I Could Never

A little over a year ago the farmer went to the post office and brought home two boxes full of fluffy yellow baby chicks. In a small surprise we were happy to see that all sixty chicks survived transit and we quickly settled them into the brooder.

Newborn chicks need a steady temperature of 95 degrees so we had a heat lamp, as well as a feeder and a waterer all readily available for them in their new home. As the farmer lifted each one out of the box he dipped their beak into the water. After watching him do this several times though our son exclaimed, “Dude, why are you baptizing them?!” Extra funny considering the farmer is also a pastor.

Yesterday The Farmer went and picked up about 103 of these little balls of yellow fluff. This will be the largest batch of meat birds we have raised and my goodness they are the cutest, and loudest little things!

One day I shared a cute little video of the chicks in one of our previous batches on our social media and received several comments along the lines of, “I could never do that!” As in raise those cute little things and then eat them.

It’s a sentiment we have heard often since we started raising animals on the farm. When we got our first four piglets, two breeders and two feeders, we were so enthralled with them. We’d sit in the pen and play with them, scratching behind ears and giving belly rubs. Inevitably we would get asked if we were going to have a hard time taking the two feeders to the butcher or have a hard time eating the meat knowing where it had come from.

I tried to be as honest as I could recognizing that it was all new for us and still very theoretical but I really believed I would be okay. I mean there was always the chance it was going to be worse than expected and more difficult but what I was learning through the process of raising animals for food is that we were actually being given the opportunity to live the reality of how we obtain our food the way it was intended more than the majority of most people.

We take on the care and nurture of these animals and it is our responsibility to do that well. We provide happy and healthy environments for them to grow and flourish. And truthfully it is not an overstatement to say that we love on them. They have personalities and you do get attached to a certain degree.

But, because we are Christians, we filter that affection and responsibility through the Biblical lens of mankind having dominion over this created world. That means essentially we believe that the purpose of these animals is to provide food for people. It shapes our care of them and is the reason we cannot treat them in an inhumane manner. We want to give them a very good life so that they can fulfill the purpose of that life in the fullest best possible way.

Their life does matter and that’s why we do it the way that we do. With every step that has been taken to produce more, produce bigger, produce faster often just for the sake of a larger profit margin, the animal has been reduce down to a simple product. I literally cannot grasp the concept of pigs being raised inside a building on concrete floors.

And animals being herded through mass produced meat factories meant that it didn’t take long before man, the people who were supposed to be served most by all of the convenience of cheap meat, also lost meaning. The welfare and health of the animals does not matter and now the health of humans in connection to their food hasn’t really mattered much the last few decades either.

I realize not everyone can live on a farm. Three years ago this life was not possible for us. But we can educate ourselves and our communities about good and bad practices when it comes to how and where our food comes from. I’m not saying we all have to do a deep dive into all the various conspiracy theories that abound about hormones and government practices (but seriously, if conservative people need to broaden their information gathering sources for a more balanced view can we all agree that those less conservative friends need to maybe brush up on some research regarding some of the laws and practices that have currently been in place as well? Especially as things begin to shift within the government…one that is much more old-school in it’s approach to our food production system.)

Here is what I see as the real issue.

The way our food system works now has, for all intents and purposes, made it void of gratitude. The last few generations have been raised to think that food comes from big box stores or a drive thru window. It’s not connected to anything.

Animals became meaningless.
People became meaningless.
Thankfulness became meaningless.

As I said, not everyone can live on a farm and grow or raise their own food. But knowing how much work goes into growing food and understanding that something died so that you are able to eat ought to shift the mentality from one that is purely consumeristic to one of gratitude, don’t you think?

Being truly thankful because you grasp the sacrifice required for it to happen is more than just being happy you have a chicken leg on your plate.

And that is something that everyone can do.