Are we too callous about slaughtering animals?

[blackforest]

Could our industrialized consumption of meat and the casual way we slaughter animals be a form of mass gluttony?

I’ve long thought this. Neither Scripture nor Church teaching consider meat-eating a sin. But the factory-farm set up of CAFOs (Contained Animal Feed Operations) fails in meeting our duty to be good stewards of the earth.

I’m vegetarian but actually respect hunters and farmers who slaughter their own meat because we have one thing in common. I decline the meat, and they consume it. But either way, we both make an informed decision and own where our food comes from. I remember reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma many years ago, in which author Michael Pollan visits a farm and describes his first time slaughtering his own chicken. It may do everyone good to experience something similar.

Our society has lost its connection to its food source, as though lunch comes from a mystical Chicken McNugget tree. That can’t be a good thing. But I think this fiasco with Tyson may be a good wake-up call to the realities of our dysfunctional food system.

 

[JanR]

That’s why farmers markets have become so popular in our cities and smaller towns. Homegrown produce and eggs from free-ranging poultry are much healthier and taste a lot better than stuff from factory farms.

Factory farms are cruel, on top of it.