This is especially true when leaving a carbon footprint has never been soo important and at the forefront of everybody’s mind in everything we do, consuming food included.
I find that more and more people care and want to know where their food comes from, and if we are consuming beef, we want to know where and how these animals have been raised, fed and treated, you seem to care about their health and wellbeing. You may have noticed that supermarkets advertise cows in paddocks because this is what people want to see, but they won’t show you cows in feedlots which make up the majority of the products on the fridge shelves.
I really appreciate people wanting to know where their food comes from and support businesses where they can tell you this, but you know what I appreciate more, people consuming the whole animal.
I really appreciate people who consume more than just steaks.
If we are just consuming an easy and quick cut of beef to cook at meal time for our own convenience, then we are contributing to the demand of animal consumption just for their most popular cuts.
Sounds a bit heavy, doesn’t it? But it’s true!
A common thing I hear to this statement is “well, people would just buy those other cuts”. It’s easy to say this so it doesn’t make you feel guilty about your choice of consumption, but this isn’t entirely true. If they did, then wouldn’t we see these other cuts readily available just as the steaks are always readily available at all your butcher shops, supermarkets and are even on the menu at restaurants?
I want you to think about what the impact of this is having on the environment; our resources and energy to grow this animal just for some delicious steaks.
Most beef is produced in feedlots. This way of production has dominated the beef industry all because of people’s choice of consumption. We are putting animals in crowded, hot, dusty and confined spaces, made to eat a very unnatural diet so they can put on weight and fast so we can have the most tender steaks.
This then has a flow on affect for the demand of trucks on our roads to transport the cattle to and from the feedlots, then to transport the meat again to outlets to be sold.
This also affects what animal waste ends up in land fill. It affects all of the wasted resources and energy we have all used to raise, feed and grow the animal all because of our choice of consumption.
Beef cattle consume energy to give us energy when we choose to eat beef, so if we are not consuming the whole resource, then we are simply wasting energy.
We live in a such a fast world now and we all want our food to be fast by having what we want and now, and big business are supporting this, as it makes them money, by having beef easily accessible and conveniently available no matter at what cost.
This is why our ethos of consuming the whole animal is soo important to us. The care and well-being of an animal doesn’t have to stop when they are no longer in the paddocks. We care from conception to consumption.
So, I’m going to ask you this, do you really care about the health and wellbeing of animals? If you do, then will you eat a lesser-known cut of beef so that part of the animal doesn’t end up in landfill? Are you really serious about your carbon footprint….
If our choice of consumption is soo powerful, that means we have the power, right? We choose every time we consume! So, what are you choosing next?
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