If You Can Stomach It...

For those who can stomach it, I think hunting your own food is a great idea. I think hunting for food increases awareness on a whole score of issues that many people today aren't able to deal with (myself included). Not only are you positive where your food came from, but you're also conscious of how much pain the animal experienced, how healthy it looked, etc. One aspect I really like of hunting one's own meat is that you can control how much of the animal is wasted. I think people who make the effort to use every part of the animal are quite admiral; they're ensuring that the life of the animal didn't go to waste.

In our modern culture, we are so far removed from the source of our food it's pretty unbelievable. The more our food technology advances, the more detached we become from our food. I know I certainly value my detachment from the animal that I'm consuming, but at the same time, I'm probably causing the poor creature much more pain and strife by purchasing its meat from a grocery store than from killing it myself. I am especially aware of my detachment from food because a few years ago, my guilt about eating animals consumed me and I became a vegetarian. I gave it up after a year and a half (and, ironically, enjoy meat more now that I ever did before), but I am also aware of the fact that I avoid at all costs knowing the source of my protein. If I had to look into the eyes of the creature I wished to consume, I would never be able to eat its flesh. I think it is noble of those who can; they are living in a much more natural realm than those of us who are squeamish about killing animals. People who hunt for their own food are reaching out to the fundamental circle of life that so many of us have lost.

I thought the article about Escoffier's Guide Culinaire was quite interesting. I think it's cool that the author has a network of people that hunt their own food and trade it amongst one another. Although it was kind of disgusting to read about how some of the food is made, I think it was an enriching experience nonetheless. I think hunting for one's own food is perfectly justifiable, certainly more so than purchasing a package of meat in a grocery store. I think the only humans who are truly justified in consuming meat in the first place are those who hunt their own food, after all, they are the only ones who can deal with the moral consequences of the act. The rest of us (once again, myself included) just sit back and let others do the dirty work for us. If everyone hunted their own food, we would certainly be a lot healthier, and we would senselessly murder so many less animals than we do now.

Jackson, Alison. I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1997. Print.

Rubin, Lawrence. Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture. Jefferson: McFarland, 2008. Print.