Everywhere you go to dine, meat dominates the menus!

It is nearly inevitable that if you go to a fast food franchise, your selection will entail some sort of meat product. Even if you are consciously avoiding meat, such seemingly healthy options, like the ‘vegetarian McNuggets’ at McDonalds, have often been deceptively prepared with animal lipids.

This artery-clogging infatuation with animal protein is representative of a complex rooted in human nature since Neolithic times and still persists to this day. Traditionally, our male ancestors were the hunter-gatherers and the women were the farmers and agriculturalists. It is no wonder that we’ve come to develop such close associations between red meat and the male gender, and vegetables and the female gender.

Personally, I love meats. Whether I am genetically predisposed by my Y chromosome or because I’ve been conditioned to love it, I just do. I’ve read ‘Fast Food Nation,’ seen ‘Super-Size Me’ and have been ridiculed by close friends about my dietary choices. Still, nothing has ever deterred me from sinking my teeth into a thick, juicy sirloin steak.

Recently, all of this has changed. After completing an assigned reading for my English class entitled ‘My Year of Meats’ by Takagi Little, I truly started to question my preferences concerning my consumption of red meat. Little not only cites the danger red meat poses to human health, but also exposes the political implications of modern day meat consumption, namely that of beef. I believe the human craving for beef is a lot like a nicotine addiction and she addresses it in a similar fashion. Both the meat and tobacco industry seem to pander to human addiction in a way that is detrimental to others.

We all know smoking is bad for us, but for some reason, we’re a lot more perturbed by the adverse effects the cigarette industry bears upon American business ethics than we are about the prospect of developing cancer in our own bodies.

Little takes recognition of this disposition and expounds upon it. She opines that she herself loves eating beef, and recognizes that at one time it was feasible to kill cattle humanely, but that this is no longer the case.

Modern day methods of cattle farming operate a great deal like a factory. Every aspect of the cows’ lives is regulated from birth to execution. In the interim, these cattle endure a host of abuses. Farm overseers, like those Little reports on, feed their cattle pharmaceutical supplements, rubber hay, other cattle parts and, in some cases, even their own fecal matter to recycle nutrients.

Not only were these cattle fed abominable things, but they were also clustered by the thousands into cramped quarters, only to meet their deaths at the local slaughterhouse. There, they were strung to a conveyor belt by their hind legs and had their necks sliced open while they were still living. Many of them, inadequately anesthetized, shrieked and wailed during the process.

Killing an animal instantaneously by a strategically placed arrow to the heart or the cranium was more acceptable centuries ago than the economically conservative approach the cattle industry takes toward meat production today. Torturing animals in the interest of profit is simply not acceptable. I am not necessarily calling for a boycott of beef, but perhaps we can eat less, and take into the account the suffering of animals bred purely for economic advantage. Through our consumption of red meat we are complicit in the abusive treatment of these animals.

Brandon Stephens is a freshman English major. You should all read Charlotteôs Web too.