Would you, Could You, Anywhere?
Ethicurean question of the day: Should omnivores have to kill their own meat?
Vegetarians have long used the question as part of an argument for a green diet. “If you can’t kill it yourself, then you shouldn’t eat it.” Of course, their gamble is that you won’t say, “Why yes, I think I should have to kill my own meat. You have raised a good point. G’bye, I’m going hunting now!” It’s a pretty good gamble: Most Americans are uncomfortable with the idea that meat comes from actual animals, much less with the notion that these animals have to be slaughtered. Most of us don’t even want to think about it, much less do it ourselves. Personally, I can barely look at those pictures of factory farming, and prior to last March — when I began taking a (mostly) unflinching look at where my food comes from — I probably wouldn’t have dared.
I don’t think you should have to kill your own meat, but in seven months, I plan to do just that: I am going kill a chicken at Food You Can Trust farm. I have no idea if I’m going to be able to do it. My hunch is that I will be able to do it, but that I will have nightmares about it and will shed hot tears when I’m supposed to be sleeping. But maybe not. In any case, I’m pretty sure it won’t be fun. If I find it fun, then I’ll really be worried.
Why am I doing it, if I don’t believe that people should have to slaughter their own meat? The number one reason I’m doing it is simply because I’m considering having a farm of my own someday, and I ought to be able to kill my chickens, oughtn’t I? Another reason I’m doing it is because I want to understand the lives (and deaths) of the chickens I’m eating. On a personal level, I gravitate toward things for which I have absolutely no reference. I have absolutely no reference for killing chickens.
If I can’t do it, should I become a vegetarian?
I mentioned the question to others. They all seemed to agree that meat should be a DIY product. I even asked, “How is it that you believe that people should have to kill their own meat in order to have the right to eat it, or be vegetarian, and yet none of you (a) kill your own meat, or (b) are vegetarians?”
I really couldn’t seem to get a clear answer on that. One friend did say that there is a difference between knowing the right thing to do and doing (or in this case, chewing) the right thing. This in itself was thought-provoking: If you find you can’t do the absolute right thing (assuming there is such a thing) then should you just give up and do the easiest thing?
Indeed, is slaughtering before chewing necessarily “the right thing?”
I posed the question to my fellow Ethicureans. From a philosophical perspective, Miss Steak brought up some interesting points. For instance, if everyone should have to kill meat in order to eat it, what about old people or people with disabilities? Pregnant women? Also, what about carry-over? If the ethical answer to eating meat is to kill it yourself, why wouldn’t it also be an ethical requirement to haul your own trash to the dump in order to understand your impact on the environment?
She also mentions practical issues such as lack of skill (which could cause more suffering for the animal) and the difficulty of reconciling this ideal with urban and suburban existence. She suggests that the answer is to “live and eat mindfully” and to outsource slaughter to people who “respect the animal, give it a good life and a swift death, just as you would.”
Not to be like, “Yeah, what she said!” but I am inclined to agree with Miss Steak. Any other Ethicureans care to weigh in? I would call Peter Singer, Michael Pollan and all those people, but I’m kinda hoping they start coming to us.
Comments
By Rachel Franke on August 2nd, 2006 at 6:41 am
I don't think the argument holds up, overall, although I understand it and agree with it, to some extent. If everyone should only eat what they're willing to kill themselves, should they only eat what they grow themselves, should they only live in houses they build themselves, should they only use computers they built and programmed themselves?
A friend of mine has recently increased the size of her local chicken operation and is just keeping up with demand. Customers place monthly orderr, the 'nice man' takes the chickens to the processing plant, returns the packaged chicken to the grower, and the customers pick up the packaged chicken from the grower. Many, if not most, customers are frank about being happy to be able to support local meat without having to care for and process it themselves.
Is it imperative that people kill chicken before eating it be fully engaged in their local food chain? I don't think so; pretty much everything we use in our daily lives was produced by some type of division of labor, why not here? Perhaps it would be more appropriate to think of how long the production chain is, and aim for a chain of no more than x steps, rather than no chain at all. That's a personal standard that could be applied to Wal-Marts and Whole Foods Markets equally.
