Animal activists or why they try to prevent us from raising animals

Let’s face it : there is not a single nation that does not have a tradition centred around meat. If you have ever seen the Godfather movie, you know how Italian weddings are. Usually, there is a lot of meat being served. South American cultures tend to feast on a whole animal from time to time too. There is also the popular pig roast that seems to be part of about any national tradition. When I was in France (I spent a whole year there as a kid), I remember eating a few birds that were slowly roasted on the fire. The birds had been hunted by a friend of ours, and he decided to throw a party so that everyone would enjoy the birds (I think I have not eaten better birds since then). No matter how you look at it, animal eating has always been a bonding experience for humans.

In my opinion, this is why the paleolithic diet is becoming more and more popular. The paleolithic diet frees us from the modern guilt of eating meat. You can, again, enjoy two of the best experiences there are in life : the love of food and the love of sharing a delicious meal with people you love. In the first case, I think we will all agree that animal fat makes the meal more tasty. If you look at any of the greatest classical recipes, you will notice how the animal is an important ingredient. For instance, the French cook with lots of cream. Some of the classical roast beef recipes include either beef stock (homemade) or lard. Even the classical onion soup is better if you use chicken stock and another source of fat (I love to use bacon fat or beef tallow).

In the latter case, I think that sharing a meal with people you love is a bonding experience on more than a single level. The fact that the food you are sharing comes from the same animal (e.g. a whole pig roast) or meat cut (e.g. a slow cooked roast beef) means a lot of things. It can mean equality. There is no poor or rich people – everyone enjoys the same delicious meal. Everyone finds comfort in the fact that everyone is eating until they are satiated. There is no doubt that equality leads to generosity. Generosity is one of the most reputable characteristics of hunter gatherer societies. It can also mean celebration. In my introduction, I pointed out that weddings are often centred around good food (meat). Another example of this is probably the chicken wings night guys enjoy between friends. Ultimately, it’s always a social experience. Everyone talks, everyone listens, and everyone feels good.

Now, animal activists say that we should not care about our traditions. The main argument that is used is that we don’t have to eat meat to survive anymore. Some vegetarians I know agree that we might have absolutely needed meat at some point in our evolution. Where we differ is on the role meat should play in today’s society. Obviously, I believe that meat is the best food. It tastes good, smells good, looks good and it feels good in my mouth. On top of that, it’s incredibly healthy (nothing can beat animal protein, that’s a fact). On the other hand, they think that eating meat does not have its place in our society. We can eat other protein sources like flavourless tofu. For the record, unless you make your own, tofu is highly processed. And, even if you do, you still probably end up eating a problematic food (there is a lot of controversy around soy). And, really, if your diet is missing something because you don’t eat meat, you can supplement. Now, everyone knows my take on supplements. They are only a failed attempt at correcting something that is broken.

Another proof that meat is a tradition that no one wants to give up is that even vegetarians or vegans consume meat-like substances. If they don’t like meat, then why do they eat vegetarian burgers, hot dogs, steaks, deli meat, etc.? Really, I wonder what is more problematic for our environment and for our health : nutritious and delicious animal meat or vegetarian meat that is highly processed (all of them contain at least 30 ingredients) and sodium filled ? See, in the nutrition debate, vegetarians or vegans have a hard time arguing against eating meat because meat really is nutritive. The only place vegetarians might have a point is on the condition in which animals are raised.

It’s true that some supermarket meat comes from animals that are raised in questionable conditions. I am not going to disagree with this statement. Instead, I would like to argue about how imperfect plant food production is.  I would like to point out that crops that vegetarians really like (wheat, soy, etc.) are especially problematic. First, mono cultures are destroying the fertile grounds. Usually, plants work together to survive (e.g. keeping the insects away). The moment you start a monoculture, you weaken the natural defences of plants against natural selection. Next thing you know, you have to use a massive amount of pesticides and other chemicals to prevent your monoculture from contracting diseases and, ultimately, ruining your crops. A clear example of this is how banana crops are having a hard time at the moment. Farmers are dealing with an incredibly strong disease that is killing everything in their fields.

Second, it’s important to point out the possible health effects of eating a diet based on those crops. Soy, for instance, is highly genetically modified. It might also cause some health problems. Wheat is a real insulin disrupter, contains little nutrients and contains anti-nutrients. Malnutrition is only possible if nutritive foods are replaced with non-nutritive foods. No grain can provide the essential fats our body needs. There was a time where vegetarians were happy to counter this argument by saying that there are always flax seeds (or, nowadays, chia seeds). Lately, science has not been in favour of those two seeds. It turns out that those seeds contain alpha linoleic acids (ALA) omega 3, which is hard to convert into DHA and EPA omega 3 (the two kinds of omega 3 that seem to matter the most).

Anyway, I don’t think any paleo eater is for mass produced meat. Most of us try to buy our meat from farms when it’s possible. We try to make sure the animal has access to sun light, grass, and good food. A good proof of this is that my parents raise some animals for our family. This is what it’s all about : respecting the food chain. The point I have been trying to get across is that animal eating is part of being human. This is why I am alarmed when animal activists try to ruin our efforts to make a better life for us and for the animals we eat.

Here, I am referencing to their latest effort to prevent people from my neighbourhood to raise chickens. We are talking about hens, not roosters here. So there would be no noise problems (plus, a dog makes more noise). Indeed, a ruling is being made so that people can raise hens in their backyard. This is amazing because people will have access to fresh eggs in the morning from a hen that will eat the backyard grass and insects (and surely some grains in some cases, let’s be realistic). You can also slaughter them at the end of the summer and enjoy fresh meat. Most importantly, when you do slaughter them, you can be sure that people will be throwing some of the traditional gatherings I was talking about in the beginning of this post. This is a good way to make people healthier, happier, and manage stress better.

Animal activists, on the other hand, are doing everything they can to prevent us from raising our own animals. Some of their arguments are pretty entertaining, though. For instance, some of them told the media that it would be inhumane to raise chickens in our backyards, because we would feed them our garbage or leftovers.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I have never heard of anyone giving garbage to chickens, so I’m not sure where the idea comes from. And, as far as leftovers are concerned, some of them could be nutritive for chickens. I think it’s a weak argument and I really hope they won’t be able to influence the debate with their petition and media coverage.

It’s important that animal activists understand that, for the most part, the paleo community and the traditional eating community is fighting for the same cause as them. We want our animals to be happy. We want them to be healthy, too. The only difference is that we will eat them and animal activists won’t be part of the party. Still, instead of trying to prevent us from bettering the life condition of the animals, they should help us win the fight.