Vegetarianism--If Only I didn't Like Meat So Much

During my video viewing, I watched "Fast Food Nation," the little seen movie about the corrupt ways of the Fast Food Chains that spring up faster than weeds in a untended lawn. Vegetarianism is something I never thought much about. Let's face it, I'm a girl who loves steak, hamburgers, lamb chops, veal, and Korean ribs. And like most carnivores, I never let my mind ponder about where meat came from, what living being it had been before arriving on my plate, the perfectly cooked T-Bone steak. It was flesh, of the animal kind, but I didn't let myself picture how this gentle cow grazed in an open field before ending up on my plate.

This movie, in its attempts to open our eyes to the horrors of meat packing factories and fast food chains, goes out of its way to show us the gory route of cow to T-Bone. To say it was wholly unappetizing would be an understatement. It gave me pause about my lip-smacking appreciation for steak. I doubt this one movie could turn me into a Peta member, but it does make you think about the food chain of what we consume and where and how this food arrives, so neatly packaged to our local grocery stores.

And in truth, this applies to all of our food. Slaughter houses, for fowl or meat, are gory and cruel. Whether they are more so now than in the past is what I don't know. But shouldn't we be critical of all the practices taken by food producers? The exploitative practices of agro-business using cheap labor, usually of the undocumented kind, is no more above judgment than the slaughter houses. The agricultural industry is known to be one of the largest consumers of fuel, and emitter of carbon emissions. Yet, it's rare for anyone to protest strawberries.

The process of food production has been corrupted by so many factors. It isn't natural for us to consume watermelon, a summer fruit, all year long. That one watermelon took so much fuel, not to mention the human toll of workers, for it to arrive at your local Ralphs, A & P, or Stop and Shop in December. Yet, none of us give much thought to any of this since we've now gotten accustomed to the conveniance--key word here--of having summer fruits all year long.

For one day, I thought about not eating meat. But for one day only. But if I were to become sanctimonious about meat, shouldn't I be as strident about all food?