The heresy of Meatless Monday

Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations

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The gnashing of teeth. Charges of heresy. Outrage…sputtering outrage. In a heinous affront to the beef industry, the U.S.D.A. suggested–suggested!–that folks dining at the agency cafeterias–(brace yourself)–go meatless on Mondays. Oh the humanity!

From the New York Times: The message seemed innocuous enough, coming as it did from the federal agency tasked with promoting sustainable agriculture and dietary health: “One simple way to reduce your environmental impact while dining at our cafeterias,” read a United States Department of Agriculture interoffice newsletter published on its Web site this week, “is to participate in the ‘Meatless Monday’ initiative.”

Certainly, we assure ourselves, the U.S.D.A., though faced with stiff industry opposition, staunchly defended its reasonable sugges…no, wait, what’s this? “U.S.D.A. does not endorse Meatless Monday,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. The newsletter, which covered topics like the installation of energy-efficient lights on the Ag Promenade and recycling goals, “was posted without proper clearance,” the statement said.”

Sigh.

Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa (the nation’s factory farming capital with the ag-gag muscle to keep the cruelty well hidden), tweeted, “USDA HQ meatless Mondays!! At the Dept. of Agriculture? Heresy! I’m not grazing there. I will have the double rib-eye Mondays instead.”

Given the results of the Harvard red meat study, perhaps he will also have the double coronary bypass, not that we wish him ill. But it does seem likely that all that animal carcass has addled his thinking. We’re talking the Department of AGRICULTURE, for crying out loud; last time anyone checked, agriculture included growing vegetables and grains. “I will eat more meat on Monday to compensate for stupid USDA recommendation [about] a meatless Monday,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted.  “This is a reminder to USDA that it’s supposed to advocate for American agriculture, not against it,” Sen. Grassley later said. Geez, Iowa, chill. Don’t have a cow, man.

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Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), not to let Iowa outdo Texas in bombastic indignation, said, “In some of the toughest times they’ve seen in recent memory, Texas cattle ranchers and farmers deserve an Administration who works with them, not one who undermines them with boneheaded decisions from bureaucrats in Washington.”

Cornyn and Grassley celebrated their own “Meat Monday” with a lunch order that included “a total of 52 orders of barbecue beef sandwiches, brisket, sausage and ribs…” and posted a picture of the fleshy feast on Facebook. Yes, there’s Old Glory looming over the laden table, lest anyone forget that eating meat is a patriotic endeavor.

It’s possible that mere semantics is the culprit–it’s that “meatless” moniker that’s so offensive to the Livestock Overlords since it suggests, well, foregoing meat one day of the week while gorging on it for six. U.S.D.A. needs to try again, this time calling it what it is rather than what it isn’t. Perhaps Macaroni Monday will slip by without protest, or Miso Monday (um, ixnay to that one). Muesli Monday? Minestrone Monday? Yeah, that’s it, minestrone. Lots of vegetables and pasta made from grain, products of agriculture all (recipe here and here).

Lost in the blather, as always, is the meat in its former, living state, which is to say, the state of misery. And that’s before the trip to the slaughterhouse:

(T)he slaughterhouse is not a pretty thing. I mean, it’s a necessary process. It’s a highly efficient process. But it’s not now, nor never will be, a very pretty thing. Animals come there to die, to be eviscerated, to be decapitated, to be de-hided — and all of those are violent, bloody and difficult things to watch. So your first and foremost impression of at least the initial stages of the packing house are a very violent, very dehumanizing sort of thing.  ~Bill Haw, CEO of Kansas City’s National Farms, which operates one of the largest cattle feedlot operations in the country (source)

“I mean, it’s a necessary process.” No. Intentionally causing suffering is never necessary, and that goes for the elective violence of slaughter. Slaughter is elective because the appetite for meat is elective. Now we’ve walked it back to consumer demand and laid it at the feet of people who are generally good and often as not say they love animals.

It’s only fair to acknowledge that generations of clueless consumers have been sold a bill of goods about the necessity of meat and dairy products–have been manipulated by corporate animal-exploiting industries with slick, crafty ad campaigns appealing to tradition and the “critical need” for animal protein in human health, all the while keeping well-concealed the “violent, bloody and difficult things to watch.”

But now we know. We know about increased cancer risk and coronaries; about overuse of antibiotics and mutating pathogens; about environmental destruction and unsustainability; about animal suffering–oh god yes, animal suffering times ten billion.

The Meatless Monday campaign (and Meatout Mondays) is a simple way to enter the consciousness of a disconnected public that loves animals but continues to eat them because they always have. And where’s there’s a Meatless Monday, there can be a Compassionate Tuesday (I’m throwing off the tyranny of alliteration!) and a Justice Wednesday. And indeed, isn’t that exactly what the livestock industry–and the legislators who work for it–are afraid of?
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Addendum: Subway recently offered up three vegan sandwich options in test markets in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.  A review (written by a vegan) is in the Washington Post. Compassion Over Killing will help connect you to Subway decision-makers who could take it nationwide.