It's slaughter, get over it

Martin Samuel, has written a great article in The Times this morning on the squeamishness we have with food.  He notes that people were up in arms that Jamie Oliver slaughtered a lamb on TV. Whereas, Jamie rightly, insisted that it is immoral to to eat something if you are unprepared to be part of the process of its death.  Samuel's piece contrasts well with this histrionic article from The Daily Mail.  I never fail to be gobsmacked at the ability of so many people to find natural, everyday processes, to be so horrific.

For those of us that eat meat, animals must be killed.  If you look after the animal well in life, there is no reason to feel guilt with its death.  Much can be said about vegetarians (some of my best friends are vegetarians) but they are not hypocrites.  Unlike so many meat eaters, who start cringing at the thought of an animal being killed, but are more than happy to tuck into a crappy, flabby chicken and delight in their Sunday roast. 

Rather than getting so concerned with the animal's death, there should be far more concern about its life.  People should worry whether their roast chicken's last cluck was in a faeces-littered factory, with dead and crippled birds all around.  Or, whether it got to see some real grass and the big outdoors and was cared for by a farmer who knew that only way to ensure the best tasting roast chicken, is to give the bird the best life and thus ensuring its slaughter would not be in vain.