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Tuesday, December 9, 2008

With Respect to the Animals

I just watched a horrifying video a few hours ago showing the lives of animals raised on “farms”, from their birth to our table.
I can’t stop thinking about it.

I’d like you to visit my Good Food & Bad Food blog and read the post I wrote about it, “Can We Eat Like That and Be Healthy?”

No, this doesn’t mean that I am becoming a vegetarian now. But I did think what can I do that is doable, practical, and will make a change? Even if it is a small one. Because if millions of people will make a small change, then together, it will make a huge difference, don’t you think?!

I have decided that:
1. At least two nights each week we will have a vegetarian dinner.
2. At least once a week, I will pay more to buy meat/chicken/seafood from sustainable, free-range, organic, preferably local farms.

Tonight it’s going to be an Upgraded Pizza (recipe here) and a Citrus Salad (recipe here) for dinner.

What ideas do you have so more animals can live a respectful healthier life which will make our food healthier and better for us?

4 comments:

Christo Gonzales said...

we eat 'vegetarian' fairly often around here - its a nice change from the meat grind...

Anonymous said...

Even if you don't switch to a vegan diet (I never will), you can choose meat that is more ethically raised if you can:

1.find it
2. afford it.

The latest American election saw hope for the end of cruel farming when a bill against factory farming was passed. It's a great start and I'm glad you're bringing attention to the issue as well!

You can see what I recently wrote about the issue here if you have time: http://danamccauley.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/the-veal-taboo/

Maggie said...

I eat intentionally vegetarian often. I have found that I can lower the amount and make the most of the animal protein I eat by planning my meals around the vegetables I have instead of the more traditional way of planning around the protein. I look at the vegetables I have, choose which go well together and then see if a small amount of animal protein is worth adding to make the meal more complete. Once you get used to it, it works much better than looking at the protein first. My final step is to see if a grain or starch seems necessary to make the meal filling enough but I often skip it in favor of more vegetables. I consume my starch primarily for breakfast and snacks.

Thanks for visiting my sites! The camera I primarily use is an Olympus E-510 digital SLR.

Anonymous said...

You are on the right track with the idea of buying locally. Believe it or not, most towns still have a local butcher who gets his meat from the local farmers. I buy the majority of my meat from my uncles who own a farm. I know where it comes from and how it is raised. The trick with buying "organic" or "free range" is to find out what that means to the people who put the label on the package. There are varied levels relating to these two terms, just like the packaging that refers to low-fat.
Being an educated consumer is your best choice. The meat will have more flavor and taste better, and you will support the real people of America, not just the big companies.