Extra, Extra, Read All About It. Oprah Gives Up Meat!!

I wonder how many people are going to forego meat this week because Oprah said so. According to PETA, TMZ (my favorite source for info.) and many other sources, she's decided to do a strict cleanse and will also be giving up sugar, wheat, caffeine and alchohol. So what does that leave? Saw Dust? Dirt?

I am a meat eater. I will admit it. I love it. But I do wage an ethical battle with myself every time I eat meat. I only eat beef, bison and occasionally venison harvested through the hunting season. I don't like pork so the pigs got off easy with me. I can live without chicken on my dinner plate although they do make utterly fantastic pets. I don't like fish, so they're safe too. I've tried being a vegetarian off and on since I was about 10 years old. I still haven't been able to find the right combination of foods that doesn't immediately lead to anemia - even when I take an iron pill. But every time I eat meat, I have "meat-eater's guilt." I try to eat every piece that I've prepared because if you throw it away, then that animal involuntarily gave up its life for nothing.

But I do have the highest respect for those who can live this lifestyle successfully. But since I can't, I do believe it's very important to buy your meat from farmers who believe in treating their cattle as if they were their friends. But where do you really find these farmers? After the latest recall of beef due to inhuman treatment of the cows, someone I know and respect, and grew up on a cattle farm, alarmingly (to me at least) found no problem with the treatment of the cows going to slaughter. He said "how do you think they got the cattle on the trucks to take them to slaughter in the first place? You have to keep at 'em with a cattle prod." This, to me is highly upsetting and frankly disgusting.

Every time I eat an egg (that my own chickens did not lay) I wonder if that chicken was well cared for? I also wonder about the milk I drink. Was the cow in fact allowed to pasture? I'm very picky about the companies I will buy from, and really like Organic Valley. But for many companies out there since I've never gotten to see their operation first hand, I'm always a bit skeptical. Especially when it comes to eggs. I've raised chickens for years. A free ranged chicken can not possibly be a vegetarian. So when you see that on an egg label, I wonder how this is can be. Chickens eat insects, insects are meat, and if they are free ranging, I mean truly free ranging, then they've picked up a few bugs along the way.

Honestly, I do think Oprah's decision to check out a non-meat alternative is pretty cool. What I really find amazing is the phenomenon of what I call "Oprah's Lemmings." There is method behind Oprah's madness. But what about her lemmings? They just do what she says. Like robots. Eat this, read this, buy this. Truly amazing. I hope some of the things she talks about to her followers also includes how to find the best locally grown foods, the best farmers markets and why you should really get to know the faces behind the labels. There are a lot of alternatives out there. But I'm afraid now that the big corporations have gotten wind of how successful the organic industry has been that they are going to taint the industry with their Simon Barsinister tactics.

Top left pic: Alexa pretending she's eating Romy our bantam hen; bottom left: my son Alex holding Enrique; right side: me and our 1/2 golden laced wyandotte 1/2 ameraucana rooster Solstice.