In Favor of Eating Meat

The New York Times posted a competition to write articles in favor of eating meat.  You can read the six best of of them here.

I think I'm inclined to agree with Chicago philosopher Brian Leiter that, the mere fact that the NYT believes this to be a topic worth discussing is a broad triumph for the anti-meat movement.

Eating Less Meat

Peter Singer is broadly accredited with launching the modern animal welfare movement with his book Animal Liberation (1975).  As a utilitarian Singer argues that we should not test products on animals, nor eat their meat when this causes these animals avoidable pain.  Maybe you could test a cancer drug on an animal if it will likely save many human lives.  However, because animals can feel pain we shouldn't treat them poorly; like humans, it's morally wrong to needlessly harm animals.

With the growth of Human Rights literature there has been a concurrent rise in animal rights philosophy.  Like humans, animals are posited as beings with dignity and therefore deserved of a certain level of treatment.  New Zealand, for example, is one of the first countries to grant rights to higher apes therefore banning all research upon them.

Even if you don't think either of these positions is wholly convincing, they should give pause for reflection, and until you've reached a more considered position, maybe eating less meat is a good first step.  Graham Hill's video below gives some good reasons why we should eat less meat, even if you don't want to be a 'hardcore' vegetarian or don't think you could give up meat cold-turkey (excuse the pun).

Pink Slime in Your Beef?

At the Pizza tour a few weeks ago, Scott talked about the way in which US Mozzarella has its water water content replaced with oil.  This is allows the cheese to remain fresh longer, but it also is the reason why a real NY slice often ends in a burned mouth.

In recent weeks there have been a series of articles on 'Pink Slime', a kind of processed meat:

"The “pink slime” is made by gathering waste trimmings, simmering them at low heat so the fat separates easily from the muscle, and spinning the trimmings using a centrifuge to complete the separation. Next, the mixture is sent through pipes where it is sprayed with ammonia gas to kill bacteria. The process is completed by packaging the meat into bricks. Then, it is frozen and shipped to grocery stores and meat packers, where it is added to most ground beef." - ABC News (includes a video).

The 'Pink Slime' product looks kind of like a Mr. Softie Ice-cream.

Although I don't mind eating cheese with extra oil, I'm not sure I'd like to eat something that used to look like that.  Matt Yglesias at the Slate has some interesting comments on the jobs related to the production of this beef here and here.