Reading to accompany this blog post:
Chapter 9: “Raising Animals” in Farming While Black by Leah Penniman
When I tell people I spent my summer interning on a farm, it is almost immediately followed by “Oh! What kind of farm?” This is a logical question, and I answer it honestly. Usually, I say something along the lines of, “Well, I’m actually working on a sustainable meat farm!” This response has gotten me more shocked looks than I can count. As a vegetarian who empathizes with animals to such an intense degree, many people close to me didn’t understand why I would want to work at a place that hung its hat on killing animals. Honestly, I didn’t understand it completely at first either.
From a young age, I was raised hunting. We lived in the forest in southern Indiana, and it wasn’t uncommon to wake up before the sun rose some days and make my way into the woods with my dad. When I show people pictures of me smiling proudly with a dead deer, squirrels, turkeys, you name it, they are usually just as shocked as they are when I tell them I plan to spend my summer on a meat farm.
What I don’t often get the opportunity to explain to people is that these experiences may have contributed but are not the main reason I am a vegetarian. In fact, these situations help me have a better understanding and respect towards people who choose to incorporate meat in their diet. After working alongside Liz and Nate, this respect is even stronger. That is because I have seen first-hand how well they treat their animals. They have conversations with them, check on them frequently, and analyze every little thing to make sure they are always comfortable. Mainly, it boils down to a respect towards the animals. It’s the same respect I used to see in my dad’s eyes when we would go sit in a tree stand and watch the turkeys go about their days.
Leah Penniman put into words this experience in a way I never could. She told the following story:
“‘How many of you eat chicken?’ we asked the group of youth gathered around the movable coops in the field. Almost all of the hands went up. ‘How many of you would raise a chicken and kill it yourself?’ No hands went up. The youth protested that killing a chicken would be cruel and gross. I shared that I voluntarily raise and kill hundreds of chickens every year, even though I am a vegetarian, because I know our community eats meat and I want that meat to be humanely and sustainably raised.”
This mindset of being a vegetarian but still understanding the importance of providing meat in an ethical way really spoke to me. So many times, I wonder how many people would still eat meat if they had to kill an animal in order to get it. I think the number would be wildly lower. Penniman doesn’t take this attitude though. Instead, she is selfless. Despite her own preferences, she kills animals just so that people have access to meat that isn’t the result of horrible factory farming practices. This shows an unparalleled respect for animals, I think. To raise them yourself in order to prevent the needless suffering of so many other animals who are being raised to be too fat to support themselves, or who don’t even have enough room to walk around, is going so above and beyond. She is also selfless because instead of judging those who eat meat, she is providing for them. She sees their needs and does the difficult work in order to provide for her community. Penniman is an amazing example of committing to your beliefs in ways that aren’t commonly expected or portrayed, and I hope I have mimicked aspects of that this summer.