Is it really food violence to eat a chicken?

Is it really food violence to eat a chicken? October 8, 2014

Last week I was in a hurry to get to a meeting and needed to get something quick for dinner, so I bought a ready-to-eat rotisserie chicken from the grocery. As I pushed my cart through the store, I kept looking at the chicken and seeing my hen Lucy’s head on the lemony peppered chicken body.

Seeing a whole chicken is different than a package of parts. It reminded me that my food came from a living animal, that I care about how the animal was raised and where it came from and how that affected not only the animal but the farmer, his family, and the land they farm.

Lucy, one of the hens in my flock.
Lucy, one of the hens in my flock.

I’ve become more and more conscious of what I eat over the years, and that consciousness has changed how I eat. I eat less meat. I ask questions about where my food came from. I buy local, eat more organic produce, and I’ve become an avid label reader.

I eat eggs from my hens; there’s no rooster so they’ll never become chicks. I can’t imagine eating any of my chickens, and yes, I struggle with eating nameless chickens from a factory farm.

At the same time, this video really takes it to the extreme.

I welcome the discussion about food and being good stewards of the animals. At the same time, I think the way in which the point is made in this video is over the top. It creates a spectacle that detracts from the actual point they’re trying to make.

I also wonder how different the world would be if we showed that same disgust and outrage over the treatment of human children, how that compassion would spill over into all areas of our lives.

What do you think? Does a video or protest like this make you think more about where your food came from?


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