003. Do We Feel Bad?

Our global meat industry is one that serves and produces meat that shamelessly has growth hormones that is corn fed rather then grass and is done on a mass, global scale. How do you feel about our unnatural meat industry, and what can we do to change and better our meat for future generations?

    A large percentage of the world's population eats meat, and here in the United States, we are becoming increasingly aware of the details about how and where our meat is made. We're constantly being shown commercials and advertisements about which meat is locally grown and safest and organic. It seems like that kind of goes against the principle of the aforementioned. Organic meat? Who is the USDA anyways, and how do we know they're not corrupt like everyone else seems to be? Even though we knows the horrors and controversy surrounding how our meat products are made, do we as a society feel bad or have any emotions about continuing to eat these products?

    One could watch Food, Inc. to get a general sense of the disdain for the meat industry, but that film goes a little too in depth into the "soy bean controversy", which unfortunately is a minute issue in most Americans' minds. Maybe by going to Chipotle and eating their "hormone-free, free range meat" is a little bit easier to think about when going to bed at night. If you go to Whole Foods, are you supporting or just adding to the issues that the meat industry has created? How do we even know we're making a difference or promoting progressiveness? The argument could be made that avoiding meat all together is one surefire way of knowing that you're not giving the meat industry their dues. But even then, meat sales are still huge and the industry backing it all is even bigger than we can comprehend. Do we need to listen to writers like Jonathan Safran Foer to get a new sense of attribution to this obvious issue? Or will we continue eating what makes us happy and healthy (or not?) until the day we die? No one really knows for certain, but we can try and figure it out.

    Most of us are going to feel poorly if we have fast food more than once or twice a week. For some of us, even having fast food once a month is something we don't condone. Why then, do we continue these actions we know aren't benefitting anyone but the big meat industry? It comes down to a level of comfort and familiarity. We are comfortable eating what our parents grew us up on, and we're familiar with these foods because we've known them for 20+ years now. If you go to another country and stay there indefinitely, you might have these "comfort food" cravings - hamburgers, bacon, steak, etc - and you'll be hard-pressed to find something exactly like what you can get here in the United States. On the other hand, America has a huge economy around the meat industry, and it is what gives us that "American food" image. Look at diners, for example. They primarily serve meat products for lunch and dinner, and one could go insofar as to call the hamburger the diner's "flagship menu item". It's what drives people into places like Denny's and IHOP and other fast food restaurant chains. It's what helps pay the bills and keep demands high so places like Denny's can stay open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. 

    Maybe we don't feel bad as a society, per se, but we sure understand that this isn't what we should be doing. But it feels like our emotions and good intentions don't ever outweigh and overpower our inherent knowledge. For me, no matter what evidence is presented against meat, I'll continue to eat it because I never saw it as a bad thing until I got older. There's too many years of the once a month steak dinner on a special occasion and the hamburger as a celebratory gesture after a good basketball tournament growing up as a kid. These things are embedded into me so deep that it's going to take a long time and a lot of concrete evidence against meat and meat products to make me turn my back on them. It's almost like they're my family. How terrible is that? So, yes, maybe we feel bad as Americans for eating so much meat, but is it really something as a society we intend to change together?