Tuesday, December 19, 2017

If You Are Going to Eat Meat, Something Has Gotta Die

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".-- George Orwell

Editor, Santa Fe Reporter

The letter exchange resulting from Elizabeth Miller's article "Huntress" somewhat misses the point as far as killing animals. I see a lot of meat sold in Santa Fe stores including Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and my own co-op, La Montanita. Indeed, while hunting is on a long term decline in the US, Americans have available about 180 lbs of meat of all types per year each (USDA) and are ravenously killing chickens and eating more meat, even as red meat consumption decreases (Rabobank data).

While a lot of the meat sold at upscale stores may be advertised as grass fed, free range, antibiotic free, etc. in order to attract the healthy living market in the City Different, I don't know of any "no kill meat". So unless one is a vegan (milk, cheese and eggs support animal agriculture), one is killing animals with one's wallet rather than a gun or bow, and sometimes under deplorable conditions found in "animal factories". At least hunters are honest about how their meat gets to their table.

If you deplore hunting, you should be at minimum, a vegetarian and ideally, a vegan. My own conversion from an avid hunter is detailed here.

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