Veggie Myth Buster: If You knew what went into getting meat to market, you’d give it up.

Here you are Eileen…

How often do you hear someone suggest that if you knew what went into getting your meat to market you’d give it up!  Or my personal favorite: If you really had to kill and prep the animal that you’re eating, if it wasn’t done for you, you’d give up meat in a second!

Allow me to posit those first two thoughts a different way:  If you knew what I know you would choose what I choose.  Touch arrogant, no?  Yeah, it is and I don’t think so…  Here’s the problem, I actually know farmers.  Went to school with them, worked on their farms, spent some of my youth playing on the farm with their sons.  I know farmers and how much they truly care about what they do and that knowledge surely doesn’t jive with the majority of the faux horror stories out there.  On that same note, I also know what goes into killing and prepping an animal so I can eat it – I’ve done it, and it surely doesn’t bother me like it does the shriekers.

Now, I’m going to go very slow here because there will be misunderstanding unless you read the words I have written carefully…

I do know, specifically, what goes into getting my meat to the table, I’ve done it all – shoulder deep, and if anything, it’s only made my love of meat stronger.  What most meat detractors are missing is that, while it is tough to look at a living, majestic creature like a deer and pull the trigger, if your heart is right with the world it does cleanse the soul.  Killing, processing and eating deer has indeed changed my life, for the better.

The problem here is that a small minority of people may genuinely be turned off by the process but they project their emotion onto everyone else, somehow making the leap that because they’d rather eat a piece of broccoli, others should share in their feeling.  Not to put too fine a point on it, I don’t care, I’m not changing a thing.

This gets tricky though…  If people like me don’t push back against the stupid from time to time, eventually some of that stupid will stick on the barn (“if you throw enough shit against the side of a barn, eventually some will stick”).  For instance, vegetarians and vegans try to claim moral superiority because they mistakenly believe their choice is somehow healthier when no objective scientific study exists to back that belief.  If you have a problem with that statement, look at it another way:  I’m an ex-drunk so I know specifically the effects of alcohol on humankind…  Now imagine I take my personal experience and beliefs and project that across the entire world to suggest that all alcohol be banned forever.  We’ve had our bout with prohibition and it proved stupid and I’m not so pretentious to believe that everyone has to have a problem with alcohol like I do.  On the other hand, wouldn’t it be funny if I eschewed reasonability to champion the cause anyway?  How silly would I be to ignore the numerous studies that show a glass of wine every now and again is healthy (it’s very simple, I drank a lifetime’s worth 20 years ago).  Hopefully, when viewed in this context, the Veganazi’s will be able to see the error in their ways (doubtful, but a fella can hope can’t he?).

I’ll think about a vegetarian diet when you convince all of the lions, tigers and bears to eat plants instead.  I won’t be holding my breath either.  For the record, just so we can be clear and avoid need for comment, I do know what goes into making a hot dog.  I don’t care.  And yes, I eat them regularly and in large quantities… and my kids love them too.

Speaking of bears…  What is a human in a sleepingbag to a bear?

Click and drag from arrow to arrow for the answer.

<         A soft taco        >