Morrissey: "I See No Difference Between Eating Meat and Pedophilia"

I struggle with this a lot, and every year I tell myself, I'm going to be a vegetarian. As it is, I rarely eat meat, but I do eat it. We are certainly not the only carnivorous species on the planet. Far from it. So if it's "natural" for other species, why isn't it "natural" for us? Personally, I think we've evolved far enough now that we don't need to eat meat. We are carnivores by choice, not by necessity. Other species are, too, but some would rather starve than give up meat. Lions will never eat a tofu steak. Some humans feel that way, too. Other species would die if they didn't feed off of each other.

So are you tampering with nature's food chain if you eat meat? Or don't eat it? Are you throwing off the whole eco system and food chain? Are you going to stop all other animals from eating all other animals? Or are you giving nature a hand and acting morally and responsibly toward living creatures?

I don't think there is a living species on earth that doesn't disturb, destroy, or feed off of other species in order to survive.

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Besty,

My concern is actually that whole lifestyle and culture pushing the idea of eating meat even further and further away. More research continues to come out proving meat should be a necessary nutritional component of our diet, with the caveat of responsible moderation and careful monitoring of your food source.

I think more than anything else it's the reckless irresponsibility of the meat (and produce and entire food) industry that's the biggest problem for me, as Namo pointed out.

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Just curious ... are you a vegetarian, Namo? Or Vegan? How do you monitor your daily intake of an industry that's so spoiled and corrupt?

How do you decide what is acceptable for consumption?

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Updated On: 1/4/14 at 12:56 PM

Vegetarian about 26 years. Stopped red meat 31 years ago.

I just try to be conscious of what I am consuming, for my own sanity I don't want to cross that line into being constantly ALERT. I try to buy organic when I can and I am delighted when yummy "new" protein trends become popular. Please sir, quinoa have another? Ugh, that was bad, even for me.

My brain seems to want to fold in on itself when I see examples of the cruelty that goes on in big business food production, but I fundamentally believe everybody should have full knowledge of how what they eat gets on their plates. That weirdly, gorgeously surreal documentary "Leviathan," about the fishing industry, had scenes of skate fish being yanked out of the ocean and picked up on meathooks while still alive and then having their wings sliced off with machetes, all the while gasping for breath.

I want to occupy no place in the demand for that kind of food.

And I never bring up my feelings about this stuff unless there's a thread like this or if I am at a dinner with somebody who goes on and on about "do-gooders" and "vegetarians" and "PETA". I give them ten minutes to go on freely. If they continue to go on, I do speak up about why I choose not to be a part of that.

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I would agree with you that processed meat and genetically altered meat is obviously far different from the meat we used to eat as kids, for the most part.

You do have to be somewhat hypersensitive about it, but it is possible to be a stickler about the source (and treatment) of your meat. I am a meat eater but am very cautious about it. It's certainly not for everyone, just as being a vegetarian or vegan isn't, but I think it strikes a delicate balance. If I cannot vouch for the source of the meat, I won't eat it. But I still eat meat when it meets my personal threshold.

"I would agree with you that processed meat …"

That's not me, you're agreeing with, Liza. That's from the article you linked trying to make people feel better about eating meat.

b12, conscious eating is a challenge for everybody! Me too. Back when I gave up meat, there weren't vary many vegetarian options available in the northeast either. It got easier for a while until vegetarian shelf space was taken over by gluten-free options.

I will be honest with how I came to give up red meat. It was 1981. A mysterious cancer was striking gay men. I started going to a health food store, thinking, well, vitamins might help! I picked up a pamphlet by some guru somewhere who was arguing for eating the plant-based living diet rather than the dead flesh animal diet. I was working at a record store at the time (I will NOT tell you which High Fidelity character was most like me), and McDonald's was the go-to. So, I thought, red meat IS kinda gross. I cut that out in my "I have to do SOMETHING for my health" period of GRID panic.

Five years later I got involved with a vegetarian, so it was easy to give up the rest of it.

Now, what I am about to say is "merely" observational during the past five years: my older, leaner, omnivore brother has to be on statins for cholesterol maintenance. and my primary care doc says he only sees cholesterol levels like mine in patients who are on statin drugs. So that is what worked really well for me, but we all have different bodies and genetic histories.

My exposure to the horrors of animal slaughter came years after I had given up meat. So it was easy for me to say I do NOT want to be part of THAT.

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Updated On: 1/4/14 at 02:00 PM

Of course not. I also disagreed with him when he said that Chinese people are another race than human. There is a LOT to disagree with Morrissey about.

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Updated On: 1/4/14 at 02:03 PM

I do eat meat. If a cow, for instance, was not put on earth to give us milk, meat and leather, why is it here at all? It serves no other purpose. It's our responsibility, however, to patronize companies that treat their livestock humanely.

But I think there are two different arguments going on here.

Are we arguing about the very idea/concept of humans eating meat? Or are we arguing about the concept of the humane treatment of livestock? There are produce companies that treat their animals humanely and do not force feed harmful antibiotics or chemicals to their livestock. So, I'm all for that.

Namo, are you completely against the idea of slaughtering an animal with intent to consume irregardless of its treatment while alive? Or are you only comfortable with the slaughtering of an animal as long as it was treated humanely during its days on earth?

Liza, I am actually free from having to make a distinction on that point in the discussion because more than two decades ago I decided not to be a part of that. So I am not a part of that.

I also think it's a bit academic for folks to say "I am all for animals being humanely treated while alive and slaughtered in way that's less vicious" as if it's easy to locate or affordable to purchase such meat. It's like EVERYBODY is in favor of clothes that aren't made in sweatshops or dangerous conditions in the developing world but it's REALLY HARD to find or afford such clothing in the US.

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Wow.

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