You gotta love Thanksgiving. Delicious food, gratitude, and generosity joyous enough, but to top it off, there’s pie. Yum!
Yet, for the last few years, come this time of year, we start to think about a New York Times piece a few years back about the “humane” slaughtering that certain “privileged” turkeys experience. We’re talking the 1%ers here. It may or may not be news to you but some fancy NY Hudson Valley (and similar local farm) birds get a one-two blessing of a higher authority and a swift chop-n’slice.
The idea is it’s a better, more compassionate, way to go (as opposed to the gazillion others that are killed in factories and without concern).
Or is it just what we tell ourselves? Ariel Kaminer described her experience as “gross” and said it made her feel “crummy.” At the same time, it seemed to connect her to what eating a (formerly) living creature signifies. As she put it, ending this being’s life with the goal only of deliciousness was “a strong corrective to dislocation and alienation of our industrial food system, a chance for once to understand what we are eating and where it came from.”
Taste-wise, the respected turkey won hands-down. She reported that it was so tasty and very different from the concentration camp birds with chem-butter flavor most of us have eaten.
No doubt, these luxury elite turkeys really are better in many ways. Fewer drugs, more nutritious feed, and maybe even an improved death all can make the turkey eating better for us and possibly even the bird.
But is it humane? We wonder.
The act of killing our own meat could create a spiritual connection with our dinner. Hunters and others insist this is the case and people around the world have for generations created a bond with the animals they slaughtered for food. Or maybe those times are over.
Here’s a thought. How about we set up some home-slaughter centers and see how it goes?
Or we could just eat our veggies. Happy Thanksgiving – we love giving thanks.
Wake Up and Enjoy!