Broken Promises

Of all the things George Jetson showed me about life in the 21st Century, I feel most cheated about food. The triangular silver unisex clothing and flying cars would be great, but square blue food, or meals in a pill, would make it much easier for me to eat.

I'd really like something to eat that I could enjoy without guilt. I love meat, but haven't had to kill and dress anything to eat it, and doubt that I could unless I was real hungry. At which point I doubt that I'd refuse anything. There's no question that meat eating is violent and that animals are raised and slaughtered simply so I can enjoy them, but the death of animals is nowhere near as cruel as what we do to humans to raise agricultural products. I guess it's like animal experimentation. I don't like rabbits and sheep being tortured, but I'd rather that happened than that we didn't have transplants and modern medicine that the experiments produce.

But torture is exactly what I do to my fellow man so I can enjoy fruits and vegetables. I realize that the gross number of farming fatalities and accidents are down, but I think that's mostly a reflection of the far fewer number of people involved in raising the commodity farm products (wheat, soy, and the like). Twenty years ago tillage equipment could only work four rows at a time, now it handles up to two dozen. So, fewer people working in the fields translates to fewer horrific combine accidents, but there are still far too many people maimed and killed for my liking.

Worse than that, though, is the barbaric and cruel life I force on others so I can enjoy asparagus and berries. The delicate food that must be harvested by hand is something I can enjoy if I ignore the demands I'm placing on others to get it for me. It's one thing to quickly slaughter a cow, it's quite another to sit in plush settings while someone else spends twelve hours, bending over in back-breaking labor, digging and grabbing food for my enjoyment. Even if they got paid $20 an hour, it would be inhumane work.

Although I've never done it, I've spoken to those who have, and I shudder whenever I think of my food requiring someone to labor in the sun, bent over using a one foot hoe, to scrape up and carry heavy weights of food so I can enjoy a fresh chilled bowl of tasty grapes.

Eating meat is horrid for livestock, but the only existing alternative is tortuous to people. I'd trade them both in a minute for something synthetic that didn't cost human lives.