Vegetarian (Some) times

I have been flirting with vegetarianism for most of my life—not to be confused with flirting with vegetarians, which I have also done quite a bit of, for different reasons and with different results. Anyway, I have always thought meat was kinda gross. I don’t have an ethical objection to eating animals. I never liked red meat much at all, and I gave it up completely about 20 years ago. I will occasionally eat bacon if it is in something else, like a salad or a quiche, but that doesn’t count. I mean, who doesn’t love bacon?

I worked in a deli during college and as part of our training we watched videos about how each type of deli meat was prepared, from roast beef and turkey breast to salami and headcheese and hot dogs. It was pretty gross, and these were training videos to help us learn how to describe each product in an appealing and appetizing way so people would buy it, not to disgust them into giving up meat all together.

Most people don’t think too much— or don’t want to think too much — about where the meat they eat comes from. Meat just comes from the supermarket, right? Then I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Then I read the Omnivore’s Dilemma. Then I saw Food, Inc. Now I am the Girl Who Knows Too Much.

Most of the meat (including poultry) we eat in this country is produced in disgusting, unsanitary conditions on factory farms where animals are fed a diet they can’t digest and makes them sick, antibiotics to combat infection since they are belly deep in their own crap, caffeine to keep them awake so they will keep eating and reach their slaughter weight as soon as possible. Yuck. One hand, it is horrible and inhumane that living animals are treated this way, but it is even more revolting that this is how we produce something we plan to eat.

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about “pink slime”, that beef filler that is made from all the icky bits left over from meat processing and a nasty picture of mechanically separated chicken that looks like a vat of strawberry soft-serve ice cream. Both “foods” are treated with disinfectants to kill all the contaminants and pathogens that it contains. Gross.

Still, this has not converted me to vegetarianism. My daughter has been a veggie since she was eight years old and I completely respect her choice. I prepare vegetarian meals several times a week, but I still eat poultry and seafood pretty often. I always buy the super-expensive, organic, cage-free stuff, and never eat at fast food restaurants, but that begs another question — why does eating healthy food that is not raised in a completely stomach-churning way have to be so expensive? Isn’t there a better way?