By patrick on August 2nd, 2006 at 9:36 am
The idea that omnivores should be ethically required to kill their own meat animals seems to me to be concurrent with a lot of other high-minded ethical theorizing that is popular in these days of easy living and extreme separation from our food sources.
The fact is, through human history (big generalization here), most people have not killed their own meat any more than they have grown all of their own vegetables and grains, caught their own fish, made their own bread, written and typeset and printed their own books, or built and maintained their own vehicles and machinery. [Patrick's anthropologist-wife inserts here: during human prehistory, most women didn't kill their own meat, and not a lot of meat was eaten. Since agriculture--what he said.]
Specialists have always existed in societies and cultures, simply because many of these jobs take specialized skills and it makes more sense for people to become highly proficient at a few things than to be sort-of-good at a bunch of things.
Of course, today our culture is one of extreme specialization. I can't remember the numbers, but the number of people a "farmer" feeds now, compared to the number of people a farmer fed 100 years ago, is separated by an order of magnitude. A lot more of us used to be conversant in things like cooking vegetables, baking bread, growing leafy greens, preserving food, putting livestock manure to good use, and, yes, killing chickens.
Obviously there are good ways to participate in foodways, and bad ones. And there's a lot of different ways to live, in between the extremes of total self-sufficiency and just buying the plastic-wrapped factory products at your local Safeway.
Do vegetarians grow all their own vegetables? Do vegans go out into their organic potato fields and gut-shoot the deer that eat their potato plants, so that their harvests won't be ruined and so that the deer will wander as far away as possible before bleeding to death? Do fans of tofu pups put in months of work behind the controls of a giant combine, cultivating and harvesting their hundreds of acres of federally subsidized soybean crops?
No, they do not.
Similarly, in order to eat and be nourished by meat, you have a lot of options in front of you. Best to choose the ones that support small local producers, sustainable farming practices, and the health and fertility of our farm animals, our soils, and our wildlife.
And if you want to learn how to slaughter and butcher your own chickens, more power to you. It's a valuable skill and a humbling experience. Do it with respect, slowness, and meticulous care.
I bid you, take up the axe gently.
Yours
Patrick
By DairyQueen on August 2nd, 2006 at 11:33 am
I agree with pretty much everything here. [What y'all said.] Although I was that kind of pious vegetarian, only eating shellfish and smaller fish I could imagine catching and cooking.
Now I don't think we *have* to kill our meat, anymore than we *have* to fly our own plane to go on vacation. HOWEVER. I think society and the environment would be better off if we all had a pretty good idea of where whatever we're eating came from, and the kind of life -- and death -- it had. We would probably all eat less meat, be much less likely to demand that it be ever cheaper, and I bet we'd waste less of it.
While I was on vacation I ate a lot of factory chicken, mainly because when I picture that animal being miserable, I feel a little less horrified and lose my appetite a little less than when I picture a factory cow, pig, goat, or sheep. This is entirely arbitrary, I grant you, and has no basis in ethics or biology.
I would like someday to kill a chicken myself, or witness one being killed and processed, because I have managed to compartmentalize death and killing from the act of food-shopping and eating. Of course I know one has to happen for the other to happen, and I want to remind my wimpy little brain and bleeding heart that that is the case. If it ends up making me eat less meat, so be it.
By La La Linda on August 2nd, 2006 at 12:43 pm
...but but but...good analogy, "you don't have to fly a plane yourself" -- and I agree with that sentiment. The other posts here are thoughtful and raise necessary issues of concern (go, Patrick).
