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Out of curiousity, if steaks of human flesh was "infinitely better" than beef steak, would you eat them?
Since I have a cultural and moral aversion to cannibalism (except in cases of utter starvation), I wouldn't know.
From what I know of the taste of human flesh, it tastes a lot like pork.
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What about steaks of golden retriever?
There are several countries which consume dog, some european countries which consume horse, and some african countries which consuume monkey.
I don't have a particular desire, because of cultural reasons, to consume these kinds of flesh, but I don't have a particular moral aversion to or judgement of other people doing so.
Besides, I wasn't talking about the morality of eating meat, but the comparison between the flavor of imitation meat compared to the real thing.
Your fake steak might taste damn good, but I seriously doubt it would fool anyone into thinking it was actually real meat.
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How do you know it is humanely and sustainably raised?
I know the people who raised the animal personally, or I buy only from companies which I have investigated and find them to be reputable.
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What is your definition of humane and sustainable?
"Humane" means that the animal lives a comfortable life with plenty of room to roam, outdoors, is fed wholesome food that it was meant to eat (no animal byproducts for ruminants, for example), no hormones to speed it's growth or antibiotics (unless it gets sick), and as little stress during slaughter as possible, etc.
"Sustainable" means that the animals are raised on small family owned and operated farms which only raise as many animals that their land will support. No huge feedlots and no giant pigbarns.
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I know I can buy a chunk of meat with human-certified/organic/small-farm labels all over it, but how can I know that it came from a happy animal, that lived, was transported, and was killed 'humanely'?
You do the legwork until you are satisfied that you know enough and have enough of a relationship with the rancher or farmer to trust them.
I trust
these people who I know and
this company, one of the founders of which is a friend of mine.
Alternatively, you can hook up with a local farmer who feels as strongly as you do about these things and have him or her raise an animal for you.
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(Truthfully, I find the entire process, regardless of how it was carried out to be inhumane by nature - I'm wondering what your own or industry standards might be.)
I think that it is clear that humans are omnivores. We are capable of consuming and deriving nutrition from both plants and animals. In fact, certain nutrients are difficult to get unless we consume at least some animal products.
I also think that it is a sign that we live in a great overabundance of food that anyone has the incredible luxury of cutting entire categories of available food out of their diets for purely moral reasons.
If you were starving to death, and all there was to eat was meat, would you die rather than eat it?
You know, these food phobias we all have are funny. Once, I was working the cheese counter, helping there two women. One of them loved cheese, but the other was completely grossed out. When I began talking about the flavor of artisan, small production farmstead cheese being influenced by the type of forage the animals were eating, which in turn affested the flavor of the milk, she just about turned green. She surprised me a minute later, however, by moving on down to the salami section and wanting to taste a bunch of them. I had assumed she was a vegetarian, but she wasn't. She just thought the idea of eating a dairy product was disgusting, but not flesh.
Other times, there have been people in the store who have not even recognized the what the whole prosciutto hams we have hanging up were actually meat, and when they asked and we told them, they wrinnkeled up their noses and made a "yuck" face, right before they turned around and ordered a pastrami on rye sandwich! People are so divorced from where their food actually comes from, it's frightening.
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What about health concerns? "Proper proportion" may seem reasonable, yet red meat is chock full of carcinogens.
Like I said, in the proper proportion in the diet, meat is perfectly healthful.
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I may well as claim cigarettes are fine as long as I only smoke a pack a week - nevertheless they still are damaging.
Come on, this is a silly comparison.
Meat contains iron, complete protein, Zinc, Niacin, and Vitamin b-12, which is an important nutrient found mostly in animal products.
There are absolutely zero health benefits to smoking and lots of things about smoking that are very damaging, but the same cannot be said about eating meat.
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I find there to be very few cons to eating meat
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So what are the pros, other than "it feels good?"
I find it rather deliciously ironic that a swinger such as yourself would have the balls to ask somebody this kind of judgemental question regarding an activity he doesn't personally approve of on moral grounds.
Well, I happen to greatly value gustatory pleasure, so "it tastes good" is a pretty big reason for me to consume something.
Of course, I do not eat the flesh of animals lightly, or thoughtlessly, or without the full understanding of the fact that an animal died to provide nutrition and pleasure for me.
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