The Ethicurean: Chew the right thing. » Blog Archive » Digest: Serious shellfish invasion, butter banned, Monsanto exec fined, slaughter up close
“Death on the range”: A first-person essay about the day the writer watched the on-farm slaughter of one of her family’s steers, after her father told her that “if you’re going to eat beef, you should have the stomach to watch how it gets to the table.”
When I read this item in my RSS reader, the article ended:
Her reaction is interesting — and sure to piss off certain sanctimoniously snarky vegetarians.
That has now been removed from the post. Gee, I wonder who she meant? And that's sanctimoniously snarky
vegan to you. (Hey, is that domain name taken?)
So, always in search of something to
get pissed off at call bullshit on, I went and read the
article. Didn't piss me off at all. I actually had a lot of respect for the writer. It was a straight-up, honest look at what happens. She didn't call killed "harvested," she didn't turn away from it. She watched it. The whole damn thing. Not on tape, not photographs. Not Michael Pollan's Foodie Safari "hunt." The raw, hard, bloody reality of someone killing and cutting up an animal for food. Not some bullshit like 'National Pig Day.' Not posting pastoral photos of contented animals or caricatures of animals slaughtered for food. I'll say it again: I don't think everyone needs to be vegetarian. I only have problems with those people writing moral checks that their stomachs can't cash. That's what I'm sanctimonious and snarky about.
Technorati Tags: food, vegan, vegetarian
Comments
I think Jessica appreciate this comment from you. If you get a chance, leave her a comment on the article. Your perspective would certainly round out the subject rather well.
Cheers,
- Mark -
P.S. I will send a note to Jessica so she can check out your post directly.
Posted by: Mark Douglas | March 9, 2007 12:45 PM
Also, you might find this post we just made today on Vegan Cookbooks "No Meat, No Problem" (http://www.culinate.com/home). Funny how timing works out.
I would love to know what you think. Are there others you would suggest notifying about this?
Regards,
- Mark -
Posted by: Mark Douglas | March 9, 2007 1:42 PM
Thanks to both of you for reading the piece--and your kind words. Frankly, I enjoy few things more than calling out (subtly, with something that's hopefully thoughtful & intelligent) sanctimonious vegetarians, vegans, carnivores....
Posted by: Jessica Blaine | March 9, 2007 3:09 PM
Mark, I enjoyed the post on vegan cookbooks. It's good to see a review of a couple vegan cookbooks on a "mainstream" food site, and even though the writer was a former vegan, it was sympathetic and took the subject seriously, rather than parroting the usual cliches. It would be nice to see an actual current vegan write one of these things though.
Jessica. I thought it was a thoughtful and well-written piece. Obviously, we think differently about meat-eating, but I can respect your decision and your thought process. Thanks for stopping by.
Posted by: jbm | March 9, 2007 7:05 PM