You Are What You Eat
Today, I went to a farm and bought eggs. I'm talking about a real, honest to goodness farm. With goats (and apparently chickens). It was a neat experience, and one I'm likely to repeat. Those eggs are gooood! The yolks are almost orange. It's amazing!
It all started with an accidental trip to a strange website. I'm not sure how I got to themeatrix.com, only that I was there. I watched both movies. I learned a lot. Then, I started asking some questions. Questions like "Where does my food come from?" and "If the animals who make my eggs and dairy aren't healthy, how healthy can my eggs and dairy be? What exactly is in my food?" For some people, another appropriate question would be "If the animal I'm currently eating wasn't healthy, why am I eating it?" Clearly, the animal you're eating is no longer healthy, but I think it's reasonable, perhaps even prudent to expect that it was healthy at some point.
The Meatrix is part of a larger site called Sustainable Table. The thing I like best about Sustainable Table is that it is NOT some tree-hugging hippie "meat is murder" site. It's not even really about animal cruelty (although that does factor in. Think about it. Cruelty=unhealthy animals=unhealthy animal products. It's not a huge leap of logic, that.) Sustainable Table is about economics, environmental awareness, and human health. The basic idea behind it is that factory farms are bad because they place unreasonable demands on the local environment (have you ever driven past a dairy?) and produce unhealthy conditions for the animals (which produces unhealthy animals, which creates a need to constantly medicate said animals to control disease - disease and medications that make their way into our food.) Also, because of the logistical problems of having, say, 1,000 cows on a couple of acres of land, it actually costs more to produce food this way.
Now, a lot of people in these circles oppose GMOs - genetically modified organisms. I think that's a bit paranoid. GMOs have great potential, in my opinion. It's not Frankenfood, it's progress as far as I'm concerned. I also don't think that drinking factory farmed milk, and eating factory farmed eggs and meat will kill a person. (Sustainable Table doesn't think that either, by the way.) However, it makes good sense to me that animals that are allowed to eat thier natural diet, and engage in natural behaviours (like, say, walking) will tend to be healthier. It also stands to reason that healthier animals means healthier meat/dairy/eggs. Healthier meat/dairy/eggs may mean a healthier me. Or maybe it just tastes better. Either way, I'm happy.
Maybe it's time for us to reconnect with our food. We scrutinize the labels on just about everything we eat, but we don't think twice about the chicken we had for dinner last night, and well, maybe we should.
(By the way, you should really watch The Meatrix movies, even if you think this whole post is a pile of BS. They're quite funny, actually. How can you say no to a trenchcoat-wearing cow named "Moopheus"?!? Or a pig called "Mr. Hamderson"?!? Classic!)
It all started with an accidental trip to a strange website. I'm not sure how I got to themeatrix.com, only that I was there. I watched both movies. I learned a lot. Then, I started asking some questions. Questions like "Where does my food come from?" and "If the animals who make my eggs and dairy aren't healthy, how healthy can my eggs and dairy be? What exactly is in my food?" For some people, another appropriate question would be "If the animal I'm currently eating wasn't healthy, why am I eating it?" Clearly, the animal you're eating is no longer healthy, but I think it's reasonable, perhaps even prudent to expect that it was healthy at some point.
The Meatrix is part of a larger site called Sustainable Table. The thing I like best about Sustainable Table is that it is NOT some tree-hugging hippie "meat is murder" site. It's not even really about animal cruelty (although that does factor in. Think about it. Cruelty=unhealthy animals=unhealthy animal products. It's not a huge leap of logic, that.) Sustainable Table is about economics, environmental awareness, and human health. The basic idea behind it is that factory farms are bad because they place unreasonable demands on the local environment (have you ever driven past a dairy?) and produce unhealthy conditions for the animals (which produces unhealthy animals, which creates a need to constantly medicate said animals to control disease - disease and medications that make their way into our food.) Also, because of the logistical problems of having, say, 1,000 cows on a couple of acres of land, it actually costs more to produce food this way.
Now, a lot of people in these circles oppose GMOs - genetically modified organisms. I think that's a bit paranoid. GMOs have great potential, in my opinion. It's not Frankenfood, it's progress as far as I'm concerned. I also don't think that drinking factory farmed milk, and eating factory farmed eggs and meat will kill a person. (Sustainable Table doesn't think that either, by the way.) However, it makes good sense to me that animals that are allowed to eat thier natural diet, and engage in natural behaviours (like, say, walking) will tend to be healthier. It also stands to reason that healthier animals means healthier meat/dairy/eggs. Healthier meat/dairy/eggs may mean a healthier me. Or maybe it just tastes better. Either way, I'm happy.
Maybe it's time for us to reconnect with our food. We scrutinize the labels on just about everything we eat, but we don't think twice about the chicken we had for dinner last night, and well, maybe we should.
(By the way, you should really watch The Meatrix movies, even if you think this whole post is a pile of BS. They're quite funny, actually. How can you say no to a trenchcoat-wearing cow named "Moopheus"?!? Or a pig called "Mr. Hamderson"?!? Classic!)
posted by thejessicat at 8:16 PM
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