Contemplating a Fall Roast

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.