Quote of the Day #17
"I'm a pretty harsh critic of 99 percent of America's meat system, but there is that 1 percent I think is important to defend, because first there are good environmental reasons to eat meat in a limited way.
If you believe strongly in building up local food economies, there are places where meat is the best way to get protein off of the land. It's too hilly, too dry. Having animals is very important for sustainable agriculture. If you're going to have animals on the farm, they're going to die eventually, and you're going to eat them.
But I have enormous respect for vegetarians. They're further ahead than most of us. They've gone through the thought process in making their eating choices. They've just come out in a different place than I have.
I think we're going to focus on meat-eaters the way we have on SUV drivers. There will be a lot of pressure and education to show that a heavy meat diet is a big contributor to climate change, and that there are many good reasons to eat less meat."
-Michael Pollan
posted by Zak at
9:00 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks for posting, I like this.
I was a vegetarian for years, I was a heavy meat eater for years. I even worked in the meat industry to some extent (smallish turkey farm).
I've come back to the fact that I'm comfortable with a balanced diet: meat in reasonable quantities (generally, as I still occasionally binge on it), plenty of veggies, little salt, no fast food, not much in the way of sweets.
While walking around the Boston Vegetarian Festival a couple of weeks ago I realized that fanatic calls in either direction of the meat issue bother me. I'm aware of and against factory farms but I also think that meat's important in limited quantities -- if anything, for historical/biological reasons.
It's partly a factor of just growing up, I think. The older I get, the less interested I am in McDonald's (that is to say, the more it makes me feel ill to even think of it) or in eating a pan of brownies, and the more interested I am in how good I feel with things like brown rice and kale.
Anyway, thanks for the food for thought.
9:44 PM
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