The things that we eat determine a lot about our lives and the world around us. In my own life, I have journeyed from the diet typical of an American child raised in the nineteen seventies and eighties, through a committed but reactionary spell of militant vegetarianism, leading to veganism. I did not eat any animal products for about seven years, not intentionally anyway.
Since then I have softened my approach a bit. I will now eat an animal as long as I have made its acquaintance and found it to be suitable to eat. This seems odd to many, and some are even left to wonder if I might eat them in a pinch. Rest assured, as long as food is reasonably plentiful, humans rarely eat one another.
I have struggled a lot with the ethics of food, and eating. The formulas become very complicated at times. It is not an easy thing by any means to determine what it is we should eat, that is until we are hungry, and then it is exquisitely easy. The hungrier we get, the less important it is where an item was raised, or what the ingredients in the soup might be. So then, it is only a matter of time and deprivation before almost anything becomes sufficiently edible.
When we are hungry it is important to eat, most of the time. I think it is also wise to be hungry on occasion. Anecdotally I hear this is even good for us, as it maintains our sensitivity to insulin. It also reminds us of what the unfed child feels as she fades into sleep.
Things are easier for cows and sheep and goats and the like, they are certain that what appears as food to them is what they should eat. There is no ethical dilemma faced by the pleasant doe as she chooses the freshest of the leaves from along the fence, she knows food when she sees it, and she will help herself to it.
Goats are an especially interesting creature in this regard. They will not even consider eating something that has contacted the bottom of their hoof. Extremely finicky about everything, it is not uncommon to see them working an item around in their mouth before spitting it out as something not suitable to be swallowed. Upon inspection, it is found to be nothing more than an odd leaf or bit of vegetation that did not suit their delicate palate.
People are different than the lowly goat. It seems we are not adept at picking the good food out from the bad. Instead we seem to prefer at times the least of it all above the best. I suppose once again we could set about blaming our animal selves for this predicament. Why does it seem the beast in us is always there to be blamed for our bad behavior, but no where to be seen when we behave well? I tend to think that like the lowly goat, the beast in us knows better, but we do not listen.