I was walking through a beautiful

street market in Seoul today, and I saw

exotic foods of al l kinds unti l I noticed

something peculiar. I saw a butcher’s shop,

ful l of different types of meat on their display.

The red lights and the scent of blood drew

me in, and I natural ly looked inside. I

expected to see a marbled steak or a leg of

lamb. No, it was dog – sliced halfway length

wise. I looked up in horror at the butchers’

innocent faces while their smil ing brown eyes

looked ready for business.

I ran out of there in disgust.

But as I was walking away into the busy

streets of the city I paused and thought:

‘Wait, why am I disgusted? It’s just meat, you

eat it every day in one form or another do

you not? I t's l ike the Foie Gras that people

eat in France, it’s nothing, real ly. And - Ha!

Was there not a chicken head beside the dog

carcass? Why didn’t I find that

disgusting?’ I t’s al l disgusting

or not disgusting at al l . I

laughed at my own hypocrisy.

These days we have an

interesting relationship with

food. We cannot see the

miracle in our daily l ives as we enter the

superstore; the endless amount of choices

and quantity of meats at our finger tips.

($1 .99! chicken “meat” for sale!) The cause

of such abundance needs to be questioned.

We are so far removed from the realities of

the food industry and their wrongdoings,

especial ly concerning the handling of animal

products for consumption. And the truth is

that the majority of us would rather stay

ignorant in fear of it ruining our appetite.

Most of us are blinded and we like it that way.

Sympathy is an emotion that cost too many

calories to feel and we cannot be bothered to

exercise such emotions towards the animals

that we eat.

Everything comes packaged to us: I often

forget that the ground up meat that says beef

is actual ly a cow. They mean the same thing,

sure, but if you were in the factory that

processed the cow into beef you would

realize one has a much more sinister

meaning than the other. In fact, if I was

constantly reminded of what actual ly goes on

into the butchery of animals that we eat, I

would have to excuse myself from the dinner

table every time. There have been many

recent attempts to make America and the rest

of the world eat less meat. Meatless

Mondays, banning dairy milk in school, vegan

this vegetize that, tofu burgers and tempeh

bacon – you name it. These are good ideas

to make the world eat less meat as far as I

am concerned. But for some, the vegan

lifestyle is too extreme a diet that sounds

unappetizing for many meat

consumers. But as

unappetizing as some vegan

dishes may sound, we need

to admit that meat

consumption is unappetizing

too. Yes, some Koreans eat

dog meat in a stew called Bo-Shin-Tang.

Other cultures eat “freaky meats” and

delicacies too, including our own – a steak or

a mcburger is meat too, have you noticed?

What is more ethical or not is your opinion,

but everyone should realize

meat consumption itself is an

unappetizing practice.

We are all part of the

meat consuming

culture.

"We need to stopbeing spoon-fed andtake responsibi l ity

for what we are puttinginto our mouths."

I am not vegan. This is not an article

encouraging readers to become vegans or

vegetarians. I say you should never feel gui lty

for what you choose to put in your mouth; but

you should feel gui lty for choosing to stay

ignorant to the realities of the food industry.

The bil l ions of dol lars that is spent to keep

consumers blindfolded - our population's

health problems and the fact that we have

accepted diseases and cancers as the norm,

our severe dependence on medicine and

attitude that expects hospitals to fix what

could have been preventable, and children

who are taught to eat to excelerate death and

then asking the question with the answer that

is right there on our plates:

"Why are we so sick?"

We need to stop being spoon-fed and take

responsibi l ity for what we are putting in our

mouths. We need to want to know where our

food comes from: For ethical reasons, health

reasons, pol itical reasons, it is just common

sense – it is a fundamental right. We need to

learn to exercise this right that we have in this

country. How can we aspire to be anything if

we are what we eat, and we do not even

know what we are eating?

Many of us don’t question what we eat; we

care what our appetite has to say and nothing

else. Whether it is the

man’s best friend, the

innocent duck, or

the cow that is

diseased and

beaten unti l i t is

served onto our plates, it al l doesn’t matter for

the most of us; humankind is a species that

seeks only the most gastronomical ly pleasing

creations out there. And this appetite that we

have for the flesh is a hard one to reverse.

On top of our culture’s addiction to meat, we

also have this misconception that the

government is taking care of the food that we

are eating so that we don’t have to take the

necessary health precaution when we buy

meat from our groceries or when we go out to

our favourite restaurants. The discomforting

truth is that the food industry fai ls everyday to

properly produce meat products that is up to

both the moral and health standards of the

average citizen. Yet we live each day

consuming these products because we are so

disconnected from the sources of our food.

With these odds against us, we as a meat

consuming culture are very disadvantaged to

reverse our population’s diet into a plant

based one. So maybe it is too late for the

majority of us. But I say our children deserves

better than the government’s half-assed

attempt to control the foods we are eating.

Children really do not deserve to eat the mess

of processed foods that we have labelled as

edible. As adults we need to feed our children

better - teach them that excess is not

necessary in every meal, and we need to

condition their taste buds to crave the healthy,

not the unhealthy. Our parents have failed in

that retrospect. And who can blame them?

They didn’t know any better. But we know

better, and we have no excuse to pass on our

unhealthy l ifestyles and diseases onto our

children. I t may be tragic that it is too late for

us, but it would be detrimental if it was also

too late for the next generations. The

resources of this land wil l die out and we need

to teach our children to survive if they are

going to continue to l ive on this planet – in

good health and with respect for their

environment.

I t may be impossible for humankind as a

species to break out of their meat culture – but

we can certainly al l make an effort. ­Jude Park

"On top of our culture’saddiction to meat,we also have thismisconception

that the governmentis taking careof the food

that we are eating "