So I saw Super Size Me last night. Considering its content was seemingly pretty boring and straight forward it was remarkably entertaining. The sound track was great – I nearly fell off my chair when I heard Wesley Willis’ Rock n Roll McDonalds – keep on that harmony joy bus ride baby. Not to mention Queen’s Big Bottom Girls and the Violent Femmes’ Fat.

So you’d think it would be a case of the guy eats Maccas too much and gets unhealthy but you really are surprised by just how unhealthy he gets. It’s really quite amazing. In a funny way it exposes Maccas as being even more evil because of just how irresponsible they are by even serving the food they do. Of course the point in that they do it because it makes them money – there is, despite their best PR efforts, nothing ethical about Maccas. I’d go so far as to say that even all their “charitable” work is simple part of their marketing scheme and motivated, not by the health of our “little battlers” but by the fact that it’s a high level of exposure to young people – their primary market.

I was surprised that the author of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, didn’t get a run but if you are interested in this topic this book is excellent. In fact if you’re interested in brand based stuff then it’s a great book.

The addictive nature of the food also struck me as significant. If you eat this sort of food too much you end up craving it. To the point where your mood is dependent on it. I wonder if at times this is something I’ve suffered from? Just wonder, I haven’t eaten McDonalds since I was like 13 or 14 so for over ten years now, but I know there are time (although not so much any more) when I’ve been very flat and just wanted to eat. Maybe this is because it’s just a vice.

So then we get to the topic that a few of you have been waiting for – vegetarianism. If we weren’t suppose to eat meat – then why does it taste so damn good!!!!

Currently I am undergoing an experiment. No meat for a month. It’s something I’ve considered doing for a little while now and I’ve finally had the motivation to do it.

The accusation has been made against me that my meat eating in the flaw in my politics. I am otherwise a highly ethical man motivated by goodness for the world but I kill small fluffy animals because they taste good. Well guilty – sort of.

If you think that humans were never meant to eat meat and use some bullshit argument about how or teeth are or some thing you can just fuck off. Not interested in talking to you. In fact – kill your self. It’s not true, it’s bullshit. Meat is good for you and if we weren’t suppose to eat it then we just wouldn’t. We never would have. But we do because we’re suppose to. There is also a whole bunch of archaeological evidence to show that our decedents were in fact once carnivores. End of story.

In addition humans are a highly important part of the ecosystem and it is important that we continue to eat meat. Can you imagine what would happen if we just stopped? We’d be swimming in cow shit for the next hundred years. Yes there are a whole bunch of things about artificial insemination and so forth that apparently if we stopped would solve all the problems in the world. I am sceptical about this but it does bring me to the more interesting part of the non-meat eating argument.

Socially, environmentally and arguably economically or farming practices are unsustainable. Fast Food Nation gives a good account of this – the problem is that it’s American and things are a fair bit different here. For example in America it is no surprise to anyone that Mad Cow Disease has broken out because they feed cows to cows. Apparently there is a related disease that can break out if humans engage in cannibalism.

Perhaps a more relevant example is the one offered by Vandana Shiva in her article Mad cows and sacred cows. Overlooking the mad cow part of her argument she explains how in India cows are sacred for a range of reasons but, the ecological and economic reasons are the same. They fully utilise the cow, this means that they are use as fertiliser (or their poo is), as a source of milk, leather and a range of other things. Today’s agricultural practices use cattle for one purpose alone. That purpose will depend on the cow – either meat, leather, milk and so on.

I feel I’m arguing my point badly but I hope you get what I mean. Live stock in western countries is used for a single purpose. This is wasteful and ecologically unsustainable – the long term effects of which are environmentally unsustainable. Agricultural practices need to be diversified to save farmers and the environment – “good” farmers realise this. Why not run cattle on grounds you’re going to plant crops on so they fertilise the earth naturally – not with chemicals?

In addition to this, increasingly our meat comes from property run by big agribusiness. Small farmers can’t compete with these companies which simply have the resources and technology to saturate the market and have no concerns other than their short term profits. Genetic Engineering is now being used on cattle so that they divert more of their energy to producing milk. Small farmers can’t afford this technology and I am certainly concerned about the effects of genetic modification.

Small farmers also have a long term interest in their property and so take care of the land a lot better. Agribusiness is not so concerned with these things.

So, for political reasons I probably shouldn’t eat meat. I oppose the way most of the meat I eat ends up on my plate. But not all of it.

One of the most ridiculous things in Victoria at the moment is that it is illegal to kill a kangaroo for human consumption. We should be farming and eating kangaroo. It’s also probably my favourite meat!!!

So on the 15th of July I’m really looking forward to a steak or sausage (probably both) – but I have written several letters about the FTA with America which will fuck small farmers and the environment in the arse.

Organic food also probably deserve comment here but that can wait.