The Big New Year's Resolution of 2008

Hello, New Year!

The Reverent Eater was terribly inactive during the latter half of 2007, but we - the royal "we" - have decided to return with a vengeance in 2008! There's so very much work to be done and so much food to be appreciated. Time to get started once again.

I've finally had a sort of mini "vacation" during this week between Christmas and New Year's, which has gifted me with an opportunity to ponder topics of passionate interest OTHER than parish ministry. It's been a lovely break, I must say. And I've used it to think a good deal about - you got it - food.

In particular, I've been researching food and farm policy and reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This coming Sunday I'll be preaching on local food systems and sustainable food production...or something like that.

Last night, as I was watching poor ol' Dick Clark count down to 2008, I started to think about meaningful resolutions. Sure, naturally, I want to exercise more like so many of the rest of you. And as usual, I'd like to "eat better," ie., more local foods, more organic foods, fewer processed foods, etc. And I'd like to post more regularly on my blogs. But as I was on my way to bed, I decided on something a lot more concrete, and therefore a lot more challenging.

So here it is...the Big New Year's Resolution of 2008:

I, The Reverent Eater, am going to try very hard...I mean, commit...well, do my best...to not eat any meat products produced in CAFO's for an entire year.

For those of you not familiar with CAFO's...well, where have you been? CAFO's are Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. These are the gruesome "farm factories," where an overwhelming percentage of our beef, pork, and poultry is produced in the U.S. We're talking feedlots. Cattle, chickens, turkeys, and pigs - which, by the way, are among the most intelligent of mammals - confined to small areas in large numbers.

Here they are fed a mixture of corn - which ruminants in particular have no biological or evolutionary business consuming - and animal by-products. Yes, that means they eat the offal of other cattle, chickens, turkeys and pigs. Well, let me give you the basic list of what your average corn-fed steer eats as Michael Pollan describes it in The Omnivore's Dilemma:

corn flakes, made with GMO corn (genetically modified organism) and grown with petroleum based pesticides

liquified fat, which is often beef tallow

liquified vitamins

synthetic estrogen

antibiotics

some hay and silage for roughage

protein supplements, which may include molasses and urea, which is synthetic nitrogen made from natural gas, feather meal and chicken litter (bedding, feces, bits of feed), chicken meal, fish meal, or pig meal

Appetizing, huh?

CAFO's are cruel to the animals, unhealthy for us people, and massively polluting for our environment.

So, for this year at least, I'm going to give up eating meat whose origins I don't know...which most likely means giving up 85 % of the meat I would regularly eat. No pork stir fries at the Chinese restaurant. No chicken dishes at the Thai or Mexican restaurant. No steak tips at the local Steak House. No burgers or Big Macs or Chicken Sandwiches. Nope. I've got to know the farmer or at least something about the farmer. Otherwise, it's hands off.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to my locally grown, organic chicken in my new cast iron dutch oven...

Happy New Year!