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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Let's talk about veal
I have always found that people have pretty strong opinions on veal. My husband and I don't see eye to eye on it (which is fine) so it got me to thinking...
When you think about veal what are the top 4 things that come to mind?
Re: Let's talk about veal
baby cows, baby cows, baby cows, South Park.
I don't eat it, and I don't think I ever will.
eta: I HAVE eaten it in the past, but that was many years ago. It's good, but I don't suffer without it.
I don't watch South Park so I admittingly don't know the South Park reference, but replace it with baby cows one more time and you have my answer.
I have never eaten it and never will.
I do eat other meat. I was vegetarian for a couple of years (not for ethical reasons), and then didn't eat beef for several years after I started eating other meats. H and I currently try to eat humanely raised meat.
I didn't know that about chicken. I haven't done much research on this kind of thing.
I don't think i've ever eaten it, and i don't eat any meat products, but to me, the baby-ness doesn't bother me, it's the inhumane treatment for its (short) lifespan.
On a related note, a major contributor to depleted food fish populations is 'harvesting' young fish, so populations are not able to be maintained.
Best sound ever: baby's heartbeat! (Heard @ 10w1d)
I stopped eating meat when I was in university. I just couldn't stomach the crap they were serving us. Years later I started to eat it again and beef was the very last thing I started to eat again.
I just gave up meat (still eating fish) about a month ago.
I won't eat it, or lamb.
I do eat other meat, just not babies. Not all chickens have a 30 day lifespan, though. I've never heard that, but my family raised chickens and they were around for years. Maybe they can be ready for butchering at 30 days, but I don't think we did it that young. Granted, this was about 20 years ago and my limited memory is mostly of my favorite chicken named Pecky.
Never have, never will. I've been a veghead for 20 years now. Just now going to vegan.
Baby cows....
Rated "L" For Life Blog
The OP is...kinda correct about a commercial chicken's lifespan. Part of the way a chicken's biology works to lay eggs has to do with the length of day. The average chicken lays aprox. 1 egg per day--but in the winter b/c the days are shorter, they may slow down a little bit. Commercial chickens--even organic and cruelty free--who roam free and are allowed to peck and dust bathe are still kept in barns--where the light is controlled--and it is controlled in such a way to promote egg production--and development. I believe they are mature at around 30-90 days.
The average commercial layer's live span though is well I believe something like 270 days--so about a year and a half--and then they go to slaughter--means they have no more eggs (Just like humans they have a certain number of eggs in their life)...they become dog food.
And...No..we don't eat veal--but for some reason we do sometimes have lamb...We don't eat it for cruelty reasons--and I'm not sure why we eat lamb--on occasion! I realize the hypocrisy of this
I wasn't even aware of the lamb thing, or, if I'd heard it at some point, I didn't remember.
So they are slaughtered very young too?
I'm a little confused about the chickens. So are they full-grown/adult/mature/whatever when they slaughter them or not?
I don't know why the baby thing bothers me so much! I know it's a totally emotional response. It's not like any animals raised for consumption are living a full and long life and being slaughtered only in the twilight of their years. lol
My dad has a small sheep farm so I'm used to eating a lot of lamb. I guess everyone thinks of the small white fluffy lambs you see on TV but they have grown out of that stage a long time before they are slaughtered. They are basically fully grown and ready to reproduce (I know that since when time come to slaughter them they always keep a few of the females and usually about a week after slaughter they bring in the ram and some months later the new lambs are born).
I can't tell you how it's done commercially but I guess it's likely the lambs grow up faster and thus have a shorter (and less humane life). After all my dad's lambs get to spend all their life (except for the boy lambs who get separated from their moms and sisters in the last month or so when they are sexually matured) outside together with their moms, they get to nurse for as long as they want/need and then eat grass and bushes.
I don't think you can compare lambs or veal to fish though in terms of harvesting the young. Lambs and veal are obviously grown in a 'controlled environment' and I'm pretty sure the farmers knows how to keep the populations maintained.
