A lot of people ask me if I'm a vegetarian, because they don't see me eat meat. I don't have a short answer to give them, because I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm also not a common omnivore. People tend to have a need to sort reality into boxes, and I have to admit it is very tempting to find a box to hide in.
But the truth is, none of the currently available definitions feel comfortable for me, so I'll have to tailor make my own, and also make it flexible enough to change as I do.
I don't claim to have some principle of right and wrong on this issue, and I'm not claiming any moral higher ground, but rather I am trying to describe what feels natural to me.
My exposition is especially long, because in all matters concerning food that comes from living things (also matters concerning children, but I will get to that in a different post), people tend to get really defensive very quickly. So once again, I do not mean to attack anyone, just explain myself coherently.
My basic belief is that eating a carrot is somehow different from eating an egg, ordering a schnitzel, or carving up a chicken. While I can eat a carrot without a second thought, I can no longer do the same with an omelet. I believe that food that comes from animals deserves some special consideration, simply because it derives from a sentient being. There isn't a clear line between sentient and non sentient beings, but I think we can all instinctively say which organisms are sure to feel pain if we hurt them.
I began thinking this way after starting to work in an office, and noticing how easy it was to order a hamburger. 3 clicks on a computer mouse are all it takes to get a part of a cow for lunch, and it is not expensive either. This made me think – isn't this too easy? Shouldn't this cost more? Has the abstraction between the living animal and the plate become so inflated that in all practical terms we don't realize that what we are eating used to be alive?
Once you start thinking this way, it is virtually impossible to casually eat meat again, because this thought in some form is always there. So now I had no choice but to deal with it.
The "easy" way out is to just stop eating meat, and let the conscience sleep in peace, but this is the easy way out. I find that choosing such absolute principles to follow makes me appear as a better person (to myself of course) but does not make me feel any better. So I need to find my own middle way which gives some respect to food produced by or from animals, but can still allow me to consume it.
It is important for me to continue eating these animal ingredients, and not for health reasons. The first reason is that eating gives me pleasure, and pleasure is hard to find in this world. Giving too much up might result in depression. The second reason is that food comes in meals, and meals are the story of our culture. Be it family dinners or food with friends, each dish has its own story and significance, and giving it up abruptly can be a violent act to the people in your life.
So I am left with the option of eating, but not as often. In the past year or so, I have stopped eating meat in the office; instead I order vegetarian meals for lunch. But this solution is not good enough, because it is just quantitative and not qualitative. After reading about animal agriculture in the US in several books ("Eating Animals", "My Year of Meats") I realized that more than the death of animals, I am bothered by the way they live. If a cow is raised for 5 years, and then butchered in 20 minutes, it makes sense to put a bigger emphasize on its life. Not to say it is OK to use inhumane butchering methods, but I'm trying to divide and conquer here.
This thought led me to start buying free-range eggs exclusively, and use alternatives if I can't find any. It turns out I can make a mean chickpea (no pun intended) omelet and feed it to my two-year-old without any hunting thoughts.
After some more musing, I also realized that if my family eats less meat, and only spends money on it once every 2 months or so, we can afford to buy more expensive, free-range meat at a boutique butchery. This place buys from a ranch in Israel's Golan heights, which is known for its animals' good welfare. An additional bonus is the quality of their meat, which might be due to their animals' good life.
This still leaves the problem of visiting with family and friends. If someone worked hard and placed all his love for me in a dish, it would be offensive not to eat it. It is not always possible to prepare things in advance and ask for vegetarian dishes, and I'm not sure it is fair to enforce my comfort zone on somebody else in this respect.
I am trying to kick start a long term change in the way my family thinks of food. This long term goal is not harmed by an occasional rounded corner. I am sure some pure vegetarians or vegans will despise me for this, but what can I say, I feel comfortable with it.
