To address your main question: If things weren’t as I believe them to be (with the food system or the president, specifically), would I want to know? My answer is: Absolutely!!

I have a feeling you probably aren’t someone who knows much of my past when you ask this. The reason is because I’ve always been someone who questions something, learns more about it, then is happy to change my views based on what I’ve learned. For example, I used to be a really hardcore, party line Republican. I was the guy with the 8 foot Bush sign in my front yard (seriously). The more I looked into what my politics were, the more I read and learned and discussed, the more I realized I was wrong (the specifics of why aren’t really important, at this point). So, I learned and I changed. It’s something I think I do very willingly and anyone who knows me in person will vouch for that (I think).

I’ve done the same thing with the food system, specifically. I used to think that food people were crazy, policital, hippies. Then I learned and I changed.

So, I agree with you that learning and opening up perspectives is a VERY important part of life and I think I model it pretty consistently.

I’ve learned over the years that for some reason (maybe because I’m so vocal), alot of people think they know who I am (in this case, I get the sense you think I’m a hard line liberal), but they’re almost always wrong. The folks who really know me know that I’m open to being wrong (after vigorous debate) and always am self-questioning.

Here’s to hoping you can get to know me well enough to see that! Thanks for your comments!

Even though we are about 180 degrees apart on just about every topic, I read (and enjoy) your opinions because I think it is very beneficial to us all to listen to opposing opinions and weigh what we believe, and why.

Not to be adversarial, but to dialog and weigh what we believe, I pose this question. If factory farms are not what you believe them to be (what you were told they are by Food, inc), would you want to know? If the president turns out not be not the next Jesus but the next Castro, would you want to know? Or would you be pretending to sleep? I am not trying to turn this into a political discussion. I only bring that up because one’s political views is an example of where people on both sides choose to be willingly ignorant. These questions are meant to be food for thought and self-evaluation, not the beginning of a debate. In a sense, I’m agreeing with your point in the last few paragraphs. If it seems like I missed your overall point, I apologize. I don’t think I did.

Finally, if it seems like I’m only disagreeing, let me applaud you on your last blog post, The Price We Pay. That was so thought provoking that I insisted that my wife read it, too.

Bob, you’ve caught me off guard. I hadn’t put that all together.

Thanks!

Second, note that none of the use of animals you mention here has to do with eating it…a side point, but worth noticing.

So, i still call the eating of meat ‘less than ideal’ (since it wasn’t part of Gods original plan)…whether sacrificing animals or using them for clothing (when they’ve been respected in life) is a completely other issue that I really have no comment on…

First: The “it’s easy and we don’t have time” tells me that we’re too busy. It tells me our lifestyle is what’s causing factory meat to flourish. Our refusal to slow down and do things ‘properly’ (as my dad used to say) is causing this horrible practice to flourish. So what’s the answer? Slow the hell down. If we don’t, factory meat will continue to win. Are you really ok with them having your family right where they want you? (ie. damn the man)

Second, the expensive issue: Anything you read about this issue points out that cheap meat isn’t actually cheap. You’re paying for it, just not at the checkout. There’s too much to say in this area, but next time you pay too much in taxes, blame cheap meat. Next time you get sick and doctor bills are higher than they were last time…blame cheap meat. You ARE paying for expensive meat…you just don’t know it. And that doesn’t stop until we ALL stop paying a false-price for what we consume.

So, in general, our culture has given power to cheap meat. And the more you continue eating it because it’s ‘easy’ and ‘cheap’ the more you can be sure that our kids will grow up in a world where animals are treated as raw materials.

However, two points here: First, I could argue that buying factory meat IS absolutely contributing to human suffering. Read about meat packing workers and look at the statistics. It’s an immigration issue. It’s a ‘needless endangerment’ issue. It’s a treating people like less-than-human issue. So, eating factory meat isn’t just an animal issue, for starters.

Second, how many human-suffering issues do YOU take part in supporting? Probably not too many (forgetting point #1 for a minute). But, how many animal-suffering issues do you take part in? Every time you eat factory meat, you are part of the problem. Therefore, you can do something immediate every day to withdraw yourself from taking part.

And not only CAN you…but its really really REALLY easy. Just stop eating factory meat. How hard is that? In the scheme of things, it’s extremely simple. Oh, and by the way, when you do that…you’re withdrawling from the human-suffering issue in #1 as well.

So, yes clean water and medicine are more imporant. But the choice to not support factories doesn’t prevent you from supporting other issues as well…it’s not animals or humans. You can do both, and you can start with the animal issue at your next meal.

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioID=41834

I agree with you the primary issue is not so much consuming meat but the treatment of the animals. It is a sad state when practices inflicted upon a pet, or even a wild a animal, are considered criminal. Yet, within a factory setting, are commonplace.

Within this light, it brings into question much of how we behave:
• How animals are treated during the production of both food and non-food animal products?
• How does this effect sport fishing and hunting?
• What about our actions which directly affect animals?
– Sticking a goldfish in a one-gallon bowl is a death sentence for the little guy (as is feeding him to a pet turtle).
– Consider mice traps. Mice are rodents who carry disease. If I have to choose between the life of a mouse or the health of my family…well, the mouse has to go. A spring trap, as far as I can tell, is the most humane approach I can find (I tried the plastic catch & release traps and they never got anybody.) Traps where a mouse walks across a sticky pad and gets stuck or d-CON poison which essentially causes a stroke, seem very cruel to me.
– What about bug zappers? If a mosquito lands on my 6-month-old, I have no problem squashing it. But I’m not so sure it’s ethical to call every insect in a one-mile radius to their doom.

I’m still working though all this myself. Hopefully it spurs a little discussion.

Blessings, thanks for the wake-up call!

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