eloquently about the disappearance of our
food animals as the system of meat
production changed in the 19th century:
Formerly, a person could not easily have
forgotten that pork and beef were the
creation of an intricate, symbiotic
partnership between animals and human
beings. One was not likely to forget that
pigs and cattle had died so that people
might eat, for one saw them grazing in
familiar pastures, and regularly visited the
barnyards and butcher shops where they
gave up their lives in the service of one’s
daily meal.... As time went on, fewer of
those who ate meat could say that they had
ever seen the living creature whose flesh
they were chewing; fewer still could say
that they had actually killed the animal
themselves. In the packers’ world, it was
easy not to remember that eating was a
moral act inextricably bound to killing....