I come from a cold culture with an even colder mother who killed animals on a daily basis. I figured from way back that if I wasn't mentally prepared to kill it myself, I shouldn't be eating it. Which is why I avoided eating lobster for a long time--killing them freaked me out.

But that's my personal line. I sure wouldn't want to kill all my own meat. But I can't even grow my own herbs, so I'm not about to become self-sustaining any time soon.

Having grown up in farm country, it always makes me blink when people get upset by thinking that their food was once an animal. It's their right to be upset, of course, but the ones who try to make me feel guilty for eating one of God's creatures generally get roundly mocked by me. Don't quibble with me about my chicken and sausage, and I won't go into my spiel about subsistence farming and herding and how tricky it can be to get good veggies and meat substitutes in the veldt and the Arctic.

Long post eated by Comcast. To sum up, I knew where meat came from and that was cool. Didn't know rabbits were meat. Didn't appreciate finding out 1. after I'd just nommed it and 2. after I'd been encouraged to play with and bond with their brethren.

It'd be like naming my basil plants.

Oh yah, I thought it was totally uncool when my sister said she was opposed to lamb so my parents told her it was beef.

Was it my grandma's birthday today? Yes. Did I know that? Yes. Did I remember to call her? NO.

UGH, I hate myself.

i'm with Ita. If me sitting at the table not helping myself to the turkey makes someone else feel guilty about eating something that used to run around and stare up at the rain, then they should be questioning their own dietary ethics, not mine. I try to avoid talking about such things at the table (along with politics, religion...the standard things that angry up the blood) but do clearly recall at age 9 asking my Mom if the venison was really Bambi. That started a Talk and ended with me never eating red meat again. Turkey took longer, as i wasn't aware of any loveable cartoon turkeys.

My sister, OTOH, at age 5 was eating chicken strips and talking about the chickens in the yard. There was a moment of *pause* *looks at food on plate* "chicken?" *looks out screen door at chicken tractor* "chickens?". I could see the cogs turning as understanding dawned, then she happily went back to eating. It's good to understand where food comes from.

There's a prediction of snow flurries tomorrow. I just ordered some snow boots from Zappos. It's too soon for winter.

Hey all.

I've been inexcusably lax about, you know...this board.

Been busy. Tell you what, next week I'll post what I've been up to on YouTube. If anyone's interested.

ooh intriguing.

Good to see your pixels.

Miracleman!

In big yay news, my leave request got approved!

YAY!

I lived in Berkeley for years so I actually was exposed to vegans that were every bit as sanctimonious and annoying as hardcore meat-pushers. As others have said, I think it's best if it's left to the individual to choose. When I held my big St. Patrick's Dinner Party, I tried to make a vegetarian version of the stew as well (the rest of everything else was vegetarian if not vegan).

I agree with ita that omnivores have got to come to grips with killing their own meat. I haven't done it myself yet except with fish. I used to go fishing with my dad. I don't do that anymore because while I like fishing, I don't like most seafood. And while there was always someone around happy to eat what I caught, I didn't feel it was right for me to not be eating my own catch. At least until my family's in a subsistence situation...

I went to Denmark as an exchange student when I was 16. To a farm. When I first arrived there, one of the first things I saw was the stump with the blood and feathers. I knew I'd have to deal with that some time. The farm raised pigs, chickens and rabbits. And crops. One night we had chicken. I eat drumsticks while everyone else loves the white meat. I looked for the drumsticks and couldn't see any. And that's when I realized we were eating bunny.