An egg starter to numb the conscience

1526: 

So here’s the state of things at present.  We have billions of humans eating foods produced by animals, unwilling to consider the feelings of those animals.  Perhaps they’re pushing animal welfare and animal rights onto the back burner, because they’re more concerned with other issues.  Perhaps there are more immediate matters to be concerned about, like money, family, careers, global warming, ill health, etc.  There’s so much to think about today, and with no relief in sight.  The unsolvable problems of life could become, for any of us, overwhelming, depressing and a cause of discomfort.  So, we open the fridge and choose our favourite food as a pick-me-up.

Food is as much a matter of pleasure as sustenance.  It diverts us.  And despite the negative health pay-back, we continue to use whatever food is sure to lift our spirits, even though we're aware of serious implications surrounding some foods, which we ought to be taking into consideration before using.

Food isn’t just food, and isn’t just something to experience.  If it involves killing and abuse, we are in need of some serious conscience-numbing, because we know that something about it isn't quite right.  We might pretend we haven’t thought about it.  But we all know what happens down the road, at the abattoir.  So it seems that we need a way of accepting the dark side, if we want to keep our fridges stocked with all those yummy articles which make our dinner table attractive and are guaranteed to lift our mood.

From early in the morning, down at the abattoir, the killing has already begun, as we lie asleep in bed.  While we’re eating our breakfast egg, can we hear the screams of the panicked animals as they’re being led to the slaughter?  I doubt it, since the killing takes place a long way off.  Can we imagine what’s going on then?  Or can we remember what we saw on TV, the egg dropping from a live bird, caged on some squalid battery farm?  Perhaps.  But do we want to exercise our imagination that way?  As we crack the shell of our breakfast egg, it’s not likely we're thinking of the hen.  Instead, we’re thinking of the taste of the egg or the feeling of filling our stomach with what we eat, with what we've always eaten for breakfast.  And when there are no more eggs left in the carton, that's not a problem.  A new carton is bought.  And so the cycle continues.

Even less obviously, in our cupboard there are other products, which seem quite benign.  But on closer inspection they too are suspect, because they are made with egg-ingredients.  These are appetising products which are much easier to justify because the ingredients are so much less obvious.

So here’s where we stand: we see the cruelty (on TV) and forget it, because it’s inconvenient to bring to mind - we want our eggs, and when we’re ‘out’, we’ll soon be buying more of the same.  And as we slip into the habits of daily life, we’ll be thinking less and less about what we’re doing.

Small children are good at imagining - they often express horror at the way animals are treated (they see the same footage on TV as we do).  They often want to say something, but at each meal their resistance is slowly worn down.  Then, at a certain later stage in their young life, their empathy is reignited.  Their conscience wakes from a long sleep.

Young people have a much cleaner slate than adults.  They’ve got more excuse, since they’ve never had any real freedom to choose their own food.  Their conscience is clearer, if only because guilt hasn’t bitten so deeply.  And it follows that, as their independence develops, they’re freer to experiment with new foods, and move away from the habits of their parents’ generation, even to the extent of trying out a vegan diet.

         

If an adult will not consult their conscience, over the eating of animals or enquiring about animal by-products, then the conscience weakens to the point where the senses will take over.  Cravings and 'wanting' will begin to call the shots until, when too late, health starts to go down the tube.  Simply, by not weighing the rights and wrongs, not making food-choice decisions for ourselves, eating without question what our parents fed us, we continue on until a dangerous habit forms and takes hold.  At the time, it’s easier to do what others do, easier to follow the crowd. But by the time we reach middle age, the irreparable damage is done.