As I drove along I-270 circumnavigating Columbus, Ohio, my dream vehicle slowly began to materialize in the distance. My eye's could make out the vehicle's shape as my foot pressed against the accelerator to catch up. Watching the speedometer rise from 60 to 70 to 73 miles per hour, I worried that perhaps my speed was getting too high.
I missed my exit, but was too focused on the vehicle I was trying to catch up with to worry. Noticing that the beautiful vehicle I was chasing had pulled off on the last exit I could take before going way out of my way, I excitedly waved to the driver as we both pulled to a stop.
To my right was several tons of pure beauty. The polished wheels shone in the sunlight. Curves accentuated the vehicle's body and a fresh coat of wax had been recently applied. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and snapped a quick picture of my dream car . . . the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile.
The English Composition 1 class that I teach for Columbus State Community College has food as its theme, and this week we read Michael Pollan's "An Animal's Place." Like Pollan who pondered Australian Philosopher Peter Singer's Animal Liberation while eating a steak at the Palm, I contemplated Pollan's ideas as I sat down to the first roast beef of the Fall.
Pollan describes Singer's opinion that a day will come when "eating animals, wearing animals, experimenting on animals, killing animals for sport: all these practices, so resolutely normal to us, will be seen as the barbarities they are." While I believe that people will continue to use animals to benefit mankind as food and for other purposes, the future holds changes in how we view and use animals.
I hope that meals such as this roast don't become a "relic" and will still be accessible to future generations, but possibly on a smaller scale than they are now. In my view, most of us can drastically reduce the amount of meat we consume a year, and still lead healthy lives filled with delicious culinary options for every meal of the week.
