Meat is Murder - Thanks Anthony B.

I must say, it's Anthony Bourdain, who has single-handedly propelled me back into the "strict vegetarian" camp.  We were surfing the cable channels (a very mindless and unrewarding activity) and stumbled across Bourdain's new show on CNN.

I am actually sort of a "fan" of the man, enjoyed his book "Kitchen Confidential," and I have found his world travel/food excursions usually sort of entertaining and surprisingly informative. He's an interesting guy, inquisitive and by focusing on food, he illuminates lots of interesting things about culture all over the world.

We happened to catch a few minutes of a show on his visit to Sicily. In the episode we watch a pig being executed - shot in the head and then cut wide open. It was a sad spectacle, but a necessary step if you like to eat pork.

It wasn't so much the murder that was so revolting (although it was sad and revolting) but the snide, sneering, smirking way that Bourdain reacted to it.  What a leering idiot. I understand that if we eat meat, murder is part of the cycle, but doesn't death of a creature, any creature require a little bit of dignity or solemnity?

Anyway, it's not a big deal for me to give up meat. I primarily eat chicken, but it's a once in a great while thing. Bourdain reminded me so vividly that meat-eating is actually pretty disgusting. Maybe if more people actually saw the process from murder, to gutting, to cutting, to packaging to the grocer, well, maybe vegetables would look lots more appetizing.

And the meat processing industry is a horror-show. Vegetarianism is a much more eco-friendly lifestyle! Meat is murder, and if we are going to live off of the death of something, harvesting a plant, or plucking a fruit or whatever seems oh so much more life-friendly and civilized!