Being a Veggie

Then God said, "I've given you every sort of

seed-bearing plant on earth and every kind of

fruit-bearing tree, given them to you for food.

Genesis 1

I have been a vegetarian for almost fifty years.  My mom decided to become a vegetarian, and although she always cooked meat dishes for my father, she encouraged her children to follow her example.  Sometimes I have added a little fish to my diet, occasionally I would eat turkey at Thanksgiving, but for the most part, I have stuck with a vegetarian (almost vegan) diet.  I have lots of food allergies and am gluten intolerant, so eating is a bit of a chore for me anyway.  I am allergic to all milk products and don't tolerate eggs all that well, so being a vegan is not that difficult.  In the past, finding food I could eat when I traveled was a bit of a challenge, but those days are long gone with the profusion of vegetarian, vegan, and even gluten-free restaurants.

There are days when I am profoundly pleased that I do not eat meat, and today was one of them, as I read a story out of Fresno, California, reporting that the U.S. government and McDonald's Corporation have suspended purchases of meat from a California slaughterhouse due to animal cruelty and "possible" health issues.  A member of a local animal welfare group obtained a job at the plant and then installed a hidden video camera.  The pictures revealed that animals who were non-ambulatory (usually sick or lame) were being beaten, kicked, shot and shocked in an attempt to get them to "walk" into the slaughter process.  In other words, employees were trying to force cows not eligible for slaughter to be slaughtered anyway.  It is against the law to slaughter a non-ambulatory cow for food consumption out of concern that it might have mad cow disease.  In April, a dairy cow in the same city was diagnosed with mad cow disease.  The slaughterhouse in question primarily handles dairy cows that no longer are able to produce milk.  Footage showed cows with udders so swollen they could not walk, and workers trying to lift downed cattle back onto their feet.

The USDA bought 21,000,000 lbs of beef from the company in 2011 for school lunches and federal food programs.  McDonald's purchased meat for their fast-food chains, as well as In-N-Out Burger--a regional chain, and Costco Wholesale Corporation bought beef to be sold in their warehouses.  Although meat from a West Coast company would probably never make it this far east, all I could think of was "Ew......."  There may be times when the smell of a hamburger or steak makes my nose twitch, but my mind is perfectly content with never having another piece of meat drop down into my stomach.