Are You Disconnected From What You Eat?
The Telegraph's Sally Peck discusses a tv special in the UK that's probably unlikely to make its way across the Atlantic:
A full 90 per cent of us, according to a new BBC programme, buy our meat in neatly packaged blobs at the supermarket and thus remain disconnected from many of the moral issues surrounding the raising and killing of animals for human consumption.
Last night on BBC Three, journalist Richard Johnson set about remedying our ignorance of the slaughter process in Kill it, Cook it, Eat it.
In the programme, a film crew has taken over a small working abattoir and installed windows onto the slaughter room so guests can view the action close-up. An adjacent kitchen-dining room, with views onto the slaughter room, was put in so the meat could be cooked directly after slaughter and then offered to the people who have just watched the killing and butchering.
Yes, there were both meat eaters and vegetarians present, and no, the former didn't turn into the latter after the slaughter; apparently it was professional and solemn rather than gratuitous gore, which makes me think it's something I would like to and should see, especially after having read Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. I wonder how many of my fellow city dwellers have ever seen their meals before they were meals.
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1 Comment:
When I was younger, my dad used to buy live chickens from Chinatown and kill and pluck them himself. I never stayed around to watch, though. I have no qualms about eating stuff like foie gras. Recently my boyfriend and I killed a lobster for dinner, and now I know why people freak out about doing it, even though I still just think of them as giant bugs. It's really gross and disturbing, the way the lobster keeps moving even when it's dead.
toastykitten at 3:45PM on 03/06/07