Last week, I found myself in need of a piñata for my birthday party and, having never purchased one before, I turned to my good buddy Amazon. But picking one out was harder than I thought.
See, most of the piñatas on offer were shaped like animals and, try as I might, I just couldn’t bring myself to hang a cow or a pig from a tree and watch my friends’ kids beat the hell out of it with a stick. I know this sounds completely irrational but the very idea turned my stomach. It seemed so unnecessarily brutal.
In the end, I ordered the colorful and well-reviewed number 6 piñata. (Someday we need to talk about the fact that comment writing may have become the first true art form of the 20-teens. I sometimes spend hours reading them before I order something just because they are so unintentionally hilarious.)
But my almost-physical revulsion at the idea of watching a highly stylized, cartoon farm animal being beaten with stick made me think. Although I was surprised by my reaction, I totally understood where it came from. I like animals. I know them. They have personalities and idiosyncrasies. They can be silly and affectionate and obstinate.
And these thoughts lead me have a much bigger conversation with myself, one that I have been putting off and pushing to the back of my mind for months. If I can’t bear to watch a toy animal be hit with a stick, how I can be perfectly okay with eating animals that were killed on my behalf?
Please understand that I love meat. I love cooking it and I love eating it. I’m a culinary school grad and I plan my meals around protein. But for a long time I have been bothered by the environmental impact of a meat-based diet, but some research suggested that eating a diet low in meat is actually better for the environment than eliminating it altogether. There is plenty of information out there, but it’s confusing and contradictory, so, till know, I’ve chosen to ignore this issue.
Till now. My environmental concerns and my feelings for animals have combined and I’ve decided that I am going to take the summer off from eating mammals. Why mammals? Because mammals are the animals that I personally feel a connection with. I cannot relate to fish or fowl in quite the same way that I cows and pigs and sheep.
Why just the summer? Because I’m not sure how this change will effect the way I feel (or my health) and I’m keeping my options open at this point. Also, I am a fool for the fresh vegetables of summer and I am hoping that ripe tomatoes and corn on the cob might soften the blow a bit. And it’s much easier to commit to my plan in the short term than to think about never enjoying a rare steak or rack of ribs ever again.
In addition to giving up pork and beef for three months (I gave up lamb longs ago!) I am going to strive for two entirely meatless days per week. I won’t be giving up dairy products or eggs, but I’m going to try my best to source all animal products from high quality, small producers who make animal welfare a top priority.
What this experiment is not is any kind of judgement about the way anyone else chooses to eat. There are very few decisions so personal as what food to put in our bodies and I would never presume to know what’s right for anyone else. But I do think that this is a decision you should make actively, rather than passively.
I highly recommend The Compassionate Carnivore
I would love to hear whether or not you eat meat and why. Vegans, vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, pescetarians, and carnivores are all invited to join in this conversation.
And if anyone would like to join me in my experiment with eating less meat from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I’ll be posting lots of recipes and menu ideas as I go along and I would love for you to join me.
Neve and Cini, two of my favorite favorites.
Roquefort
Patmore
Martin
Charley
A little sheepy R & R.
Oona + an army of dogs is terrifying.
Cini making sure no one steals the hay.
Happy, happy dog.
