Assignment 4- Harvesting food

I would agree with the statement that killing, growing and harvesting your own food definitely gives people a closer connection with what they are eating. But let's be honest with ourselves. We live in a lazy, yet fast paced society. Very few people want to or have the time to kill, grow or harvest their own food. It's obvious, just look at all the fast food joints on every corner of every street. We have been socialized to hunt at the grocery store. We don't want to know where our food comes from, how it's prepared or what's really in it. Ignorance is bliss right? That's just reality. And yes, if I had to kill animals and butcher them into pieces of meat, I doubt I would eat  meat at all. I'll admit that whole heartily. And I have a feeling that most of my peers would agree with me. Nobody likes to think about what exactly they're eating when they buy a "ball park hot dog" at a Mariner game. You just don't think about it.

I believe that hunting is moral. It's definitely more so than what is done to chickens, cows and pigs that come from big corporate factories. It's moral to kill your own food, and have that connection and that understanding than just going to the store and buying something from a package. You don't know if that animal was killed in the most humane way. And you certainly can't guarantee that it didn't have a horrible life before it was even killed to begin with.

But then again, over killing is bad also. And so is over eating. Harrison's meal is definitely an example of gluttony. Who eats 30-something meals like that? If you wanna get really fat, maybe. But too much of anything is bad for you. It doesn't matter what it is, everything must be in moderation. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't be able to go on a binge-eating frenzy like that knowing that a huge number of the world's population is starving. It's sick and selfish and gross. It wasn't "A really big lunch" it was a "really big binge."

Good reads:

Petersen, David. Heartsblood: hunting, spirituality and wildness in America. Washington D.C: Island Press, 2000.

Cutler, Katherine N. Growing a garden indoors of out. New York: Lee and Shepard, 1973.