panem et circenses
The River Cottage Meat Book, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, is published in a new american edition. it is about how to prepare meat, but also has a substantial discussion about meat ethics and quality, with good contributions to the vegetarian-carnivore debate.

a couple of excerpts

...to those who play the socioeconomic card, saying what about the poor, they'll never be able to afford your fancy, organic, rare-breed meat, from pampered farmyard pets . . . I say don't peddle that hypocritical line to me. Flooding the market with cheap meat would be an obtuse way of tackling poverty and dietary privation in a civilized Western country. Hardly anyone in the West is suffering from problems associated with too little meat, whereas millions are not getting enough fresh fruit and vegetables and wholegrain cereals to maintain good health. p.28-29

(i would say that the author is missing the point, though scarcely by much. flooding the market with cheap meat is a slightly more responsible form of social control than the practice common to poor countries of flooding the market with cheap alcohol. those who say what about the poor are advocating measures to keep the poor happy, but still poor, more often than they are advocating measures to change the social structure so that there is less poverty.)

It is ironic, and also fairly astonishing, that the killing methods of many nonhuman predators are considered such a fascinating aspect of the natural world that films displaying them in graphic detail, often replaying the process several times in slow motion, are considered to be at the classy end of prime-time entertainment, fit for children as well as adults. Whereas the final moments of human predation of our farmed livestock are considered too disturbing and shameful to be made available even for information. In fact, such limited footage as does exist has often been filmed undercover and is more likely to be used to fuel the rage of the militant vegetarian than to educate us dispassionately about the way our meat is made. p.18

(i like this point, because i am generally in favor of probing inflammatory issues lest they be left to radicals. you get to see pictures from a humane slaughterhouse on the next page)
- posted by Jesse @ 10:07 AM