Thoughts About Meat

We live in a culture that is far removed from reality where meat is concerned. We only see it in grocery stores in neatly wrapped packages, and it's easy to forget that it comes from an actual animal.
Maybe that's why, as a culture, we really don't care that more times than not, the animal never got to live a life as God intended. Overcrowded, filthy conditions, eating food it wasn't designed to eat. They aren't treated with dignity as living beings, created by God. They're widgets. Evolutionary underlings.

Just look at all that grass in the background. This must be Cow Hell.

My thanks to Jesse & Jeff Eagan for the following photos. They're from a meat store in Jordan. There's no escaping that this meat comes from real animals.

Above: Sheep heads and feet. Below: Hanging carcasses. People there actually buy meat this way!

Aside from the noble desire to want the animal on your table to haved lived an enjoyable life while it was here, who would really want to eat an animal that lived its life in a manure heap? And the way it was processed? For a dose of frightening, disgusting reality, you should see this: http://www.foodincmovie.com/

So when asked how on Earth I can eat one of our cute little baby goats or one of our chickens, the answer is simple. I know it lived a good life. I know it ate good food and drank clean water and didn't have to live on drugs to be healthy. I know it was processed cleanly. I know which animal I'm eating and that it isn't a conglomorate of thousands of animals from who-knows-where that is contaminated with who-knows-what. I know that meat doesn't grow in shrink wrapped packages, and the alternative (unless I want to be a vegetarian) is a feedlot.

I do not want to fall into the trap of "food righteousness" and as such would not turn my nose up at feedlot raised meat at someone else's table. I will more than likely eat some at my own table again until we reach the place where we don't have to. However in considering whether or not it is cruel, callous, or inhumane to eat our own farm-raised animals, I would suggest that it is not. Not only do I believe it to be the most humane meat I've placed on my table, I also take great delight in knowing that the effort that went into its preparation was not just an afternoon of my time, but months of work. Waking around the clock through the night to insure it was warm and well fed as a young baby. Hooves trimmed to know it was comfortable when it ran through our grass and climbed on our rocks. Given fresh water daily, nursed from its mama just as often as it pleased, and allowed to eat fresh yummy forage. Taken on walks for a change of scenery and interest in the diet. It is a labor of love. It makes my meal time prayer, thanking God for the food, ever so much more meaningful because I saw His hand in its creation.