Meet your Meat

Some of our good friends in Iowa have adopted a lifestyle of only consuming meats from known sources. In other words, they only eat meat if they know where it comes from. Initially, this sounded a bit bizarre to me - I mean, what is there to know? Don't they all come from sunny farms with big red barns and white fences that surround the perimeters of lush, green pastures? And does it even really matter where it comes from? It's meat! It's red, it's bloody, you wash your hands when you touch it, you cook it, slather it in A1 and slap it on a ceramic plate.

Since we've been living in Iowa, we've had a few conversations with these friends about wanting to understand more about nutrition after my husband's diagnosis, and so before we left on our 11 hour car trip back to Indiana for Christmas, these anti-mystery-meat-eaters lent us a book that would soon change my perspective on what I've been feeding myself for the past two decades.

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer is a book that focuses on the meat industry and everything that has gone wrong with it since the industrialization of agriculture began in the 1950s. Essentially, Foer explains how production and profit has trumped both animal welfare and general concern for consumer's health as farmers continually strive to meet the increasing demand for cheaper meat.

Although I have been able to sneak a few peeks between the covers of this book, I've yet to pry it from my husband's iron grip. But as of yesterday, he finished the book, (he read the whole thing in 3 days) so now I'll be able to sit down and read all the horrifying truths about our meat industry for myself.

I was warned by my husband that the details Foer divulges in his book can be both disturbing and disgusting, and as a way to "prime" me for reading, suggested I watch the following movie:

*WARNING: This video contains graphic images of animal cruelty shot through hidden camera footage.

Also, as an added disclaimer, I'd like to state that I have no affiliation with this movie. It is not owned by me, and as most of you know, my Alec Baldwin impersonation isn't that great, so I couldn't have made it either.

As I begin reading this book, I fully expect to be scared pants-less. Just from what my husband has told me, the American public has been consuming more than just antibiotics and fillers with their meat. Unfortunately, profit and mass production has forced the farming industry to operate as just that - an industry. Animal welfare is non-existent, disease runs rampant and all the drugs pumped into these animals don't disappear when we throw their carcasses on the grill.

If you do plan to check up on my blog to see what new things I've learned, please keep in mind that I am by no means advocating a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle. I'm not becoming a red-paint-slinging PETA pusher that floods her blog with images of clubbed baby seals. All I'm saying is that making consumers aware of what's happening to their food supply is vitally important. And if you're going to eat meat, it would benefit you greatly to learn where it came from.