Documentary Eating You Alive

(Bob M) #21

Tilling is one of the most destructive things ever invented. Nature never tills. I can see why people did this, but all of the regenerative farmers try no-till, even planting things like potatoes on the surface.

#22

The confusion is real. The persuasiveness of celebrities is real. Existential angst can weave its way in there. The n=1 is you.

Killing animals is tough. I have killed hundreds. I have killed animals to end suffering, and I have killed them to eat them. I spent short stints in abattoirs for chickens, sheep and cattle, observing how they worked (and what was wrong with them). I have also participated in killing animals on farms with solemn faced farmers who have raised them. Slaughter is a deliberately emotive word. Humans can get very good at killing things. To the point where, if an animal is healthy and trusting of humans, it can be done, the killing, with no pain nor manufactured horror. Or efficiently from a distance with an accurate shot. They, the animals taught me a lot about death, and modern human disconnection from it.

The nutrition information is clearer these days, I think. Most people will need to eat foods that suit their lifelong ills, fix their inherited eating mistakes, their gut, their culture, their instinct, and their satiety. Beliefs can get in the way of finding the optimum way of eating for an individual at a particular life phase and health stage.

I used to hang out with vegan animal activists despite my omnivore ways. They were passionate to the edge, and then past, into mental derangement. Saying things like, I will sacrifice my health to not eat animals. And they do/did. We went to every animal activist film documentary we could. They all had a vegan recruitment message. Those documentaries have evolved over the decades. This sounds like another. They make good points about animal welfare. I find they are inaccurate about physiological health. Like all that read this I hardly question my instinctive biases.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #23

The animal behaviorist Temple Grandin has done a lot of work with the meat processing industry to make their processes more humane.

She said once in an interview that she believed that being autistic was an advantage for seeing things more as an animal would see them.

#24

And once more: We have a LOT in common. I am the same. Animal abuse makes me very angry, as does child abuse and abuse of the elderly. I think it has to do with abusing the innocent. And I just can’t unsee things, I still have dreams about something I saw some 40 years ago. Things like that haunt me.

(Marianne) #25

It’s so true, but watching a “documentary” (for me, anyway), I tend to believe what I see on tv or read in print. I’m not minimizing how animals are treated in the commercial food industry. I only saw a few seconds of that before I turned it off. I just can’t. It’s hypocritical to consume them without impunity, however, I just take it as a sad reality of feeding the masses, myself included. I don’t want to know.

What upset me was the other content about how bad meat and dairy are to the human body. I forget the “ten things” they mentioned that were so bad (meat, dairy, “oil”, (I don’t know if that referred to animal oils or vegetable/seed oils), nuts. I don’t remember the other six. I mainly consume meat, butter/ghee, dairy and very limited vegetables (usually only brussels sprouts, cabbage, and lettuce, if any). They made it sound like we are killing ourselves. The whole thing was just upsetting to me. I mean, we are eating the right food, right?

(Geoffrey) #26

“They made it sound like we are killing ourselves. The whole thing was just upsetting to me. I mean, we are eating the right food, right?”

I believe we are but that’s for each individual to decide.
I believe it’s right because first, it just makes sense to me and secondly because of how it makes me feel. No doctor, no medicine and no eating by the “food pyramid “ ever did a thing to alleviate my ailments but our WOE did. I have been cured completely by eating this way so no one can convince me I’m wrong when I see the results for myself.

(Marianne) #27

You are right; I’ve experienced the same. No more “documentaries” for me.

(Robin) #28

I agree. My old heart can’t take it.lolol

(Geoffrey) #29

By the way, and I should have mentioned this earlier, I completely agree with you and others about animals be treated as humanly as possible. Many slaughter houses have changed how they do things and what these “shock” documentaries show is often old footage depicting practices that are not in use anymore. But, to be honest, there is only so much that they can do when doing what they do for mass production.
My animals live a good life and their end is as quick and efficient as possible without fear.
The animals I hunt are taken with skill and precision for the fastest kill possible. I’m also very selective for conservation purposes. I also utilize nearly every part of the animal.

(Edith) #30


This podcast gives a different perspective. You may find it interesting.