the Cost of Consumption

Thanks to a daughter who recently adopted a vegan lifestyle and some related synchronicities, it has become increasingly abundantly clear just how disconnected we are from our food sources.

Most of us have no idea how are meat and poultry and dairy products are raised.  Truthfully, we probably do not want to spend a lot of time thinking about the living conditions of these animals--whether or not they are treated humanely while alive--most of us couldn't even tell you the source of these food products.  I do know that if we were more connected to them--gave these sentient creatures any thought at all, we would find the conditions appalling.

In the name of the almighty dollar, chickens are raised by the millions in cages that are so small that they cannot even turn around. They spend their entire lives in those cages where there soul function is to produce eggs.  Our cattle and pigs do not fare much better.

Dairy?  Those poor creatures are pumped so full of hormones that it should frighten anyone who gives it any thought and I think it plays into our levels of hormone-driven cancers, type II diabetes and obesity.  Those that are my age (42) might think back to our childhood.  In my elementary school, girls did not start to physically develop en masse until late in the 5th grade--and mostly the 6th.  Go into any elementary school and it is obvious that girls are starting development as early as the 3rd grade.  If it were an option to me, I would totally have bought only organic non-hormone milk for my daughters.  If they were young now, I would do this thing precisely.

I'm not sure what to do about these things, but I know that changes are coming in my household.  Already, I am more willing to spend extra money buying organics, reading labels and at least THINKING about the animals whose lives are given up so that I might eat.  I'm trying to practice gratitude regarding the same.  In many cultures, Native Americans for example, they would thank the animal they hunted for giving their lives for them.  I think that this is a good practice.  I am also trying to cut down on the amount of meat consumption in my life--we eat far too much of it in America.  I've been told that that is one of the first tells that we are American to foreigners--we smell like meat.  I don't know if that's true or not, but it makes sense.

I would like to source and buy local products--animals that I know have free ranged and were not raised or killed under cruel circumstances.  I can't go the full on PETA route as they are too militant for my tastes.  You can lose the message in its delivery--and these folks just kinda turn me off...

Life is such an odd thing--because it takes death to sustain it.  The very least I can do is to be cognizant of that fact always, and grateful as its result.

Your view?