Well, Christmas dinner was fabulous! I have never had such a variety of foods at one table. Since I am a vegetarian now, I had lots of different veggie meals instead of the several kinds of meat. It was very good. I will be eating Green Bean Casserole, Broccoli Casserole, Brussel sprouts, glazed carrots, sweet peas, rolls, sweet corn on the cob for days now! The green bean casserole is my favorite so far.
As well, my dieting is coming well, I didn't eat any of the pie we had for desert. I am done with soda now as well unless its diet. Back to my eating habits, eating small, eating often, and eating better. This is my new years motto, but thats not really correct since I have been doing it for a few weeks. Maybe my new years motto will be to completely go vegan by years end. That seems like a reasonable challenge to me.
Last night I was watching food network with my wife, and on "A Cooks Tour", he watched a pig get slaughtered. Now this wasn't in corporate farming facilities like in the US, he was in south America on a small family farm. But he watched them butcher the pig. They turned it side ways on a cart, and had a bunch of people restrain the hog. Then, the hog was tilted head down, still awake, still squealing, and its throat was cut. The people held it down for several minutes while it bled to death, slowly. Then, they hung up the hog by its feet to butcher it.
But what I found most disturbing is that the cook was able to watch it and then eat. They did this big old ritual meant to honor the meat that was being slaughtered. They sang songs and made sure they would fix and eat every single part of the hog. The problem is, "honor" a dead carcass does not make it okay to bleed an animal to death. Thats barbaric and cruel. They allow themselves to feel absolved and justified because they "honor" the meat. If we "honored" a house cat after we bled it to death, we would still go to jail. If we "honored" a person after bleeding them to death after cutting their throat, we would still go to jail for murder.
This ideal of being able to justify what we find abhorrent in order to not give up that which we love is disgusting. I can't see how one can watch that and be okay with eating that meat. Have they no heart? Have they no conscience? I'm just amazed at what we humans can do, what we can justify, to stay in our comfort zones.
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2 comments:
Christmas (and Thanksgiving) dinner has been a toughy for me. Not the temptation so much as my mother-in-law just doesn't "get" it.
How often has she said "Try these potatoes."
"How'd you make 'em?" I ask.
"...this...that...and with the turkey broth..." Alrighty then.
Or that green bean casserole you speak of. It's a regular dish at my in-laws. I won't eat it because she makes it with cream of mushroom soup (key word being cream).
About the slaughter of the hog; I agree and this is why I became vegetarian and later vegan. I read a horrible story about a particular "downer" cow and how the ranchers treated it, that was it for me.
BTW, Thank you for your interest in the Vegan Blogroll. Your blog has been added.
P.S. If you want a marquee blogroll I can work on it. Personally I didn't care for that one after a while because it started to take a very long time to load on your page.
I think I'll make the code available anyway.
I have to agree as well but it's difficult sometimes because of that tradition and culture. I'm not the kind of person to stand in the way of others beliefs, but at the same time, this stands in the way of mine. If people like us don't speak for the animals, who will?
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