many many moons ago mike and i took an undergrad philosophy class on ethics together. at some point really late in the semester we got to a section dedicated to the ethics of food consumption (or something). one of the articles on the subject within the textbook was written by peter singer, a fairly polarizing voice on many ethical issues.
i’ll never forget the day that we had our lecture on the subject. not only did the professor (an uncanny clark kent look-alike) discuss the merits and the downfalls of the points made in the article, the class ended with a video of…baby snuggles, rosebuds, and puffy clouds.
no, that’s not true. but, let’s be honest, we’ve all seen those animal-rights films (if you haven’t, don’t. or do. but don’t.). i don’t need to go into the specifics.
yowsa’s. disturbing.
suffice it to say the next day i stopped eating chicken. and all other meat*, too.
for approximately 10 years.
and then, this past thanksgiving, i took the plunge.
hours/days/weeks/months/years of constant gourmet food show watching, blog reading, foodie friend talking, had finally worn me down.
i needed bacon.
it was a six month experiment. gorging myself on anything that used to move that i could stand to chew (ewwww, chew!). and it was delicious.
hot wings. cheeseburgers. korean fried chicken. bacon. bacon. BACON.
but now the window has closed** (minus some specific exceptions that i’m going to wait to go into…save some material for later posts, don’t you think?). and it’s back to black.
or vegetarianism. or pescatarianism. or whatever it is that i am.
~~~
*well, i ate/eat fish. i can go into why, but BORING.
**i know it’s kind of crappy i didn’t talk about this earlier. ‘SIX WHOLE MONTHS OF MEAT AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN TELL ME?!’ you might be thinking. well, as a vege/pesca/whatevera, i’ve actually come across a lot of opinionated people inserting comments/opinions/whatever where they don’t necessarily belong. this choice of mine to eat meat was mine to choose alone. i was afraid that i might come across folks who didn’t think i’d go back, or think that i should go back, and while i knew they would be wrong, i didn’t love the thought of explaining to people that they would be wrong, especially about something i couldn’t prove until now. it’s the kind of confrontation i’m not interested in. eh. it’s tiring.
4 comments
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May 5, 2011 at 12:03 am
The Ambitious Mrs
Can’t you just be a bacon-atarian? No meat besides bacon? I had a teacher in high school that was. She just couldn’t give it up. I think it’s the perfect solution (tofu, so much better with bacon!)
July 21, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Carol Addington
BACON lures me as well…I rarely buy it, but every time I shop I look at it, hold it, study it. Sometimes I give in and actually buy it. Last week I downloaded a recipe for bacon jam, thinking, OK that’s for Hal, but come on, who is it really for ? So far I’ve eluded that desire. But it’s out there. You can’t watch the food channells without being tempted by Bacon. Let’s form a BA group. yeh
July 21, 2011 at 9:39 pm
April
i love the idea of BA. except for…can we still eat bacon?? i mean, i know i’m off of meat again, but i don’t want to rule it out completely. perhaps the first sign of an addict? can’t give it up, even when she’s not eating it?
October 26, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Silvia Barcellos
Hi dear, I miss you! First time I come here in ages (it actually took me a while to remember the address, I had to stop at shinyspoon first :0) and I was so happy to see all these new posts. I am having a crappy day at work (I had the brilliant idea of going to the dentist before work and spent the whole day feeling num) and your posts just made me laught and feel so much better. And I also realized how much I miss you and Mike. We have some news, will e-mail soon.
Silvia.