They’re Made Out of Meat
Note: There’s a great short story link at the bottom of this post; don’t miss it because of my ramblings above the fold. ~Joe C.
So, I finally watched Food, Inc. last night, the Academy Award best documentary nominee I’ve been hearing so much buzz about the past few months. I’d been putting it off because not long ago I’d read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and thought I knew most of what would be on display, mainly that government subsidies make corn cheap, so we grow a lot of cheap corn, and since there’s so much cheap corn a huge percent of the food in your supermarket is a derivative of corn including corn-fed cow, pig, and fish (yep, they’re teaching fish to eat corn now, too.) And, let’s face it, being clued in on the crap I’ve been sticking in my mouth is not the delightful subject I usually want to take in on a feel-good Friday night.
But, for some reason I decided to end the procrastination, maybe because Food, Inc. was available for the “instant play” cue on NetFlix.
Let me tell you, there is a reason you can go to Disney World and book yourself into an Animal Kingdom themed resort, or a Sports or Music themed resort, or the Wilderness Lodge themed resort, but they don’t offer a Beef Slaughterhouse themed resort. My wife updated her Facebook status during the movie: “Watching Food, Inc. and seriously doubting that I’ll ever eat meat again!” I won’t go that far, because I do love an artery-clogging diabetes-inducing Big Mac on occasion, but I will be eating more beans, tofu, and broccoli this week.
Anyway, the essense of the film is not anti-meat, but our vanished lack of respect for meat. The gist of the film is that corporate greed — and more truthfully, the American people’s misplaced thrift that leads them to buy cheaper bad food instead of more expensive good food, organically-grown food that isn’t a subsidized corn-derivative — has caused Henry Ford’s assembly line principles to be applied to the production of the animals that provide meat. Besides causing all sorts of problems, from E. coli outbreaks to a generation where 1 in 3 will develop early onset diabetes, it’s caused us to lose respect for meat. In order to grow meat in the terrible way we do, we must either lose respect for it, let our conscience drive us insane, change, or ignore reality. Ignoring reality and disrespecting meat is a lot easier than the other two options.
No Respect for Meat
So, today while contemplating our lack of respect for meat, I surfed on over to the blog of Indigobusiness, God is Not an Asshole, and his post about Terry Bisson’s short story, They’re Made Out of Meat, slapped me in the face, because among other things, this short sci-fi story is concerned with a large lack of respect for meat:
“No brain?”
“Oh, there’s a brain all right. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“So … what does the thinking?”
“You’re not understanding, are you? You’re refusing to deal with what I’m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.”
“Thinking meat! You’re asking me to believe in thinking meat!”
This short story, published in OMNI in 1990, was later published in Bisson’s 1993 anthology Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories. It’s short, even for a short story, and best of all, Bisson has posted it in full on his website: They’re Made Out of Meat. It’s a good light-hearted weekend afternoon read, especially after something heavy like watching Food, Inc.
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Not long ago I heard someone talking about how the burger meat for Big Macs and Whoppers are processed in special factories in Brazil -shocking, gross, and put me off entirely.
Interesting way you went at this post, Joe. There’s such a labyrinth of difficult issues involved, it boggles the mind to even begin to meaningfully sort this out. But you’ve really spotlighted a compelling aspect in the denial involved in disrespect of meat.
It stands to reason the extenuation of this is the disrespect of life. Puts me in mind of the creepy vernacular springing from war, such as good-guys/bad-guys. Bad guys deserve whatever they get, and the roles are defined in such subjective ways that it feeds a cultural psychosis. Whether it’s jihadists fighting Russians one minute, with U.S. support and weaponry, who suddenly become bad-guy/terrorists when the geo=political bloodbath shifts, or joyriding teenagers running from the cops.
Anyway, good post. Made me think.
Thanks for the link to Indigo’s vid. Very funny stuff. I think they could have made a full feature without over-doing it.
I think about my own efforts and guess they don’t amount to a drop in the bucket. As you all know, I pretty much quit super-market meats years ago because I wanted healthier meat and because I didn’t want to be removed from the reality…of taking a life. I also wanted to be a hunter. Develop skills. I felt it would open doors of personal growth and discovery. I admired the Indian way of thanking the creature they had killed. I do that in my own way. Even when I come across bones on my hikes, I think about the daily or seasonal life of the animal.
The kids that live next door, now collect skulls and bones and we talk about the animal. What it is, what it’s life was like, how it died, etc. They are hanging on fence posts all around my place. Won’t be long and I’ll be the town character….I’ll need to drink more.
I’m in the process of making a cigar box ukelele and various parts are being turned into frets, tuning heads, fret markings, bridge, saddle, etc.
The beasts will live.