There are lots of messy things in life and we don't really have to deal with them ALL, do we? The premise that one must be able to personally kill an animal if one is willing to eat an animal kind of glorifies this do-it-yourself-slaughter is some sort of rite of passage or penance, and I don't buy that. I can know something is not fair. not right, not humane, not kind, WITHOUT being an active participant. I don't need to be a starving person to know that it's wrong that in a land of plenty we permit many to go to bed hungry -- in the like manner that I don't have to be violent in order to condemn violence. Yes, ensuring a satisfying, "natural" life for an animal we intend to eat is a good thing, with the side benefit of making our human consumption of it better and less polluting too (less hormones, additives, etc.). But it all smacks of martyrdom to take it that one step further. And yes, I've been around when chickens were slaughtered. And they weren't raised in boxes either, and lived out their days pecking and poking in the backyard. And no, it wasn't pretty. I don't go to horror movies either; sadly, some in real life die violent deaths, but do I WANT those images imprinted on my brain? I guess this started with the question of killing as being part of Omniwhore's whole Raising Chickens process, and somehow that seems more understandable -- "in for a penny, in for a pound..." Let your conscience be your guide.
By donna on August 2nd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Sure would be nice if our politicians had to go fight their own wars....
I had to kill a rat once - biggest thing I've ever killed. It wasn't pleasant, but I did it. So if I had to, I guess I could kill a chicken or a turkey, and I don't eat much other meat than that. Ocassionally pig or beef, but I don't tend to enjoy that very much these days. Maybe bacon once in a while. I don't think I could kill one of those.
I'm not quite ready to go vegetarian just yet, but might once the kids are outta here. They aren't big on green stuff.
By Potato non Grata on August 2nd, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Let me invert the question: Would it be alright to kill people if we promised to eat them? I have some politicians in mind... I'd rather have them in my stomach
By cookiecrumb on August 2nd, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Forgive me for not checking out Food You Can Trust before responding here, and I do think it's probably a good idea to learn how to slaughter and butcher your own meat if you are planning on raising it. But, ew! It sounds like some fake David Lee Roth instant-safari trip. Jump on the Jeep, kill a hunk of game we corralled for you!
I don't know how my phone works, but I still use it. I am actually, personally, interested in home (hobby?) butchering although I doubt I'll ever have the need or the opportunity to partake. I will eat meat that somebody else raised and slaughtered, if I know it was done humanely.
Dammit, I can't even separate the kernels from the chaff of the wild amaranth I collected a few weeks ago, and it sits, ignored, in a *plastic* bag on my patio.
Eating is hard.
Thanks for the thoughts.
By Anonymous on August 2nd, 2006 at 5:48 pm
While I don't think I need to kill my own food, I do want to have something to do with changing the consumer culture that treats our food -- as well as so much more -- like soon-to-be trash, just throw-aways lives.
I think just taking time to reflect from time to time on the fact that what I am now eating -- and hopefully enjoying -- was alive once and now is not, so I can have some protein to eat, which is need to live.
There's a reason I didn't go around naming all the cows and pigs on my farm when I was a kid. Some things become too hard to bear when you do. But just because I didn't name the ones I have eaten, doesn't change the fact that they died to feed me.
By Corn Maven on August 2nd, 2006 at 5:49 pm
hmm... i didn't mean to be anonymous...
By Omniwhore on August 4th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Wow, what a lot of great insights! Thanks for giving me lots of ideas to pass of as my own next time this argument comes up! Especially you, Patrick! ;-)
I have to say that the imagery of David Lee Roth jumping on a Jeep in a safari hat made me laugh out loud. "Kill your own chicken! Boobie-doo-wop!" But it's not really like that, cookiecrumb -- I am interning, so I'm actually at the farm every week, taking care of the chicks and learning how to farm sustainably and ethically. I guess it wasn't very clear in the post, I can see why you were like, EW! You should definitely check out the link, the farm is wonderful!
PNG -- I admire your problem-solving skills! So efficient!
Corn Maven -- My friend Joy used to meditate before she ate -- right there at the table, for about five minutes or so. Your comment reminded me of this.
I'm still wondering if there are any out there who disagree, I'd like to hear from (another facet of) the other side(s).
