There are two questions I get asked frequently.
Why do you name the animals you are going to eat? and how CAN you eat them if you know them??
We need to talk about this.
There was a time when I still had to go to the supermarket to get food. If you would have asked me if I would want to know the name of the animal that is now that little slab of meat in the shelves in front of me I would’ve probably said no.
First of all because I probably didn’t care about the name of an already butchered being and secondly because I couldn’t envision eating something I care for (being an animal lover and around animals all my life).
This perspective is that of the average human (here at least). When they think of animals in agriculture they know they are in some sort of confinement “but it can’t be that bad”. And as far as food safety goes there is a big entity that protects us (with tight regulations “to protect us” but never take the blame when something DOES goes wrong. It’s the farmers fault then..)
If you would ask about my perspective now then it’s the total opposite.
I don’t want to eat what I don’t know.
What hasn’t changed is the love for my animals. Caring for them, giving pigs a belly rub or teaching goats to walk on a leash. I spend a lot of time with each of them. I know each character and each face and they will stay in my memory. So how come I can still eat them?
To me, this is the cliche “circle of life”, keep reading cause it’s broader than you might think. These animals, take my pigs for example, eat the waste (weeds, outside leaves of cabbage, overripe tomatoes etc.) from my garden, they help me get rid of excess bugs and some breeds till the soil and helping me prep garden beds. They fertilize and be happy lazy sunbathing pigs.
I am meat and I have a name: I'm called Wooly Willy
This circle of life is bigger then just being born and dying in the end to make room for new life. It is about finding the place you belong in this world and fulfilling the role that is asked of you. For an animal it means being in sync with the soil and plant life and me as apex predator (in charge of keeping other threats and infectious diseases away.)
Let me ask you:
Since when is a backyard or farm or any human owned green space an animal-less system???
We are quite arrogant in thinking that the laws of nature don’t apply in “our space”.
And then complain about the excess bugs and poor looking plants, unless you buy and KEEP BUYING fertilizer, weedkillers, bug repellents etc.
Health can’t be bought, period. (I hear you in my head right now talking about medicine, so let me offend you for a second:
Medicine doesn’t make you healthy, medicine covers up an unbalance causing you to function for a while.
Give it some thought at night while you’re angry at me.)
Back to the human greenspace ecosystem.
Just a few animals, enough for your own supply, fits right in. The beauty is that different animals stack functions. I run goats, pigs and chickens on the same spot but at different times, they all eat something else. Manage them properly and you’ll create a beautiful balanced system, this means you have to occasionally eat one. Lucky for us we humans can eat a long time from a single well raised animal, nutrient dense food satisfy us meaning we eat and need less of it.
We are meat and we have names: We're Dai'ichi and Jiro. We were raised as bottle kids, grow and play here, trim bushes and shrubs, steal strawberries and give our genes to the next generation. Our lives will end here too one day.
At this point some might say: well why don’t you just keep them as pets? If I do that then I am lying about me being a human. A human body is designed for both plants and meat, I am not going to deny who I am or my place in the ecosystem. I take responsibility for my needs, including meat and that doesn't come cheap, it takes effort to raise an animal well. Don't forget that the human predator also has the obligation to keep them safe and healthy, same goes for the lion and his pride, they will also fend off predators that otherwise won't stop killing , removing sick individuals and steering the herd to new ground.
I also don’t like the idea of an old animal dying and being wasted. I absolutely hate having an animal die on the homestead albeit a chicken, I don’t like burying someone I love and let it waste away in the soil.
All things will be recycled but the thought of being able to create things (from wool/skin) or feed new/other life is what I’d rather do. Animals have the need to reproduce, also for their health internally which means I have to control the population, both birth (assisting with birth or preventing pregnancy at other times) and death, even in my backyard ecosystem.
Too many animals is just as bad as too few.
A benefit from maintaining your own animals is they generally don’t get sick (good garden= good food=good health) but if they do then I know how and with what I cured them. No surprises, no hidden chemicals and the like. (The european food safety authority released a report not too long ago about residues in supermarket food. Read it and you’ll never buy food again.)
Since we are talking about food now. One thing worries me a great deal.
People are no longer able to distinguish good food from food that’s gone bad.
All the artificial stuff coats the real food thus you can’t tell if something has gone bad. How many articles are there about (industrial processed) food that made people really sick? It’s not because food in general is scary or a high-risk product. Take REAL food and it discolors if it goes bad, it smells or looks off. It’s easy to tell when real food goes bad.
I can tell good raw milk from bad raw milk any day.
We might be food, or not: We all have names.
Can I ask one question to finish this talk. People often get upset if they get served a plate and have to taste something when they don’t know what it is.
So.. how come people are happy and content with the store bought mystery meat?
I’m odd, my meat has a name.
