained. Vegetarianism and veganism resist the growth hormones, steroids, veterinary drugs, and antibiotics associated with the slaughterhouse. They avoid threatening microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella, along with parasites and worms. They offer a lowered cholesterol and blood pressure; they protect the human body from heart disease and other illnesses. The decision to become a vegetarian, however, is not necessarily related to what is healthy and what is not, what is safe and what is not. After all, meat is a staple to the customs of the United States. It has been established and accepted as the feast to a Thanksgiving, the dinner to a Christmas Eve, and the barbeque to a Fourth of July. Its consumption has evolved to represent celebration; it represents the gathering of relatives and acquaintances on holiday. Meat captures these experiences in a way that only food can—by taste. Rejecting this taste is inherently the act of abandoning a tradition; this can surpass health benefits. Paul McCartney once said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.” Those five million people who chose against vegetarianism and veganism, however, did not fail to acknowledge the blood on butchery concrete. They saw through the glass. As consumers, they understood the process that their meat went through before it was presented to them, chilled in a grocery store freezer. The carnivores’ decision comes down to the fact that they are unwilling to part ways with the taste of meat. Or, more importantly, what the taste implies on a national—or, really, personal—scale. These people are not ignorant to the torment that the industry introduces to animal domestication; then again, the choice of whether or not to become vegetarian or vegan does not rely on their emotional reaction to this fact. They look past the butchery because meat is important to them. It is important to the millions of others that surround them, so they choose to embrace it despite the risk. Despite the butchery, they eat. The decision depends on each of their priorities.
www.baymagazine.org|AUTUMN2011
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