Here’s the copy we wrote to publicize this talk (Wednesday, March 31, 7 p.m. UU Church in Jamaica Plain, free):
All-natural. Organic. Free-range. Grass-fed. Are you a conscientious meat-eater trying to navigate this new terrain of labels and concerns? Are you wondering whether it’s safe and sustainable to eat meat at all? Bring your questions to a discussion with three experts in small-scale meat production — and learn about how you can eat meat responsibly.
Actually, you should come simply if you’re a meat-eater, conscientious or not. Hmmm, you’re thinking. Wouldn’t anyone reading a blog called Boston Localvores be a conscientious meat-eater? The answer is no. We polled some of our peeps on Facebook, and the reality is that even folks who are educated, affluent and concerned enough to subscribe to our diatribes continue to eat factory farmed meat, eggs and dairy.
In fact, we do as well. Not meat, but eggs and dairy, which are just as bad. Vegetarians who eat eggs and dairy may not eat flesh themselves but, of course, the animals which produce the eggs and dairy are treated just as cruelly as any animal raised for flesh, and flesh is a byproduct just the same. Milk cows are constantly pregnant, giving birth to females which are kept for more milk, and males which become veal or just carcasses on the trash heap. The male offspring of laying hens, likewise, more often than not become pet food, or food for other meat animals.
After reading another deeply upsetting account of the factory farming system, we swore off eggs and dairy outside of what we knew to be local and humane. And then immediately broke those promises. First with pizza, then with coffee, then with egg sandwiches. Which is to say that we understand the difficulty of making changes, that we ourselves are both conscientious and not at the very same time and that we are just as able as anyone to have knowledge and deny it for our own fleeting pleasure.
So come. Hopefully it will be informative and inspiring. Also, there may be meat for sale from some very small, local farms. So maybe come with your money as well.