Final Draft

Ryan Christenson

Professor Miller

English 110- H2

19 November 2018

 

How Does our Culture and Morality Affect Our Consideration?

In our society we always try to be considerate to other people but has anyone told you to be considerate with the meat you ate for dinner last night? Food today has changed a lot since we have been hunting meat from hunting with a spear or bow to mass production in an industrial factory. In the end though the animal that was killed would have prefered not to be killed. The same thing is applied to when a lion eats a gazelle it would have preferred not to be eaten and would have liked the lion to be considerate of the gazelle to snap its neck instead of shredding it to pieces before it is fully dead. When we kill animals in slaughterhouses the same situation is happening with the lion the only difference is that we have an understanding of what pain and suffering is. The question is should we try to prevent the unnecessary pain to the animals or is it inevitable? David Foster Wallace talks about how lobsters experience unnecessary pain when they are boiled alive and how it would prefer not to eaten and most of all not to experience a painful death. Our culture and morality play a big part in how considerate we are to animals and their preference to not be eaten or have a painful death.

Individuals in today’s society have many different moral views when it comes to eating food. Many people have come to the realization that mass production of meat is a very inhumane way to make food. One view that Jonathan Foer talks about is how animals are mistreated. He says in  “Against Meat”, “ I didn’t know the details of factory farming, but like most everyone, I knew the gist: it is miserable for animals, the environment, farmers, public health, biodiversity, the rural communities, global poverty.”(Foer 3) Foer is talking about how even though people know that killing for meat in this way is gruesome and sad, they do not know what really goes on inside of those factories. Wallace takes his own view on food today and explains that the way we prepare animals to be eaten is gruesome towards lobsters. Our moral views change from person to person depending on what they were raised in. Some families do not care enough about the animals that are being killed to be put onto the table to eat but others do and may turn to become a vegetarian or a vegan to combat how animals are being raised which makes those people very considerate towards the animals. We can still be considerate ourselves for those of whom that still eat meat by trying to kill them in a more humane way.

Our culture has shaped what we do and do not eat through our religion, family traditions, and the country we live in. As a New Englander I love the taste of lobster and how it means so much to me since it is so famous for our area and people come all over the country to try it. Wallace talks about how big the Lobster Festival is in Maine and how 25,000 pounds of lobster is cooked and prepared to be eaten but Wallace takes a different look on the festival which we all try to stray away from. That is the way we cook the lobster, boiling it in hot water while it is still alive. Many think the lobster cannot feel the hot water and dies instantly but in the end I do not think anyone wants to be put into a boiling pot to be killed. Wallace tries to consider other methods of killing the lobster more humanly but there isn’t any good options. Since there is no humane way to kill the lobster should we stop the tradition of eating it? Most people would be furious if we were not allowed to eat the juicy meat and others would be happy. I would be one of the more mad ones due to me growing up with eating lobster. I spent almost every summer in Maine with my family for a week and it created many good memories of the fun we had as children. It is not just about loving the taste of lobster it is the memories that it created with my family and the tradition of going to Maine for a week. Other people might not have those memories and might want people to stop eating them due to the lobsters being hurt. Wallace talks about how PETA assigns people to go to the lobsterfest and hand out pamphlets to the people waiting inline for their lobsters saying that the lobsters go through terrible pain when eaten. These people may or may not have had lobster before but their view is to make sure no animal is suffering through any pain when being cooked or killed. I feel like we should listen to these people but only to an extent. This is because no animals should go through unnecessary pain but we should still enjoy food that we love since we have been eating it for thousands of years and for me has become a tradition that will never be taken away from me. We need to consider what the lobster is going through but there are ways to enjoy food in general without hurting it but still savor something that makes us happy.

Different countries have many differences of culture that Americans might see as weird or possibly against the law. Beef is one of the most widely used meats that we consume and love. It is the thing that starts up our barbeques with hamburgers and something like filet mignon that we devour politely at a five-star restaurant. On the other hand, in India the cow is considered a holy animal that is not allowed to be touched. If people in India saw how we treat cows they would be horrified. The same thing goes for dogs and cats, we consider dogs and cats as part of our own family and some of us treat them like humans. In “Animals Like Us” Hal Herzog talks about how in Korea a “puppy can be a pet or item on the menu. Meat dogs, which are typically short-haired largish animals that look disconcertingly like Old Yeller, are raised in horrific conditions before they are slaughtered, often by electrocution.”(Herzog 4)  Herzog talks about how in different places what we think is a household pet can be food on the menu and be treated just as badly as the cows we treat in our own slaughterhouses. This goes to show whatever is on the menu we will eat anything if we are put into that position depending on the culture. It goes to show we have no consideration as humans on what is and isn’t on the menu to be eaten and treated badly. People we need to start to consider what the animals feel like and not consider what we feel like. We just think about ourselves and how we can benefit from things and gain as much money as possible by walking on the edge of what is legal and illegal. Wallace talks about the Lobster Festival and how the lobsters are killed right in front of you. If you went to the biggest beef festival and they killed the cows also right in front there would be a much bigger reaction and would not be allowed. In other places around the world they would not care if a cow was slaughtered in front of them but why do we still eat it if we can barely look at the cow while it is being killed? The real question is why do we still do it to lobsters and think it is still ok? Wallace provides a great point and how us as a society are so different and how our own consideration for other animals also changes with what we believe in and our culture.

In our society morality and culture and two major things that we discuss and think about especially when it comes to food. Wallace talked about in depth how we view food and how somethings that we do make no sense for example how we kill lobsters in front of our eyes but dont kill cows in front of us. Foer and Herzog both explain how the way we prepare and kill our food is not the most humane and moral way of doing it. In other countries their views on food can change drastically from eating cats and dogs to considering cows as holy. In the end people will never agree on what food is moral to eat but we can at least try to make the way we prepare and kill food a little more humane.