The beginning is the end is the beginning. Or something like that, it's a Smashing Pumpkins song that I love, and is on my moody lifting playlist. The title can be applied to most natural life cycles. Plants, animals, predators or prey. Death sustains life. The winter chill kills a crop, the crop covers the soil. Once the frost begins to melt, so does the fallen, hibernating crop. Giving to the living land beneath it, valuable nutrients to pass on to the next crop in a warmer season.
In the wild, an animal dies, by design. The body leaves a gift to the land. Which it returns in the form of forage, fungi or fruit. No, rotting flesh does not turn into raspberries. But it provides the nutrients the land needs to support plant life. Which in turn creates thriving ecosystems and supports animal life.
Where this doesn't happen is in modern human living. The natural cycle is disrupted. Animals are raised to be eaten, not just to exist and be a part of an ecosystem.. Mono-crops are fertilized with synthetic fertilizers, followed by tilling after harvest, which usually brings about the demise of a few animals living on the land as well. Bones are thrown into landfills. Hides are wasted. Organ meats trashed. Chicken feet composted if we’re lucky. The most natural part of nature that still exists in the modern food system is death; no wonder that’s hard for people to swallow.
Then there are those that believe the death of an animal for food is completely brutal and unnecessary. I had the pleasure of dining with a vegan this Thanksgiving. The harvesting of animals being raised for food was brought up (merely because of my presence), and the care I take to make sure I humanely slaughter. Which was met with a shrug, no eye contact and a reluctant agreement that “it’s better than what happens to most animals that are murdered for food”. Bringing up the harvesting of animals is not something I would do with a mixed group of folks while dining. I did not contribute or respond, as I was enjoying my turkey three ways. Confit, roasted and smoked, tyvm.
But I digress- I empathize with people that are hurt by animal death. It’s completely understandable. And the livestock industry at large does not operate under the same morals that most small farmers do. I align with their grievances about animal agriculture, human worker rights, and well hell, vegetables taste good. Where I seem to differ is my acceptance of death, and dare I say, my celebration of it. The natural systems that worked before we changed them involved death. The life cycle as it pertains to the natural world contributes to the greater cycles of the way the world works.
Reciprocity in the animal kingdom exists. Reciprocal agriculture used to exist.
Perhaps the vegan I shared Thanksgiving with doesn’t eat meat to make up for the fact that her professional industry relies upon animal products and this is her way of balancing the death she reluctantly takes part in. I welcome closely considered decisions like this.
This idea of cyclical food systems, reciprocity in nature or the food web (as opposed to the food chain) isn’t new. Recognizing that there are many systems at work that rely on each other to produce harmony on this planet, and that we should do our best to get out of their way is my new way. Extractive agriculture, extractive eating, a non-restorative way of living won’t cut it.
Consider the vulture. By design these animals are scavengers that eat rotting or rotten flesh. Typically what’s left behind from a large predator. Their stomachs are “laden with flesh-degrading Fusobacteria and poisonous Clostridia” which allows them to eat what would be poisonous to other animals. They specifically wait for decay to set in which actually makes the flesh easier to digest, think fermented foods. Or don’t, I won’t blame you for not associating rotten flesh with kimchi. Fermentation is a natural process that makes nutrients more bioavailable and provides healthy (to our microbiomes) bacteria.
There is a great world of linked systems at play in nature. I hope we can create a way of living that no longer gets in the way. Let’s contribute to these natural systems rather than trying to break them. Let them eat cake. Or meat. Or rotten flesh.
