Harvesting your own food could be very advantageous. If everyone knew everything about the food they ate from the day it was planted/born to the day it is consumed, then I believe most people would care much more about the way it was treated. I know that if I was forced to kill and butcher my own meat, I would want an animal that was fed well and led a good life. Also by making a connection with the animal I would probably reduce my meat consumption. However, there is another side to this argument. At the rate the population is expanding there are more and more people living in poverty. The ability to even afford the luxury of harvesting your own food is not an option. If they did not have the choice of cheap, mass produced food then many people would not be able to feed themselves or their families.
Hunting can be very moral. In fact, often hunters find that same connection to their kill as those who “harvest” their own meat. By hunting an animal, killing it quickly and correctly, and then using a majority of the carcass for either food or even decoration, most hunters use more parts of the animal than the mass producers. Extravagant meals like those of Rinella and Harrison are just another show of wealth and power. In my eyes it’s about the same as buying several different sports cars and barely driving any of them. These types of people do these things just to show they can and to be talked about by others in articles in the New Yorker.
Prose, Francine. Gluttony: the seven deadly sins. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Bringle, Mary Louise. The God of Thinness: gluttony and other weighty matters. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I agree that most hunters would likely use more of the meat than most factory farmer's do. And the relationship that is formed with your food that is harvested by you seems really important. Although not everyone has the luxery to do so, I think it would be beneficial for government programs to focus on teaching people to produce their own food. I don't know that would solve any problems, but may empower those living in poverty.
When I was young, my father used to be a trophy hunter... big man kill animal, bring home. : - ) He doesn't do that any more. We used to get upset seeing rabbits darting infront of tha car, than spinning away. As we grew older, we understood the hunter/ gather mind, and that some of the ranch animals were were food. I still have the idea of only have what yu need. Excess is a waste.
As great as everyone hunting and gathering their own food would be i agree that its not possible because most people do not have the time or money to do that. Most people, including me have to go to the grocery store and just buy the cheapest meat possible.
Post a Comment