I agree with you though, the babyness of lambs/chicken/veal doesn't bother me at all but I do not like the inhumane treatment. That's why I prefer to eat lambs (from my dads farm, I know they've been treated nicely and had a good life) or venison.
This. Not just the fact they are young, but the inhumane conditions they are kept in.
Yes, we do still eat meat. But never someone I don't personally know and know that their animals are treated well and are slaughtered humanely. I do not eat meat from a grocery store or restaurant.
Our beef and pork come from a farm in our co-op, about 10 minutes from my house. Chickens I get from a couple different farms nearby.
This.
I'm curious why it bothers people that it comes from a baby cow as opposed to meat from an adult cow?
Tired after a long morning of hiking and swimming.
Oh - I don't eat any meat. And it does bother me - regardless of baby or adult. But the OP was veal... and so therefore I think "baby." Poor little thing never stood a chance!
Rated "L" For Life Blog
Like I mentioned, for me at least, it's a purely emotional response to "baby." I guess baby = cute, or baby = helpless, or whatever else we tend to associate with babies. I know it's illogical and that it's no more cruel to slaughter them when they are young than when they are older, but I don't think I could bring myself to chow down on veal parmesan without seeing little baby cow eyes looking up at me.
Plus there is no veal at my co-op grocery (that sells only free-range, pastured, vegetarian fed, yadda yadda meats), and now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen lamb there either, so I wonder if there aren't a lot of people doing this the "humane" way.
It's also how veal calves are treated - they are taken away from mom (usually dairy cows I have read) really really young and placed in a "crate" so their movement is prohibited (so they don't gain muscle and the meat does not get tough)
http://pleasebekind.com/veal.html
http://www.noveal.org/
Ah yes, that makes sense! Thank you for giving me a logical reason to support my visceral reaction. lol
Lamb is nothing like veal (in its 'production'). Lamb means a young sheep yes, but not as young as veal calves, and its not cruelly deprived.
In order to 'make' the flesh of veal calves so pale and tender, they are kept in tiny enclosures where they cannot even move about, and deprived of mother's milk so they are iron-deficient. They're so starved for iron they will lick and suck at any metal they can reach.
I do eat some meat, but not much, and what I do eat, is sustainably and humanely raised. I know local ranchers. They treat their cattle with great love and respect. The cattle live good lives.
I cannot support torturing baby animals - or any animal that way - to make it more 'tender'. How sad. Starvation and malnourishment are horribly cruel, and we make these poor calves suffer through this? How is this so different than the horror stories of dogs beaten before death to make their meat more tender?
If you must have pale, tender meat, have a scallop.
Whelp, everyone is going to hate me for this, but here goes:
I don't care how old the animal is. I haven't had veal in ages, but because I can't afford it. We don't eat old animals, most animals are sluaghtered within their fist year to 18 months of life. I grew up close to animals, in a more practical environment when it came to animals that we eat. By practical I mean that animals are food. We treated them well because we wanted them to give us a return, "the fruits" of our labor. Just like I tend my plants well, keep them trimmed and watered,so that I can get the most out of it, the same approach is made for animals. My great aunt still serves us hen from the coup 2 ft away from her kitchen. When it's dinner time, she selects one and we eat. You don't know about a connection with an animal until you prepared it while still warm. I don't mind eating baby cows, as long as during their lives they were treated with care that an animal deserves.
But they aren't. They are confined so they can't move, and deprived of nutrition to make their meat pale and tender.
Exactly. There is no way for veal as we know it (a.k.a. as people like it) to be humanely raised and "treated with care".
ALL baby cows? Just like you can find responsible any other kinds of meat, I'm sure you can find responsible veal. Some Kobe is treated that way (not being allowed to walk), some Kobe is not, if Kobe is something you like to eat, you have to seek out a source that has morals that align with yours.