Animal vs. Food

After reading my last blog, I realized that my third paragraph may have seemed a little rambly (is that a word?)…what the hell was I talking about?  I rarely re-read my posts…possibly some mild editing; however, I get a wild hair and then post!

So, here was my thought process.  I was basically talking about the fact that I am a more “aware” consumer.  I was thinking that there was some correlation between this and the compassion towards animals.  My sidebar into the work I did for the animal shelter was actually a bridge in my head between these two distinctions.

It makes sense though, right?  I am a Republican.  I support gay rights.  I eat meat.  I own five cats.  My parents have always considered me a VERY liberal Republican…I even married an Oregon boy!!   The joke we’ve always had was that a redneck (I’m from Georgia) married a tree hugger; however, just the other day, as he was standing there in camo shorts and I stated that it would be fun, after our girls were in college, to live in a tree house in Washington for a few months (just for fun).  He then looked at me and said, “ NOW who is the redneck and who is the tree hugger??”  LOL ~ I get your point.

For me, it only makes sense that my trek is gravitating towards vegetarianism.  I am sickened by the kill floors.  It’s been months since I’ve eaten a fast-food burger prepared from several cows riddled with feces and e-coli.  I can't get these images out of my head when making food choices.

I made my girls watch Food, Inc. with me.  As we watched, my 7 –year old said, “Mom, the ‘good farms’ also kill the chickens.”  “Yes,” I said, “We have to kill animals to eat them; however, the nice farms feed their animals what they were meant to be fed and the animals have a quality of life before execution”.  Wow, that still sounds sucky, but that was my answer.

I don’t know the right answer.  In the meantime, I just want my girls to be educated about what they put in their bodies.  I want them to be aware of crappy marketing by large corporations and I hope that they make good decisions…hell; I hope I make good decisions!!