Forgive me if I mentioned this before (forgive me…ha!…you can tell I’m about to get all Biblical…) but it’s pretty interesting how the Bible — and when I say the Bible, I mean the humans who wrote the Bible — were biased in favor of the hunter-gatherers and nomads and against planters/farmers. You can see it in the story of Cain and Abel — in the story, God likes Abel’s animal sacrifice, but doesn’t appreciate Cain’s sacrifice of plant food as much. Somewhere I read that the Biblical bias against the planters was really a bias against cities/civilization, because cities only grew up where there evolved planting/farming practices that could feed a bunch of people in a small place…anyway the idea being that the Biblical writers approved of people living in small groups scattered over large places and free to roam and very much disapproved of large urban centers that where the people were tied to one place and which at that time were most synonymous with the large fields of crops and herds of bred animals required to support the dense and centralized population. At least according to the Bible, God approves of us being intimate with our food, and nature, and disaproves of villages that grow so large the people lose touch with their food source — and that’s exactly what we’ve done — I mean, I can’t tell you what the hell is in a Cheeto. Now, whether the parts of the Bible that display that bias were really divinely inspired and the message and wisdom of the Universal Intelligence, or just written by country boys who were pissed off at the city folk, that’s pretty much up in the air ;-) But, it’s interesting to ponder…not to judge it, or us, or them, but just to ponder it…
I didn’t know about that. Interesting.
I do know that just because someone is religious or believes stuff I might find odd, doesn’t mean they don’t have other areas of great wisdom. Based on your comments,…and speculating…. those nomadic bible people saw the filth, disease, etc. that accumulates around urban centers and were understandably repulsed and justified in feeling it was not beneficial to the health of their world.
Joe, you might enjoy taking a look at Nature’s Harmony Farm:
http://www.naturesharmonyfarm.com/
I found out about them a while back and really enjoy their site, blog, and now podcast. They are truly trying to farm the way it was meant to be.
Thanks, Lynne! Loved watching that video of a typical day on their farm. An EarthFare market is opening here in another month or so, in the building left vacant by Circuit City going out of business no less. Haven’t researched EarthFare that much, but sure looks like a step in the right direction, if not as far as Nature’s Harmony Farm…I guess ultimately we need a LOT of these farms all over everywhere.
Xman today the younger generation doesn’t want anything to do with older people and things that they may learn from them. So you are a lucky man to have inqusitive neighbor kids who listen to you. Your not a character, rather someone who has a lot of knowledge to pass on. Keep it up.
Thanks Pelmo.
You know, I don’t find that to be the case. I talk to everyone. I love the wisdom of the elderly…but also learn from the elderly that seem to have acquired no wisdom.
I engage the young disabled bagger at my grocery…where at one time in my life, fear and sub-conscious reasons made me shun someone like that. I’m the wine guru to a young early 20ish checker, who I notice looks forward to my visits at her stand. I run into the same old lady every week at the grocery and though I have never formally met her, I think we each like the look of each other for some reason and so just decide to talk.
Took my 4-wheeler out yesterday and drove it down a dirt road to a ranch a couple miles away. Met a young mother and her 3 year old daughter…and the little girl just talked her head off…because I showed an interest…and she presented me with a forked twig as I left…and smiled when I said it was going in a vase.
I think I’m understanding the old guys I used to watch at check stands, on the street, etc….who just seemed to like to talk. I’m wondering if they were always like that…or maybe like me…seeming to finally become a more free flowing person and appreciating my world more.
I agree with Xman…I think a lot of the younger kids, at least around here, are interested in listening to the older folks. I think they have an adversion to listening to middle-aged folks, but seems like once old people pass a certain age the kids see them as cool again and want to hang around them and be friends and hear their stories and learn about life from them.
Joe and Xman I agree that younger kids enjoy our tall tales and stories. I’m refering to the late teen and early twenty one’s that need that old time wisdom.
I watched how with each class of new recruits on the police department the change in attitude was dramatic. When I started out we listened and learned from the old timers. By the time I was the old timer each class thoght they new more then the last. I watched them screw up and blame others for the problems, rather then go and get a bit of advice from someone who knew.
Late teens? Oh, yeah, well…those kids are a bit full of themselves these days!!! :-)
Joe our teens in America are so into themselves that they don’t realize that there is a great big world out there, and it is quickly passing them by.
At one time we were the envy of the world and everyone wanted to come here. I talk to many teens and young adults when I travel over seas, and to my surprise I find how many of them don’t even care about coming here for a visit. Most of them believe they have better oppertunities in their home countries.
Joe,
While not eating meat is one way to go, my wife and I chose to instead to source out our meat.
We are lucky to have several farmers markets in our area. As a result, there are more that about a dozen local cattle farmers who use only organic methods to raise their steers.
One farm in particular caught our eye. This farm not only uses organic methods to raise their animals, they also grow their own feed. They have a complete closed system. Everything is inspected and all the animals are humainely slaughtered.
Their prices tend to run higher than what is offered in supermarkets but we also know that we are getting very high quality clean meat.
Since we pay more for the meat, we have a deeper appreciation for it. We have also attended a slaughter. We know full well how the animal gave its life so we can eat.
So many people never ponder what goes into getting that burger or t-bone. I believe if more average folks were enlightened, the way mass produced factory farms currently operate, would change dramatically.
Cheers!
Hey Javaman.
muy simpatico.
Javaman, indeed, I need to do a better job of hunting down locally-produced food around here. For a few years I’ve switched to getting more beef and chicken from the orgranic section (grazed, not grain-fed, no antibiotics, etc.), but it’s still from one of the big chains and is shipped a long way. I’m sure there’s a decent, honest-to-goodness farmers market around here somewhere…I mean, this is Alabama for chrissake and on cool nights when the wind is right I can hear the cows moo. Thanks for the comment!