I have had this conversation with myself several times during my lifetime: should I eat meat and its close relatives such as eggs, fish, etc.? I grew up pretty much a city girl, so meat came from a grocery store or butcher. They were packaged in celephane or wrapped in brown paper. Nobody told me the origin of said meat. Eggs were in cartons. What was the big deal? They tasted good. Especially pickled eggs. My grandfathers were both accomplished fisherman and provided for their families by bringing home fish for the dinner table.
And then one day I grew old enough to realize that the juicy meat called "tongue" we had for an occasional Sunday dinner was really a cow's tongue. Oh, dear. I had to think the whole "farm to dinner table" production line. Which opened other ideas as well. I was too young for such responsibility!
Skipping through time, leaving other events out, I am once again pondering the question of "To Be or Not To Be" thanks to a new California law banning Foie Gras. The law's intent is to find another way other than the traditional method to create Foie Gras, because it is cruel to ducks and geese. They are forced fed to increase the size of their liver, then killed. So the law is ok with Foie Gras itself, which I interpret to mean the killing of said ducks and geese, just not the force feeding part. The production of Foie Gras will stop at the beginning of 2012. Once a humane way can be found to increase the liver size, production can once again be allowed in California. Just what am I to do(though I have never eaten Foie Gras)?
I believe I can evolve and accept change, so that is not the problem. For years, the American diet was based on a triangle with breads on the lower level, then fruits and veggies, dairy and protein, and finally at the top oils and sweets. Now we have the circle(plate) as described by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It shows how to divide up a circle into fruits, vegetables, grains, protein. Dairy has its own small circle on the Northeast corner. Ok, I can go from triangle to circle. I can be flexible.
But I still haven't decided which way I will choose about meat. Until I do, I will continue to be a city girl.
We eat red meat only once or twice a week. We try really hard to have lean cuts when we do. yes, they are more expensive, but then this helps limit how much we buy in the first place. Vegetarian meals, or white meat for protein is our staples. We eat meat all the time, so obviously I have no issue with it, but that being said-I do think as I do think we as a country eat too much meat.
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