We don’t “need” to eat ANY animal protein.
Just in case you haven’t seen the Chipotle Mexican Grill Ad that aired during the recent Grammy Awards, I have provided it here for your convenience. It’s all about making the lives of the pigs happier.
Clever marketing to be sure—appealing to an almost universal point of view. Studies show that almost everyone loves animals and hates the thought of them being mistreated. Blake Hurst, a former hog farmer, wrote the following in a New York Times Op-Ed this past Sunday (see link below):
At the start of the ad, the farmer and his animals are happy and content. But then progress rears its ugly head, and the animals move indoors, into large, crowded buildings. They are pumped with antibiotics and processed into cubes, all to the mournful sound of Willie Nelson singing a Coldplay tune: “Science and progress/Don’t speak as loud as my heart.” In the end, the farmer sees the light, gets rid of the technological evils and frees his cows and pigs. Redemption is found in a simpler life. And you can have it all at Chipotle, for the price of a burrito.
How about a vegetable burrito? In addition to the suffering of pigs, how about we end the entire process of eating animals? How about we make a huge dent in the world’s water crisis and dramatically reduce our rapidly disappearing arable land and forests that are necessary to fuel our ever-increasing demand for meat? Cute video; but it does little more than sell a few burritos.
Want to see some real change? Forward this next video to everyone you know. The above video ignores the massive amount of land, water and energy needed to support our meat-eating habits. The days of the happy farm are over—too many people, not enough land, not enough water, not enough energy. As for the next video, if anyone cannot watch this entire video (less than 3 minutes), they shouldn’t be allowed to eat animals. I couldn’t make it past 30 seconds.
For more on this miserable subject, here are a few of my recent blogs:
Pork tales continue; when does the madness end?
COMPLICITY — Billions of animals suffering in factory farms
“Earthlings” — A documentary that we all NEED to see
Suffering of Animals — Remember Michael Vick?
As for not “needing” animal protein—Dispelling the Protein Myth
Ending on a pleasant note—a photo of my son’s family that I took at Stratton Mountain Vermont on my birthday. L to R, the kids are Andrew, Peyton, Collin and Cooper.
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J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.
And if you like what 4Leaf eating is doing for you and your family, you might enjoy visiting our new “4Leaf Gear” store. From the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.
—J. Morris Hicks…blogging daily at HealthyEatingHealthyWorld.com
Happy Pigs and Unhappy Farmers – NYTimes.com.
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J. Morris Hicks — Member of the Board of Directors — Click image to visit the foundation website.
J. Morris Hicks, engineer. writer. big picture guy. 
J.
It is the age old conundrum. How can you be commercially viable yet morally responsible.
First, you have a public that is expecting certain foods and is used to eating animal products. It took several hundred years to fully aquire this taste and certainly if you begin now (which arguably you have) it will likely take a few hundred years to wein the public off of these foods.
So you open up a restaurant chain (like chipoltle) which is aimed at the masses and also is a for “profit” business. Certainly, you will have some difficulty in not having some form of animal food on the menu and still drawing a large scale following -thus remaining profitable long term.
OK, we could also look at examples like the Native Foods chain which is making some headway as an all Vegan mass-market restaurant but honestly I believe that their food also trades health for mass market taste just as chipoltle does only not by using animal foods.
The biggest problem is that the genie is out of the bottle regarding the publics expections for complex foods. It isnt that animal products are required it is just that people are so used to the buzz words. They know what chicken, pork, turkey or fish are by their trade names just like they know a Windex or Kleanex. This is how Taco bell is able to use a high level of fillers in their meat and still get the public to buy it because they are still allowed to use the tradename of “Meat” or Beef”. I think that people blindly order these foods because of this name association that has been built up over time.
This is also why many vegan products are named similarly to their animal counterparts. Products such as “Tofurky” and “Vegenaise” . It takes a long time and a lot of money to retrain peoples buying habits. Most restaurants do not have that kind of time to become profitable. That is why it is so much easier just to offer Chicken or pork than say have your menu based on Sailors Oatmeal which will take too long to develop as a product.
Thus, you end up with having to convince the public that at least the animals are treated nice before being summarily killed until you can better train them to understand why they should not be eating them at all.
If you have a chance watch a movie called ” Animals” by Jason Young. It kind of graples with this subject from a farmers perspective.
The bottom line is that if you want to start a restaurant that does the right thing morally you better first found the next Google or Microsoft because you will need a lot of money in order to sustain your business until you are able to retrain the publics eating patterns. Otherwise you will need to take the safer Chipoltle route and make cool but off-track ads.
Bill K.
Jim,
Change (?)
Is there one country that doesn’t slaughter animals? Even the Asian countries are involved in the inhumane slaughter of animals as food.
The pigs are still dieing…now…forever.
Change (?)
sligg
Sal Liggieri
It’s somewhat comforting to believe a company is taking steps to treat their animals more humane. But at the end of the day, they are still being shot in the head by a compressed air bolt pistol. I didn’t see the happy pigs endure that experience in the commercial.
I accidently saw a video clip of a cow being killed with one of those air bolt pistol things. This was a over a month ago. This was what finally made me decide to quit eating animals ALTOGETHER. (I was already leaning that way.) After seeing that, I felt SO upset and SO affected. I told my husband that evening, “I don’t know that I will ever be able to eat beef again.” And I haven’t been able to. And I don’t want to. And I haven’t eaten any animals since.