Mark Bittman: What’s wrong with what we eat?
I first saw this video on Grist’s food page (which is worth checking out — especially this one on the ban on slaughtering downers not keeping them out of the food supply). So I looked for the Mark Bittman video on You Tube where I could add it to my site, too. Please watch. This is a non-vegetarian speaking to our issues, in a way that I hope other non-vegetarians can hear.
Two minor quibbles:
1) Kindness to animals isn’t a red herring. Concern for the ways the 10 billion farmed animals in this country are raised in confinement, fed an unnatural diet laced with antibiotics and growth hormones, and slaughtered (not to mention the unnecessary animal abuse that every undercover investigation reveals to the public) are the very reason many people go vegan. And although I agree that we have to reduce the number we raise before we can worry about being kind to those who are left, because it is impossible to treat 10 billion animals kindly when they are slaughtered so horribly, it is the attitude that one will not support cruel industries that can help drive down the numbers of animals killed for their flesh. Health and environmental perspectives might work better with more people, because those involve implications that affect people personally. But I would not consider an intentional goal of a cruelty-free lifestyle, and refusing to support industries that profit from exploiting/killing animals to be a red herring at all — or even secondary. It is an ethical choice.
2) The other is locovore as a red herring. I live in Illinois, and understand what he’s saying that it’s easier for people in California to buy locally-grown food. But local is subjective. And if I have my choice of buying something like garlic grown in California or garlic grown in China, I would consider California to be more local. Same with spinach, and so much else that is imported from other countries. I’ll buy blueberries grown in Michigan, but not blueberries grown in Chile. Nevertheless, this Spring, I’ve decided to “grow my own food” — or at least a sampling of many different things, which are not only being grown veganically, but will be as local as I can get. (I also don’t trust farmers’ markets, because in my town at least, some of the sellers get their produce at wholesale, from the same suppliers that the grocery stores get theirs from.)
Not everyone has the luxury of local farmers markets, or grocery stores that label the country or state of origin. Stores like Whole Foods that do label the country or state of origin tend to be more pricey, and not close enough for people to be able to make the trip. (My local Whole Foods is about 25 miles away. The only good thing is that it’s in the town where I work, so I can rush over during lunch if I really need to get something there that I can’t get at the store in my own town.)
Other than that (and I do get his points), I am extremely happy to hear him say things I would want the world to know on so many topics, and love how he puts meat and junk food together in the same breath. And if meat-eaters would listen to him, and get back even to the level recommended by doctors of eating a half a pound of meat a week, instead half a pound of meat per day, it would greatly reduce the number of animals raised for slaughter by 6/7ths — more than if a few new people chose to go vegan — more than a few who might give up meat throughout Lent. And that reduction alone might be enough to dismantle factory farming.
Tags: Lent