Bring out your dead flesh

I was reading an interesting article in the New York Times today about meat consumption in the United States and the conditions under which meat is produced here. If you've read or even heard of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, you know that this is not really news. This article focuses on production and consumption rather than the processing of the meat, which is the focus of Sinclair's book. The reason I'm bringing this up, and it's not because I'm a militant vegan (far from it), is because I feel like we don't think enough about where our food comes from and how much of an impact food production has on our world.

As you'll know from my last post, I grew up on a horse farm where we also raised a few cows, a goat, and some geese at various times in my life. I always considered myself attuned to the ways of the farm and to the plight of farmers. A very romantic vision, I know. In order to keep our horses and other animals fed we interacted with different producers (a more high-tech name for farmers) - the grain guy, the hay guy (and occasional gal), the shavings guy (wood shavings=bedding for the horses' stalls) - you get the idea. When I went out into the world, I thought, I know about agriculture and I appreciate where our food comes from and how difficult farming can be, even if I do live in the city. I mean, these guys are at the mercy of mother nature. Can you imagine a crueler mistress? I'm sure you know what's coming now. In 2003, as part of my job in Illinois government, I was assigned to oversee the Agricultural Advisory Council because of my vast knowledge of agriculture. (Insert sarcastic eye gesture here) Really, there were only a few other people in the office with more knowledge than me but they were actual lawyers who did actual lawyer work. So, there I was at the first council meeting feeling all happy surrounded by my fellow farm people, telling everyone that I actually grew up on a horse farm. None of these folks were impressed. For them, horses were something that came with a farm, but they didn't have anything to do with making money on a farm. So what. Horses. Anyway, as the talk moved to crop yields, livestock production contracts, grain elevator failures, next year's profit/loss margins, and other things I couldn't really understand (I do now, mostly) I realized that what I knew about farming wouldn't even amount to a hill of beans, as they say. I was completely humbled and had much more than a hill of beans of respect for these people who are responsible for feeding us.

This brings me back to Mark Bittman's New York Times article. If growing up on a horse farm and interacting with real farmers couldn't make me realize that farming has a profound effect on everything we touch, how could urban and suburban dwellers have any clue about this stuff? Bittman's article brings to light how our ravenous consumption of meat (well, not by me, I mostly eat vegetables with an occasional hamburger or pulled pork sandwich thrown in for good measure) is negatively effecting the environment and our health, not to mention the unsuspecting animals who are injected with antibiotics to fight off the diseases caused by their confinement among thousands of other animals being force fed before they are sent off to slaughter. I understand that we need to eat, but we don't need to eat 200 pounds of meat, fish and poultry per capita per year. That's just crazy! No wonder we are so fat and unhealthy. It's amazing that our arteries don't rebel on a daily basis. According to a study cited in Bittman's article, the production of 2.2 pounds of beef is equal to the "amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles" or it is the same as the energy required to light a 100-watt light bulb for 20 days. So, the moral of the story is we eat too much meat, we don't need nearly the amount of protein that we consume, and we can get all the protein we need from plants. So eat more plants and let the poor cows (and buffalo) roam.