iteasiertofacethetruenatureofalegoflamb.Theterm
“meat”isitselfdeceptive.Itoriginallymeantanysolidfood,
notnecessarilythefleshofanimals.Thisusagestilllingersin
an expression like “nut meat,” which seems to imply a
substitutefor“fleshmeat”butactuallyhasan equallygood
claim to be called “meat” in its own right. By using the
moregeneral“meat”weavoidfacingthefactthatwhatwe
are eating is really flesh.
Theseverbaldisguises aremerely thetop layerofa much
deeper ignorance of the origin of our food. Consider the
imagesconjuredupbytheword“farm”:ahouse;abarn;a
flock of hens, overseen by a strutting rooster, scratching
aroundthefarmyard;aherdofcowsbeingbroughtinfrom
thefieldsformilking;andperhapsasowrootingaroundin
theorchardwithalitterofsquealingpigletsrunningexcitedly
behind her.
Veryfewfarmswereeverasidyllicasthattraditionalimage
would have usbelieve. Yet we still thinkof a farmas a
pleasantplace,farremovedfromourownindustrial,profit-
consciouscitylife.Ofthosefewwhothinkaboutthelivesof
animals on farms, not many know much about modern
methods of animal raising. Some people wonder whether
animals are slaughtered painlessly, and anyone who has
followedatruckloadofcattleontheroadwillprobablyknow
that farm animals are transported in extremely crowded
conditions; but not many suspect that transportation and
slaughter are anything more than the brief and inevitable
conclusion of a life of ease and contentment, a life that
containsthenaturalpleasuresofanimalexistencewithoutthe
hardshipsthatwildanimalsmustendureintheirstrugglefor
survival.