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From: thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: eating live things
Message-ID: <1493@utah-gr.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 12:49:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: utah-gr.1493
Posted: Mon Jul  1 12:49:11 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 06:17:05 EDT
References: <213@sdcarl.UUCP>
Reply-To: thomas@utah-gr.UUCP (Spencer W. Thomas)
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 27


In article <213@sdcarl.UUCP> rusty@sdcarl.UUCP (Rusty Wright) writes:
>The idea of putting a live animal
>in my mouth and using my teath to crush and pulverize something in
>order to kill it strikes me as somewhat barbaric.  

It is interesting to see how far we have come from our origins.  Most
(carnivorous) animals (and we are, in part, carnivorous, or we wouldn't
have those nice sharp cutting teeth up front) at least begin to eat
their prey when it is alive.  (-: not to mention vegetables -- I mean,
how many of you make sure your tomato is dead before you eat it?  And to
think of ripping the tomato off the plant; it's almost as bad as pulling
off fly wings!-)  This is similar to the feeling that meat comes in
plastic wrap with a white (or yellow) styrofoam tray underneath.  Most
of us really don't want to think about the origin of our food.  (I am
reminded of a story of a city dweller who visited some suburban friends
and was offered a ripe tomato fresh from the garden.  He exclaimed in
horror "from the dirt!?", and was unable to bring himself to eat it.
Vegetables, too, spring full formed from the counter in the corner
grocery.)

Yes, eating live clams (and other things) is somewhat barbaric, but I am
not sure this is a "bad thing".  While I would find it very difficult to
live for long without electricity and central heating, I also feel that
we should not forget nor deny our roots.

-- 
=Spencer   ({ihnp4,decvax}!utah-cs!thomas, thomas@utah-cs.ARPA)