Omivore's Dilemma: Chap 16 & 17

Eating animals. It sounds like a subject you would think you would hear on the Discovery Channel or something of that nature, but eating animals is habit for us as humans. The thought of killing a living thing in order to satisfy hunger, to me, is disturbing. This feeling, I believe was created by this weeks readings, especially chapter 17 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Though I may never stop eating animal products, I still have a lingering uneasiness about doing such a thing. What gives me this uneasiness about eating animals is the idea that the animals are suffering throughout the process. Michael Pollan writes that he believes that there is a difference between pain and suffering, but to me it seems awfully relative. My understanding of suffering is that if someone is ending another living thing’s life, against it’s will, there will be some aspect of suffering involved. Human nature and evolution seems to have changed and altered the part of our minds that gives us the idea that we have the right to take the life of another living organism and use it for nourishment. Despite the reality that I may never stop eating food from animals, I still feel unease in regard to eating animals.