Society for Aesthetic Deletions

WARNING - this post may not be for the faint of heart. Read at your own risk.

A New York Times magazine article, entitled Power Steer, details the life of a cornfed Angus steer. A journalist bought a cow, and followed its progress through to the slaughterhouse.

I think it's worth a read by anyone who likes beef, which I do. A few quotes:

We have succeeded in industrializing the beef calf, transforming what was once a solar-powered ruminant into the very last thing we need: another fossil-fuel machine.

I hadn't realized this. The cows are cornfed, that I realized. But the chemical fertilizer used on the corn is created using a heck of a lot of oil, 1.2 gallons for every bushel.

We are what we eat, it is often said, but of course that's only part of the story. We are what what we eat eats too.

A good thing to remember. Read the article and take note of the amount of antibiotics our cornfed beef need to be on to keep themselves healthy on a diet of corn. Hormone therapy is another issue.

This article won't make me give up meat. I love a nice medium steak just as much as I did before I read the article. But now I'll take a look at the local supermarkets, start comparing the prices of grassfed beef (when I can find it...though there are some local "healthy" stores I can look at), just to see.

Lou and I don't eat meat that much at home...usually hamburger. Maybe once every other month, we get steaks for our George Foreman Grill. At that rate, we might be able to afford the higher cost.

I have a friend who gave up eating meat, partially out of reading some propaganda informational material on slaughterhouses from his pro-environmental sources, and convinced his brother to do the same. The article also has a description (though not from the journalist, he was not allowed in that room) about what happens to the cows in that room. What I found most interesting was the person who designed the room is autistic. She said he helped her "think like a cow." And the industry has embraced her ideas, though mostly out of their own self-serving practices.

Hmm...now that I think about it, I'm reminded of a show I saw on Animal Planet, about the eating of dogs in some Southeast Asian countries. And how supposedly, dogs seeing other dogs being killed before them gave the dogs a rush of adrenaline, which according to connoisseurs, sweetened the taste of the meat. The show, by the way, was condeming the practice, and not promoting it.

What is sacred cow to some, is dinner for another. I guess that's what I'm trying to say here.

Courtesty of ***Dave.