Well, it turns out we should probably all be vegetarian.
One thing I never thought I would ever consider is cutting meat of my diet. I still have no intention to do away with my carnivorous appetite, but very recently the thought popped into my head, and I asked the question, should I stop eating meat?
Needless to say, I surprised the hell out of myself by asking that question. I was more surprised by the answer I gave, which was a resounding probably.
This wasn't a righteous answer because I don't think it's wrong to slaughter an animal and eat it. That's how species have been surviving for millions of years.
My answer was much more linked to the amount of waste that goes into raising livestock. I've never been a farmer, though roughly 90 per cent of everyone I know back home is, so my experience with farming is all secondhand. It's still pretty thorough for someone who has never caught a chicken. I grew up with a lot of chicken catchers.
It takes a lot of energy and food to turn a calf into a cow, and maybe that just isn't a sustainable way to produce food anymore, if it ever truly was.
Grazing cattle that feed off pasture grasses is a very different story than the factory farm cows feeding off corn. But those factory farms are necessary to keep up with our appetite for beef. That's where I am starting to draw the line. I don't expect to ever cut meat out of my dinner-plate repertoire, but cutting back is something I've already done and am very comfortable with.
I now consider myself a non-practising vegetarian. I think it's very noble and something I probably should do. There are plenty of benefits, but I have no intention of sitting out on steak Thursdays. I hate being conflicted about issues because there's usually a particular side that I can stamp my foot on. While I was at one time firmly planted in the factory-farm-me-a-burger category, I am now doing a lot of straddling.
My sister is in school studying holistic nutrition, and while I am nowhere near developing the same kind of diet she is, I am much more aware of the food I eat and where it comes from. That said, from time to time I still have no problem cooking up a frozen pizza or drinking juice. I will always drink juice, something that appeared to mortify my sister when I made that declaration.
Meat is, and always has been, the centrepiece to what the rest of my meal is going to be. That's how we ate in my family when I was growing up. Sometimes there would be a casserole or other dish, but my favourite meal was a nice roast.
Meat is convenient to cook. Just put it in some heat until done. Non-meat dishes take more work to prepare, so it's tough for someone like me. I like cooking, but I don't like prepping anything.
The most prepping I do is taking some meat out to thaw while I'm at work all day. One good thing that could come of vegetarianism is that I would no longer forget to take the meat out in the morning.
