It's Like The Jello Salad Thing. Again...Or, Seriously. This Is Why I'm In Therapy.

So, my off-handed comments (on my soap box, mind you) earlier today, writing about how being connected to our own food (especially when it's meat) is an important part of homesteading really, really irritated someone.

It's like the jello salad debacle all over again, except this time they emailed me instead of leaving rude, anonymous comments on my blog. Sigh.

The best, or worst, part? It wasn't a stranger, or a random member of PETA, it was a member of my own IMMEDIATE family. See why I'm in therapy?

I'm totally telling my mother.

I actually think that my sibling expressed a common opinion that I hear a lot, and that I really want to comment on versus replying directly to their email.

The email said - "It seems hypocritical for you to comment on raising your own meat in a humane manner when you also hunt. Hunting certainly seems to be the opposite of treating an animal humanely. I don't know how you reconcile that with your tender feelings for your chickens, or even your dogs, for that matter."

I obviously didn't get the writing skills in the family. I am, unfortunately, related to a group of very eloquent individuals. It was like being a cheerleader raised with the entire debate team.

Seriously.

I think I have to respond to this comment in a couple of ways:

First, when Matt & I set about living more simply, we knew that we wanted to raise our child to know exactly where food comes from. This includes meat, grains, and vegetables. Q knows that vegetables come from a garden, and eggs come from chickens. He even knows where chickens come from, and I'm totally still in therapy over that talk. Part of being responsible for feeding ourselves and educating our son is not just raising our food, but also harvesting our food. We do so in the most humane manner possible.

Secondly, that said, I could easily have started hunting at 21 when I didn't know which end of a gun was which. I probably would have mutilated and maimed any number of wild animals. Instead, I waited ten years until I had not only learned all about firearms, archery, wildlife recognition, but also ethical hunting practices. That patience and investment of time paid off when I was able to hunt rabbits competently my first time around, with the added assurance of knowing that I was killing them humanely with one shot.

Warning: Soap Box Alert! I can guarantee that cattle killed in a slaughterhouse or chickens raised in horrible conditions, spending their lives in a container the size of a shoebox and electrocuted to death are not afforded the same dignity in death as the animals that we hunt as a family. We also only harvest what we will eat and use. We use every part of every animal we kill. In my personal experience, most hunters are humane and ethical people who want to be more connected to their food and strive to be as kind as possible in harvesting animals, for whom they feel tremendous respect.

Third, and lastly, I feel very strongly that most people are so completely disconnected from their sources of food that it has become an epidemic in our country. If you don't feel comfortable hunting or fishing for your food, or raising a backyard flock of chickens, or paying to be part of a co-op that raises steers humanely and allows you to participate in their humane slaughter, then you have a responsibility to find a way to be connected to your food supply in some way. That might mean that you turn part of your ornately landscaped yard into a vegetable garden instead of a flower patch, or that you buy an Aerogarden for your apartment kitchen. Regardless, if you don't want to raise or harvest your own food, you certainly aren't in a position to comment on the humanity and compassion of those of us who choose to do so.

I'm certain that this little clarification will no doubt bring down more trouble, even after I tattle to my mother, but it is worth it...

We hunt. We fish. We raise chickens, keep bees, grow a garden, compost our garbage, and plan to raise goats and a steer at our new property. We want to get our own milk, make our own cheese, nurture our chickens and eat their eggs (even when we are sick of them), eat fish that we catch, and eat wild game that we hunt. Just like our grandparents did a hundred years ago.

And if more people did the same, the world might be a different place.