There’s been something on my mind lately, about how much meat we’re eating, and how many animals are dying every single day because of our insatiable hunger. It’s phenomenal. I was out at a large restaurant on the weekend, and I was watching all the food being made and taken to people’s tables, and all the food being eaten. Hundreds of chickens and fish, dozens of pigs and cows – all for just one night of feasting in a single restaurant.
The figures are astronomical. More than a million chickens are slaughtered every day in Australia to feed our hunger for chicken. (It’s the best meat, of course. So delicious… Now I’m hungry for chicken just thinking about it… But I digress.) Every day we kill 88,000 sheep, 24,000 cows, and 14,000 pigs. And that’s not including the millions of sheep and cows that we export to other countries every year, so that they can be killed overseas.
I know people have to live. We have to survive. We have to prosper. But the numbers of animals dying for our species to survive is just incredible.
I love chicken. It’s my favourite meat. I like lamb and the occasional steak. I’m not sure how I feel about bacon. Everyone loves bacon, but I eat it mostly from habit when I have scrambled eggs. It’s like bacon is a necessary accompaniment, but I rarely eat all of it, usually leaving some behind.
While we can’t eliminate meat from humanity’s diet, as we increase in population we’re also increasing the number of animals being bred and slaughtered for our needs. Something’s gotta change sometime. It’s not sustainable.
I’m going to eat less meat. I think that’s already started some time ago but I never really noticed. I have less steak, less lamb, less pork. Probably more chicken though.
My wife bought me a great blender for xmas, which allows the creation of juices and smoothies. I’ve been drinking more juices, but I need to add more vegetables to the drinks. I think increasing this kind of diet will reduce my desire for meat, so I’m going to be doing more of it. I won’t eliminate meat altogether because I love it too much and I’m aware of its value in my diet, I just think it’s a good thing to reduce it.
I wish more people felt the same way.
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