Eating Animals

From the very beginning, our relationship with food is more than just taste or nutrition; it is woven into the fabric of our family stories and histories. Imagine a grandmother who survived the horrors of war by scavenging every scrap of edible matter—rotting potatoes, scraps of meat, even the bits clinging to bones—and how she passed on a legacy of resourcefulness and respect for food. She never set a place for herself at family dinners, yet she nourished generations through her cooking, embodying survival, dignity, and love. This legacy becomes a primal story, a narrative that shapes not just what we eat but who we are.

As children, our ethical intuitions about animals begin to form in simple, profound moments. A babysitter’s refusal to eat chicken because she 'didn’t want to hurt anything' is not just a dietary choice but a moral awakening. It challenges the assumption that animals are separate from our circle of care and forces us to confront the consequences of our eating habits. The author and his brother, mouths full of chicken, experience a moment of simultaneous shock and revelation—how had they never thought of this before?

These early experiences illustrate that food is never just food; it carries the weight of history, emotion, and ethics. The stories we inherit and tell ourselves about food shape our identities and our actions. The grandmother’s chicken and carrots, delicious not because of culinary technique but because of the belief and love surrounding them, exemplify how food can be a vessel for family memory and moral meaning.

As we reflect on our personal roots, we begin to understand that our food choices are deeply embedded in cultural narratives and emotional ties. Recognizing this is the first step toward conscious eating. It invites us to question inherited habits and consider the ethical dimensions of what we consume.

This journey leads us toward a broader understanding of the systems behind our food, including the industrial practices that have transformed animal agriculture. To explore those realities, we must move beyond personal stories to confront the modern factory farm and its impact on animals, the environment, and society.

Let us now step into the world of factory farming, where efficiency and scale often overshadow compassion and sustainability.