Reflective Journal

On Animals as food (After reading Singer 39-40):

The idea that animals are food was never weird to me, it is how I grew up and never double thought it. However, I was raised in the city and did not have much interaction with animals, actual no interaction with animals outside of the family dog or others families' pets and the zoo. As I got older and more exposed to and understanding of meat for dinner was actually an animal I felt bad, but never changed my eating habits. I have never really been that much of a meat eater, and I don't think I eat that much meat because I like the taste of it, but even these recent readings make me re-think about how much meat I do eat. I wondered what Singer would say during a family dinner if meat was served. I know he says that there is more moral way to eat meat, depending on free-range or how animals are raised and killed. But I cannot help it but to feel guilt because I was ignorant of the issue for so long. However, I do not think I would be able to commit to living a vegan or even vegetarian lifestyle. Because of this I feel like I am constantly battling with myself on this issue. Maybe by the end of the semester I will be vegetarian. I know the more information I am exposed to the more I will search for better options. I feel like this class is actually changing some of my outlooks, and it is a great thing because it shows that I am learning, growing, and becoming less ignorant. But, I don't want to be falsely inspired to be vegetarian for three months during the class, while exposed, and then go back to being an occasional meat-eater. I feel like that is doing just as much damage to the cause. I feel like I can commit to buying free-range chicken eggs and trying to go to a better place to buy meat so that I am not endorsing cruelty.