A recent article in Haaretz mentioned the supposed rivalry between full time vegetarians and weekday vegetarians. According to the writer, vegetarians who care about animal rights hate their weekday companions, since these impostors don't have any moral principle they rely on, regarding animal welfare. This is not true, as I've demonstrated - there is more than one way to care.
I believe people can be influenced and understand complicated thinking regarding food. We have more than 2 alternatives. The important thing is that we do think about it, and use self reflection to make sure how we are acting does not disagree with our sub-conscious.
Rabi Kook wrote about the ideal of a vegetarian world. In his eyes we are bound to get there eventually, as it is wrong to eat meat, but not yet. The reason we have to wait is that our energy is limited, and we have bigger issues to solve. In addition, the moral state of the world is not good enough to forsake meat, more preparation is needed.
I have a similar view regarding my personal life. I have started a process in which I am weaving new stories about food inside my home. New traditional meals at different occasions, and new stories behind them. This will undoubtedly affect my children in some way, hopefully for the better. I can only hope that the upcoming years will give us more choice as consumers, more local sources of food and a more personal understanding of its complete preparation cycle.
But the truth is, none of the currently available definitions feel comfortable for me, so I'll have to tailor make my own, and also make it flexible enough to change as I do.
I don't claim to have some principle of right and wrong on this issue, and I'm not claiming any moral higher ground, but rather I am trying to describe what feels natural to me.
My exposition is especially long, because in all matters concerning food that comes from living things (also matters concerning children, but I will get to that in a different post), people tend to get really defensive very quickly. So once again, I do not mean to attack anyone, just explain myself coherently.
My basic belief is that eating a carrot is somehow different from eating an egg, ordering a schnitzel, or carving up a chicken. While I can eat a carrot without a second thought, I can no longer do the same with an omelet. I believe that food that comes from animals deserves some special consideration, simply because it derives from a sentient being. There isn't a clear line between sentient and non sentient beings, but I think we can all instinctively say which organisms are sure to feel pain if we hurt them.
I began thinking this way after starting to work in an office, and noticing how easy it was to order a hamburger. 3 clicks on a computer mouse are all it takes to get a part of a cow for lunch, and it is not expensive either. This made me think – isn't this too easy? Shouldn't this cost more? Has the abstraction between the living animal and the plate become so inflated that in all practical terms we don't realize that what we are eating used to be alive?
Once you start thinking this way, it is virtually impossible to casually eat meat again, because this thought in some form is always there. So now I had no choice but to deal with it.
The "easy" way out is to just stop eating meat, and let the conscience sleep in peace, but this is the easy way out. I find that choosing such absolute principles to follow makes me appear as a better person (to myself of course) but does not make me feel any better. So I need to find my own middle way which gives some respect to food produced by or from animals, but can still allow me to consume it.
It is important for me to continue eating these animal ingredients, and not for health reasons. The first reason is that eating gives me pleasure, and pleasure is hard to find in this world. Giving too much up might result in depression. The second reason is that food comes in meals, and meals are the story of our culture. Be it family dinners or food with friends, each dish has its own story and significance, and giving it up abruptly can be a violent act to the people in your life.
So I am left with the option of eating, but not as often. In the past year or so, I have stopped eating meat in the office; instead I order vegetarian meals for lunch. But this solution is not good enough, because it is just quantitative and not qualitative. After reading about animal agriculture in the US in several books ("Eating Animals", "My Year of Meats") I realized that more than the death of animals, I am bothered by the way they live. If a cow is raised for 5 years, and then butchered in 20 minutes, it makes sense to put a bigger emphasize on its life. Not to say it is OK to use inhumane butchering methods, but I'm trying to divide and conquer here.
This thought led me to start buying free-range eggs exclusively, and use alternatives if I can't find any. It turns out I can make a mean chickpea (no pun intended) omelet and feed it to my two-year-old without any hunting thoughts.
