unethical eating

I have a couple of movies to write up, but I'm not motivated tonight. So instead I'm going to ramble on a topic I've been thinking about since the trip to Baltimore.

I don't remember how it came up, but at some point we were talking about vegetarianism. Now, I've never been a vegetarian. I don't have a problem with people choosing to eat or not to eat meat. But I do have a problem with people who pretend the meat they eat was born in a neat styrofoam package, that it never came from an animal that was once alive. I believe that everyone who eats meat should, at least once, kill an animal and then eat it, to understand what it is that they're doing. That said, I've never done this and probably never will. I did go fishing once but I don't think we ate any of the fish I caught. Heck, I'm too squeamish for boiling live lobster. So I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

Anyway, so I've never abstained from meat for ethical reasons. Or any reason for that matter -- I like the stuff too much. Even the types of meat that tend to put people off. Lamb? Love it. Veal? Not an everyday food, but I'll eat it, especially if it's hormone free (more concerned about myself than about the mistreated calves). Goat? Why not. Rabbit? This one is a toughie, rabbits being pets and all. But I have eaten it, and wouldn't have a problem ordering it if it was the best looking thing on a menu. Though I probably wouldn't cook it. The rabbits at Whole Foods are still in one piece and look too much like rabbits, albeit the headless and skinless variety.

Of course all you have to do is go to the chinatown of a major city to find plenty of food animals that I wouldn't be comfortable eating. But as far as I can recall, I haven't yet encountered an animal on a menu that I wouldn't eat for ethical reasons or "aw, it's too cute to eat" reasons.

The only thing I've ever decided not to eat was foie gras. Which, as you surely know, is pate of goose liver. I heard a story a few years ago on NPR about how they fatten up the geese to make their livers bigger, fattier and extra flavorful. I won't go into the details in case you're eating, but it's awful. Very cruel. The story included sound effects. It was appalling.

And yet, a couple of months ago Georg and I went out to a nice dinner, foie gras was on the menu, and we ordered it. I ate it and it was good. Not quite the transcendent experience that it's made out to be, but still, very very good. So I guess there's no food I won't eat for ethical reasons. No matter how badly the animal was treated, if it tastes good enough, I'll eat it. At least I'm a well-fed hypocrite.