Pigs are one of the most versatile omnivores. Two pigs will consume a moderate
sized animal-a deer or ewe- in twenty four hours, leaving only the pelt and
skull. They are one of the ultimate recyclers in the animal world.
Many of their biological systems and ours are quite similar-and baby pigs,
newborns, resemble newborn humans quite remarkably.
I don't hold any hierarchy of life value when it comes to humans, animals,
plants, etc. We are all a part of the great cycle of life. We all die and are
reborn again. Being eaten isn't bad, it is life taking on new form. I eat an
animal I've raised, it sustains me for awhile. I die, (or am eaten) and return
to the earth to be consumed by maggots-my other favorite recyclers-eventually
I will become incorporated unrecognizably into the Great Mother. The ethics in
the meat eating debate is not, for me, whether or not one consumes animal
flesh & their other body products, but one's relationship with the animal as
well as other foods one consumes. Knowing where it comes from, how it's been
treated, whether it's a factory produced egg from a miserable chicken, or
garbanzo beans sprayed with herbicides & pesticides. Also knowing the
connections between how the food came to one's table-was it harvested by
migrant workers in appalling conditions? Has the health of the earth suffered
because of it's production? Was this food a necessary one, or a luxury? What
was it's true costs? Are all people being adequately fed, or just the wealthy?
Who is profiting from this basic need and why? Who is paying, and how?
These are the ethics of food consumption for me, and I think of them at most
meals...we ask our children to remember the origins of their food, and we
recite it's history as much as we have been able to know it. I eat with
reverence because I was at one time a farmer, and I know intimately the work
that goes into creating food. I am grateful every day for having enough
calories and nutrients to support my life, and I am humbled by that gratitude,
as it is tempered with the knowledge that most food is produced under horrific
conditions for the planet, animals and the laborers involved, and that many,
many people starve to death daily because of the very practices that make my
simple table so full.
