Dustin LindenSmith

This recent post on moby's blog inspired a huge debate on the LJ feed for it that made me think about my choices around eating meat.

(Incidentally, I've been really digging his blog and it's totally worth subscribing to. It's not super deep or anything, but occasionally it contains neat posts about the underground NY music scene and often it contains funny and relatively insightful rants about the U.S. government. Plus the guy's a great music producer. Remember Play?)

Here in Halifax, we're lucky to have a great farmer's market each week where we buy local produce of all types. There are also organic meat producers whom we try to patronize as much as possible, notwithstanding the fact that their prices are like twice or three times more than what we'd pay in the supermarket. But I like to think that we're paying the real cost of meat when we buy from those guys instead of the artificially lowered price of meat at the grocery stores. Plus we pay far less in fuel costs for each pound of locally-grown meat we eat as compared to the grocery store version, which is trucked in from God knows what agri-farm in Ontario or the US or something.

And that's kind of my point. When I buy local meat, I feel great about it because it tastes better (honest, it does -- noticeably) and I'm supporting a responsible local farmer. But I'd actually rather not buy meat at all, which would be even cheaper and better for you healthwise over the long term. No doubt that you can eat a healthy diet that includes meat, but a meatless diet is even healthier. Or can be, if you're mindful about it.

Something to consider, anyway. Along with these tidbits from the creator of the excellent Bizarro cartoon, Dan Piraro:

-- Animal Stuff (Vegan Index Page)
-- Why I'm Vegan
-- Are Humans Carnivores?