After some more musing, I also realized that if my family eats less meat, and only spends money on it once every 2 months or so, we can afford to buy more expensive, free-range meat at a boutique butchery. This place buys from a ranch in Israel's Golan heights, which is known for its animals' good welfare. An additional bonus is the quality of their meat, which might be due to their animals' good life.
This still leaves the problem of visiting with family and friends. If someone worked hard and placed all his love for me in a dish, it would be offensive not to eat it. It is not always possible to prepare things in advance and ask for vegetarian dishes, and I'm not sure it is fair to enforce my comfort zone on somebody else in this respect.
I am trying to kick start a long term change in the way my family thinks of food. This long term goal is not harmed by an occasional rounded corner. I am sure some pure vegetarians or vegans will despise me for this, but what can I say, I feel comfortable with it.
A recent article in Haaretz mentioned the supposed rivalry between full time vegetarians and weekday vegetarians. According to the writer, vegetarians who care about animal rights hate their weekday companions, since these impostors don't have any moral principle they rely on, regarding animal welfare. This is not true, as I've demonstrated - there is more than one way to care.
I believe people can be influenced and understand complicated thinking regarding food. We have more than 2 alternatives. The important thing is that we do think about it, and use self reflection to make sure how we are acting does not disagree with our sub-conscious.
Rabi Kook wrote about the ideal of a vegetarian world. In his eyes we are bound to get there eventually, as it is wrong to eat meat, but not yet. The reason we have to wait is that our energy is limited, and we have bigger issues to solve. In addition, the moral state of the world is not good enough to forsake meat, more preparation is needed.
I have a similar view regarding my personal life. I have started a process in which I am weaving new stories about food inside my home. New traditional meals at different occasions, and new stories behind them. This will undoubtedly affect my children in some way, hopefully for the better. I can only hope that the upcoming years will give us more choice as consumers, more local sources of food and a more personal understanding of its complete preparation cycle.
11 comments:
eating with compassion is a neverending challange. i empithize with your balacing act of trying to be considerate while not pushing the envilope too much. cuasion and consideration are a beautiful way to frame the dilema of what we chose to incorporate in our lives, body and sole.
i would like, however, to add another varient to your equation, and bring in more people to the picture. we, as israelis, have to keep in mind issues like the politics of land use and ownership along with workers' rights and work imigrants. many of the israeli free-range eggs come from settlemnts (bad ass, violent, hostile settlemts who terrories palestinians) in the occupied territories. i would not like to eat those eggs. i would preffer not to drink wine that is part of a profiting industray that exploits palestinian land as well.
babie steps are safe. and defining the playing feel makes the discorse easier. i admire the fact that you can make a clear choice, and leave its ends loose enough for adaptation. when i look back and reflect on our very personal food biographies, i am amazed by the changes.
i wonder what we will be eating in 10 years time.
goor
It sounds like I did make myself clear, thanks for reading and understanding.
care to share the names of those evil free-range egg producers?
Kfar Tapuah produces eggs. the farm is led by the infumous Avri Ran.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=17613
and Itamar produce eggs at Meshek Ran.
http://www.shechem.org/ran/index.html
you can find thier products in organic markets and stores. note that commenting about your unwillingness to by the product might have an impact on store owners. I've incountered one testimony that varifies this effect.
I'm not even sure anymore about eating potatoes or tomatoes or rice crisps or giving formula to my son! I don't feel comfortable when I hear on the news that an outbreak of salmonella was caused by spinach. And that pesticides are causing the disappearance of bees around the world.
At the same time, I've been eating Doritos all my life and I am fine! What the hell is all this uneasiness about the food I know and love?
I want to propose calling this inner dialogue (because mostly it's between me to myself) the discussion about "Eating Ethically".
Honestly, I'm not sure if ever in human beings' history was the issue of eating ethically something to consider. Today though, it's surely becoming a point to ponder for responsible people who want to be active participants in their own lives. There are people who like to decide for themselves what course of action they will take in their lives - these are the kind of people who think about eating ethically.
