Here is one of the things that modern humanity has forgotten.

We may not just take from mother nature.
As a mother, she gives abundantly, but when people start taking, things will go bad for them.

We live a symbiotic relationship with cows and chickens.
We need to give thanks for the cutlet that we use to nourish ourselves.
We need to respect the relationship we have with the life that gives us life.

But, we seem to have moved into an age of "scientism" where it is the law of the jungle, eat or be eaten. Its just random atoms bouncing off each other. Meaningless. Chaos.

But any Taoist will tell you that all these lives are interconnected. It is all a great dance. And we need to be thankful for what we are given.

I am sorry that your family, at home does not say いただきます