Two New Blogs

A couple new blogs that I'm finding interesting:

The Ethical Butcher is by a chef and butcher who started eating meat again after a decade and a half of vegetarianism, many of those years spent as a self-described "militant vegan". Now he's an enthusiastic carnivore, albeit one deeply concerned with animal welfare and sustainability.

The blog makes for a strange read for a vegan like me. On the one hand, I have a deep visceral aversion to consuming animal products, period. I certainly find it upsetting to read details of how an animal carcass is prepared for meat consumption. To be brutally honest, on a gut level I do feel like eating meat is wrong. I love animals. It's not necessary to kill them to eat well. The thought of putting a dead animal part into my body is revolting. The end.

However, many feel differently. Many of these people are my friends. World-wide vegetarianism is not right around the corner. And while I am all for promoting veganism, I'm less for ragging on meat eaters. My veganism is political in a sense, but it's largely a lifestyle choice. I consume many products (including pleanty of vegan treats, I'm sure,) that are produced through means I cannot defend and to which I am actively opposed (I'm not an apologist for the exploitation of humans rather than animals for god's sake.) While there's a simple, emotional link when one eats meat--you're eating a dead animal after all--how much worse, ethically is it to do this than drink Coca-cola, funding a corporation that has orchestrated (or at least allowed) the murder of trade unionists? While I participate in organized boycotts and sometimes semi-irrationally refuse to buy goods from companies I think are evil, I'm far from pure. I'm as embedded in the bloody capitalist consumer cycle as any meat eater.

Recognizing that I have a lot of respect for The Ethical Butcher, who is actively working towards making meat production more humane and sustainable, and has the utmost respect for the animals he works with. I have to give respect to a meat eater who is engaged with the processes most would rather remain ignorant of. It's a strange, dissonant read for me. I could see myself being interested in butchery, had I continued to eat meat rather than forsake it.

Another good blog is marginalutility, by "a smalltown escort and activist". It contains a lot of news and great analysis, particularly stuff related to the drug war and the sex industry, and especially where they intersect. This post about the possibility that police departments are funding their narcotics departments in part through the fees paid by adult service providers to Craig's List is especially interesting--and less far-fetched than it may initially sound.