Eating ethically has nothing to do with eating meat only or becoming an ovolacto vegetarian or strictly vegan or weekday vegetarian, etc. It has to do with the disconnection a normal person - in his everyday life - experiences with the food he eats.
He is far removed from the processes that his food is put through before it reaches his table. He has no idea what the synthetic vitamins in his cereal do to his body and never even thought about the chemicals used to produce his vegetable oil.
And somewhere, in his primal core, he feels at odds with what he puts in his mouth. Because he can no longer identify with the food on his table. And sometimes can't even identify the food itself.
Not too long ago, even 100 years ago, pretty much everyone either a) knew the farmer who grew their fruits and vegetables, grains and meat b) or produced most of them on their own land. There was a process that occurred. Digging one's fingers in the dirt to plant seed, watching the first sprouts peek their heads through, making sure each had just the right amount of water, observing the progress of each plant, protecting it if bugs or animals did damage...
And then there was the simple pleasure of watching the first fruits begin to show. Watching them grow and ripen and finally picking them and bringing them home to the table.
The same with livestock and animal products like milk and cheese and butter. Saving the cream and then churning and churning until it became butter; Waiting a half year to eat cheese you made with your own hands, were processes that made you part of the food and the food part of you.
Watching a calf turn into a cow or steer and then making the decision to end it's life in order to feed one's family is a far different matter from choosing your cut at the butcher. The process is what creates the joy and the responsibility and ultimately the choice about what one eats.
For the most part, today, the basic connection to the living things you put into your body to get energy from is "produced" for you, rather than you producing it. And you don't know how it's been produced anymore. In fact, you have no real way of even finding out. If you want to know how your tofu was made, you need to write to customer service at the tofu company. You can't go to the field and see the actual soy you're going to eat. For all you know, the tofu you're eating might be meat! It's actually strange if you think about it.
I'm not trying to say that everyone should go out and get a cow. But I do think that it's possible to find ways to make that connection again to what I eat. Like buying meat from a butcher who you know treats animals humanely. Or getting vegetables from a farm you have actually seen. That's not an impossible task. It just takes a little more investment of time and caring.
I think what we miss is the Choice in what we eat. It seems as though there is greater choice today than ever - go to any supermarket and look at all the types of food you can select.
But somehow, something feels as though it's missing.
I would say that the cliche "you are what you eat" is really a truth. When you choose to eat wisely it reflects on your choices about life. I admire that you try to choose wisely about what and who you are.
When choice and responsibility are involved it is meaningful. Meaning then becomes available for consumption. :)
Thank you Goor and Rhianna for helping me refine my thinking and expand the discussion. I think the core issue is about disconnection and abstraction, perhaps not only in food...
continuing Rhianna's trail of thought, i thoguht it would be relevant to add a link to the video i've made about choosing what to eat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw_z-NiRh0Y
i don't remember if it made the cut or not, but Tami from CityTree sayed something interesting to that affect. she posed the question whether or not we really have more to choose from when we go to the supermarket. having 50 different yogurts on the shelf might give the ilussion of free choice, but we are trapped in the cosumerist relationship of detachment from source and process.
goor
Strange you would need so many words to explain this. Or maybe it is because I feel exactly the same way and carry these thoughts similarly that it is so obvious to me.
This is just a little support to the Sane Eating movement. Anyone dreaming of a better world for the next generation(s) should realise it is up to us to provide them with a livable planet, reducing animal farming as an immediate step.
you've been living amongst japanese for too long. here in your homeland, almost nobody thinks about these things. So when we finally do, it takes more than a facebook comment to sort our thoughts...
thanks for reading :)
ok, perhaps it's a tease, but might i propose an aswer to the question "why I like to pay more for my food"?
.
.
.
because i can...
Goor
an please post abother post or i will keep having things to say.
actually I can't. I wish I could though. In the meanwhile, the nice people at the bank have agreed to give me money for free!
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