By fred/pax on August 12th, 2006 at 9:03 am
Two years ago we had Thanksgiving on my son's 60 acre farm in Germantown, NY near Bard College. The prior year we had purchase heritage turkeys from a farmer in the mountains nearby, during the fog of the meal we decided we should eat organic heritage turkeys the next year that had been raised on Asa's farm.
Most of the folks living on the farm at that point were city kids either from Berkeley, Boston or Bard College. None of them were farm raised. None of them had previously participated in the dispatching of dinner. The young men (the young women weren't eagar to participate in the killing) had carefully not named the turkeys knowing they were intended for the dining table but on the dreaded day of death, after drinking a bit, the former city kids, all eager to become farm boys, gave the birds names as they were dispatched.
"Shits Himself" was not an elegant name but it did describe how Tom Turkey took to becoming the evening meal.
That night at the table, before digging in, we all went around and say what it was that we were thankful for. In addition to the usual blessings, Colin, our youngest son added that he was thankful for 'Shits Himself,' and the other turkeys that gave their lives so we would have a fabulous feast. One of the turkeys turned into an incredibly tasty Jerk turkey, courtesy of a secret family recipe provided by one of the household, a young Jamaican woman.
There was a lot of drinking that night, more than a normal bacchanal dining experience, even for college age kids. It was clear to me that the awe-full truth of dealing death to dine weighed heavily on the kids.
By ladybug on September 10th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
I personally must commend anyone willing to kill their own dinner, especially City Folk, even if it is only one dinner.
We have been building a subsistence farm for some time now. Anything that we do not grow ourselves, we strive to get locally. We raise our own chickens, meat and dairy goats, beef and dairy cows. We have not only killed the meat we eat, but quite often have helped it into the world as well. Nearly every animal on our place is named (the chickens are the exception). Our cows are Mae Belle, Susannah, Helen, and Tabby, our bull is Sherman. Some of our current heifer calves are Blackie, Mahogany, and Rosie. When it comes to those we eat, the names are usually a bit different, we have Tamale, Brisket, T-Bone, Hamburger, and Lunch (he is one of our smaller calves).
As Patrick noted, if you truly want to be in touch with your food, there is a lot of work involved. People used to grind their own flour, bake their own bread, grow and can their own veggies. There are still a very small handful of us that do.
I spent many years living in the drivers seat of a semi, eating out of greasy spoon truck stops. When I finally married and quit driving in order to live on the farm (which is where my heart has always been) I will admit I have gone a bit overboard. My husband thinks that this may be because I spent so many years on-the-go that I have no idea what it is to sit still, so I make sure that every moment of the day is busy, and still a long list of things to do at the end of each day.
Moreover it has to do with my health, the more clean foods I eat, the better I feel and the more I want to do. I love what we do here, and we share the opportunity with others whenever we can. When we butcher we always have a bit of a dinner party. This is partly because when we butcher something like a steer, we are splitting it with a friend of our who helps butcher, this helps eliminate the work involved and the meat is all eaten before it gets freezer burned. Anyway, when we get together to butcher people are often curious how it is done. So we started a bit of a tradition where we invite people to dinner that evening, and let them know that dinner will be killed earlier in the day if they care to participate. Many of the women are squeamish and therefore not interested (except for a couple of local Mexican women who are GREAT help in putting the meat up) but nearly every man that we have invite has shown up at least once, though they rarely participate. I take this as a good sign. People WANT to know not only where their food came from, but how it got there.
I know that we are very unique. The majority of people nowadays live in the city with little opportunity as such. I do not believe that it should be any sort of requirement to eat what you can kill, but it is an excellent source of education to at least have seen it done. Probably the one comment I hear the most when people come and watch is "I did not know that there were so many ways you could cut the meat". You get to choose what kind of steaks or roasts you want, or which would be more tender from this particular animal.
Much knowledge has been lost in the last 100 years, but people are realizing that, and beginning to look at us strange country bumpkins as producers and teachers instead of backward folk.