April 4, 2013

Deep Thoughts From An Angry Insomniac

Ok. I have a question about raising your own chickens. I know people do it to avoid eating eggs with hormones and because commercial farms are disgusting and disrespectful. I agree with that - makes sense to me - IF you want to eat eggs. I do eat eggs because I'm still programmed to want to. I now only by cage-free but even that bugs me because I wonder just what that means exactly and then I think I might not want to know.

Thing is, I'm starting to question: why? There are plenty of plant sources to provide the same health benefits, right? So why do we mess with chickens in the first place?

Isn't it disrespectful to the hens to constantly take their eggs from them to eat them even if you raise them to free roam? Or what if you let her hatch some of the eggs and raise a few chicks, is that much better? Why do we even eat eggs in the first place?

Why don't we convert our animal farming resources to produce more plant crops instead? (yeah - Monsanto - but there has to be a way to drive them out sometime)

Perhaps I play Angry Birds too much! LOL!

Squawk!

I'd like to see an Angry Cows game though, because I'm done with dairy milk, personally. I'm still struggling with cheese, yogurt and ice cream though I'm more conscious about it now and looking for alternatives here and there. I've decided, after having breastfed both my children and having to use a pump to produce for the first few months each time -- and having developed a love hate relationship with that damn pump -- that I can never look at cows being milked the same way ever again. I consciously made an informed choice to strap on an electronic torture device every couple of hours in order to feed my babies because that's what I felt was best. Now, don't get me wrong, I like you, but I don't like you nearly enough to make milk for you full time unless you grew inside my body for 9 months. I don't quite understand why we should expect this from another mammal outside our own species let alone forcibly and cruelly for the purposes of mass production of milk that we have no real right to be drinking anyway. It's quite unnatural, scientifically and the whole process is completely artificial at best. It just seems pointless anymore. (Having been a recipient of WIC (never again!) and seeing the dairy gluttony and subsequent waste - it physically pained me having to dump expired milk down the drain :(  and don't get me started on WIC (nutrition my-ass)

There is scientific proof now that we do not require cow's milk to thrive, but our culture hasn't caught up with that thinking yet and our agriculture supply and demand will likely keep it that way for years to come because many people don't know any other way and it's their livelihood. I get that, but it doesn't mean I need to buy into it.
Don't worry, I don't judge you for drinking milk, eating eggs or other meat as I'm still reviewing my own programming code for efficiency and bugs. I do believe in Karma though, so if you treat dead animal meat as a sport and are wasteful and unkind and an angry boar is headed your way while you're unable to defend yourself, I might just quietly say "oink" instead of "run!"

2 comments:

  1. Could it be? You're evolving? Herbivores, unite!! ;)

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  2. After 6 months of fairly strict vegan, we are slowly I guess becoming flexitarian. I eat an occasional egg, but know personally their source (still not ideal, but a choice we can live with), and we eat sardines from time to time. Dairy has not been our friends. And meat is pretty much unpalatable (full disclosure: the last 2 weeks have seen a little beef in our diets because his momma's doing the cooking, and who am I to turn my nose up at the labors of love from her to my family?). I have to say, going vegan was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be. Good for you, Lis. If I can do anything to help, LMK. Good book/blog - Vegan Lunchbox. I've used the heck out of her books.

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Thanks for your comment! I really appreciate your thoughts.