So this has absolutely nothing to do with the current trend of my blog, but I just needed somewhere to rant about this, and this is convenient place to do so.
I've had two people on my Facebook friends list posting about food-related things in the past week. The first was a video from a vegetarian. She shared a video of a small child refusing to eat the octopus his mom had made for dinner because he doesn't think that we should eat things because it means they have to die. That's cool, but his mom just says "ok, we won't eat meat anymore" instead of explaining to her son about food chains and the circle of life and all that jazz. It was a cute video, and I think it was intended to get people to lean towards the feelings of mom, but it had the opposite effect on me.
Then just tonight I saw a status update that made me want to comment, but I held my tongue in favour of coming on here.
Apparently a local pub was spit-roasting a pig outside this afternoon, and someone was grossed out by that (I'm sure it was more than just one person).
Our society has become so disassociated with the food we eat it's disgusting. Especially when it comes to meat.
Maybe the fact that the animal still looked like an animal and wasn't cut up in to small convenient pieces is what did it, but how do people not know that the pork chop they've got in their fridge was just a small part of that roasting pig? Is it because it's still got its face attached? Probably.
I'm sorry people, but if you're eating a steak, or a lamb burger, or a pork chop, that meat was once a walking, breathing animal with a "cute" face. It's a fact of life. In order for us to live, something has to die, whether it be a plant or an animal, or a freaking berry. Maybe it's because I'm pagan, but I have a deep-seeded respect for the food I eat because I'm acutely aware of this. In order for my life to be sustained, something had to die for me whether it was slaughtered or forcibly removed from the ground or a plant. I am very grateful every single day for the food I eat because of this.
Also, how is roasting a turkey or whole chicken any different than seeing a pig roast? There's no face on a chicken or turkey when you pop it in the oven. Why does the presence of a face automatically make something untouchable? What about fish?
I have no answer to this, but I wholeheartedly believe that if that pig had its legs and head removed before being put on that spit, that people would have been just fine seeing it.
