To Vegetarianism and Back
My complicated relationship with eating animals
I was recently reminded of the 2018 film “Eating Animals,” based on the 2009 book of the same title by Jonathan Safran Foer. It forced me to reflect once again on my own complicated relationship with eating meat. I’ve come full circle, from vegetarianism and back, but only after recognizing the deep nuance that accompanies the personal choice of whether to eat animals.
I grew up in a rural community. Although my family did not “farm,” we produced some of our own beef. My father hunts and fishes, and he always made sure we knew the animals he harvested each season were for eating, not displaying on a wall in the living room. From an early age, I understood the fact that cattle and certain other animals existed for a purpose, and that purpose was to feed us. We didn’t name our calves. They weren’t right in front of the house. And when the time came, we arranged for a farm-kill, meaning they were slaughtered on our land and processed at an off-site facility afterward.
This is the reality I grew up with, so it never struck me as odd that we would do anything differently. That was just life. It almost seems otherworldly now to be talking about this, since my life is now so far removed from that era that it feels like I’m talking about someone else.
