811:
For almost everybody, the quiche they eat, the biscuit with
their coffee, the many thousands of items containing animal ingredients, none
of these food items are considered wrong. They all seem quite benign. But each one
connects back to animal abuse because of what they contain. The connection
between that eggy-quiche and the creature who laid the egg is obvious. A three
year old could comprehend it; they’d know the food was ‘wrong’ because of the
way hens are treated.
Making the
connection isn’t the problem, it’s ignoring it that’s problematic. We aren’t
used to examining the ethics of the food we eat or applying those ethics to
daily life. It’s easier to continue eating whatever is delicious and avoiding
these connections. By refusing to eat something (eg. a quiche) on principle
means some level of self-denial, and for the sake of what? A chicken? A
creature whose body we eat anyway, on a regular basis?
To think it
through, from egg to quiche, from imprisoned animal to dinning table, is a
process any child could understand IF they were told. Most kids would have
nightmares at the very thought of being involved with the entombing of hens in
wire cages; they’d see that it couldn’t be justified by any need to have cheap
eggs to eat.
Children might object strongly,
if it were explained to them, but that would mean one huge hassle for parents
when making the kids’ breakfasts. If children got wind of what was really
happening to farm animals, and for instance refused to eat eggs, it could be
the thin end of the wedge; it might lead to their refusing other foods. So,
parents use ‘a small deception’, by withholding certain information from them.
This is one farmyard story they don’t tell.
“Please
understand, it’s not lying, it’s just omitting certain crucial facts, and
thereby moulding the way we want our kids to think”.
Children
are virtually powerless when it comes to food. They can’t ask a simple question
and expect a truthful answer, not when it comes to asking where their food
comes from. Keeping kids in the dark, over this matter anyway, is convenient
for parents and teachers and the food retail industry.
When children start applying
ethics to food, life gets complicated. Parents fill their fridges with handy,
ready-to-go foods which work well with kids. Take eggs, for instance. They are
used as ingredients for many items of foods. The egg works wonders, as do most
meat and milk products. The foods made with these products are especially
popular with kids.
Most kids
have a very natural sense of right and wrong, and so it’s likely that they’d
have a natural sympathy with the aims of the animal advocate, and reject the
very idea of harm being done to animals. But as they grow older they realise
just how many of their favourite foods are made with animal ingredients and how
cruelty is endemic to all animal farming. But they also realise that by
standing up for animals they will have to give up many of their favourite
foods, on principle. And that principle is not recognised in the adult world,
where such things as eggs are still legal AND where it is also legal to conceal
certain facts from children!! Most kids will cave in and conform to
animal-based diets since they have no choice. But later in life, when they gain
their independence, they’ll be faced with making a decision about whether to
support or boycott unethical foods. Having had a grounding in the facts of
life, about animal husbandry methods, will stand them in good stead for making
their food-decisions later in life.
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