Beat the Meat!-Day TwentyTwo

I became a vegetarian recently, it happened on Saturday to be exact. Tommy and I were in Whole Foods deciding what to do for dinner. He wanted chicken so we stopped by the big display with all the dead animals, everything from cow, to octopus was on chopped up and ready. Behind the counter was a screen playing a video of the locally raised cows living happily, unknowing their futures. It was all of a sudden too overwhelming for me. So I looked at Tommy and told him I had become a vegetarian. He asked, 'When?' I said 'Just now'. And he asked, 'Does that mean you don't want chicken for dinner?'

Since that moment he has made several comments about: "I don't know how to feed a vegetarian."

This is something I've always gone back and forth on. When I lived in Cambodia I didn't eat meat for that year, and I held out for two years after as well. I don't remember when it all ended, but I do know that the wings my dad makes are delicious.

Tommy and I eat burgers once a month or so, and every time I do I feel so guilty. Every time we're at the store and I buy chicken I think about that one documentary I watched where the narrator reminded the viewer that every time you buy something at the store, you are voting. Tommy and I try to make good choices, we buy organic, free range, grass fed- the whole lot. But the guilt doesn't end. I end up wondering who/what suffered to make this mass-produced food possible.

Today on the news there was a story about a truck carrying 2,000 baby pigs and it over turned on the freeway in Raleigh. Some pigs were killed, many were hurt. You can read it HERE. I saw so many comments about how sad it was, and those poor pigs! But not many people were focused on where those pigs were going and what their fate was going to be. I don't understand caring on one end if you're not going to care on the other.

I'm not saying all this to be on some high-superior-non-meat-eating-horse. I mean, I almost caved tonight for some Panera Chicken Noodle Soup. But I need to make the right choice for me, I need to feel less guilt about cow udders.

Plus, I am fully supportive of Tommy's need for meat. Mostly because I bought some Loma Linda in a can the other day and he made a comment about "How can people get away with putting poop in a can and selling it for $8?!" This is not a battle I am willing to fight.