The Pioneer Log, February 18, 2011

Opinions 5

e quandary of ethical butchery

Two students beast it out over the controversial trend of ethical butchery, which is practiced by Naomi Pomeroy (97), owner of Beast, located in NE Portland. She will be honored at the Alumni Honors Banquet on Saturday, Feb. 19 (see News, page 4).
BY ADRIAN GUERRERO Staff Writer ewis & Clark students can be pretty obnoxious when they see dead animals. Every time a carved pig is on display in the Bon, there is a small war as students cry out, How disgusting! How sick and wrong! Its a violation of my right to come and eat without feeling attacked! is inevitably leads to debates at the dinner table, where the vegetarian and vegan students invariably win by accusing meat-eaters of destroying the environment. As a former vegetarian, the son of a butcher, and a Chicano, I have a pretty unique perspective on Pomeroys ethical butchery and what I perceive to be bourgeoisie snobbery on the part of LC vegetarians. One former LC student, Naomi Pomeroy (97), abandoned her vegetarianism for the exact opposite: she opened a meat-themed restaurant in Portland called Beast with her sous-chef Mika. In addition to her many accolades (Chef of the Year, Portland Monthly; 10 Best New Chefs in America, Food & Wine), she will be recognized at the Alumni Honors Banquet Saturday, Feb. 19. BY CHLOE WATERMAN Staff Writer s humans, we are able to have blood in our mouths without having blood on our hands, which has had some disastrous consequences for animals. Naomi Pomeroy, through her stance on ethical butchery and conscientious meat consumption, wants to counter these consequences by forcing consumers to meet their meat. Pomeroy, standing in the middle of a eld, cradles a lifeless pig stamped with the USDAs logo. is image, unsurprisingly, has stirred up some controversy. Pomeroy is one of the trailblazers of the new meat Renaissance, a social counter-movement

ties use every part of the animal including tongue, tail and hooves, many of which most Americans nd unsanitary and would throw away. ey are also very open about the process of eating animals, displaying meat on hooks for sale in the market. Middle-class Americans are disgusted by this, and much of this cultural stigma transfers to their vegetarian children. Being vegetarian ts into the clich of the white middle class environmentalist and is fueled by niche-market corporate advertising. It smacks of elitism. My father is a butcher. He knows more than anyone how destructive and unethical

Chicano and Chinese-American communities use every part of the animal including tongue, tail and hooves, many of which most Americans nd unsanitary and would throw away.
In an interview with Mother Jones magazine, Pomeroy shared that she used to be a vegetarian. As a kid I was like, Wheres the salad? I was a vegetarian for a long time. I started eating meat again probably like 12 years ago, when I started personal che ng. I gured, in order to cook meat, you have to eat meat. It doesnt look like the planets going to stop eating meat anytime soonlets be realistic about that. So maybe giving people an option of a sustainably sourced product is as good as its going to get. Beast prides itself on its usage of whole animals, which they carve in the middle of the restaurant. Pomeroys restaurant is a brilliant, fullfrontal assault in the face of the vegetarian myth. Radical environmentalist, soil scientist and former vegetarian Lierre Keith shows that industrial crop agriculture is actually much more destructive than livestock production, and that most livestock pollution is due to the destructive practices of monocropping. [Industrial] agriculture is actually the most destructive thing that people have done to the planet. In order to grow those annual mono-crops that agriculture is founded on, that civilization is founded on, you have to clear the land. Youre destroying entire ecosystems, and by clearing that soil, youre destroying it. Topsoil destruction is a much larger problem for our environment. Ethically sourced meat products can help disprove the story that livestock production is environmentally destructive. LC students su er from being culturally blind and disconnected from food systems. Chicano and Chinese-American communi-

shouldnt be eating meat in the rst place. When I rst heard that students were considering protesting Pomeroys recognition at the Alumni Honors Banquet, I was initially just happy to hear that there were other animal rights activists on campus. My next reaction, though, was disappointment in the lack of pragmatism among a signi cant portion of the larger animal welfare and rights movement that, I believe, undermines its legitimacy and slows its progress by giving all animal activists a bad reputation. Pomeroy should not be a target for protests, as she has been before. Although I do not fully agree with her stance (I think eating animal products is rarely, if ever, justi able in light of the su ering experienced by meat-destined animals), I surely wont be standing outside the Alumni Honors Banquet. Instead, I will be standing outside of retailers selling Smith eld Foods, where pregnant sows who are con ned to gestation crates make up a portion of the 5.9 billion pounds of pork produced by the company each year; I will be standing outside of OHSU (on Feb. 25th at noon), where 4,200 monkeys are the victims of torturous, fatal, and unnecessary animal experiments; and I will be standing outside the White House demanding legislation that recognizes animals rights not to su er. Id also like to say a few words in defense of radical animal activists and evangelical vegans. If weve learned anything from history, its that the moral compass of humanity hasnt always pointed in the right direction. Just as the majority once believed it was okay to enslave other humans on the basis of their race or social status, today the majority believes it is okay to raise animals in brutal conditions and consume them for pleasure.

ILLUSTRATION BY FRANCES LI

If weve learned anything from history, its that the moral compass of humanity hasnt always pointed in the right direction.
Many animal activists, including myself, believe that the latter belief will someday be looked upon the way we now view slavery. Just as civil rights activists struggled, and still struggle, to stand silently in the presence of racism, animal rights activists struggle to stand silently in the presence of what we perceive to be an atrocious moral epidemic. When I hear a racist joke, I speak up because I believe they exacerbate the problem. When I see someone eating meat, it is hard not to believe that I am being hypocritical by remaining silent. Its a ne line, though, between estranging omnivores from the animal welfare movement by acting self-righteous and creating the stir that it takes to ignite the kind of revolution in our treatment of animals that we feel is morally necessary. Pomeroy, at the very least, o ers a middle ground where omnivores and vegans can meet (with a drop of pragmatism from the vegans and a pinch of open-mindedness from the omnivores) to better the lives of animals.

the meat industry is, from factory farm to store counter. It is because of this knowledge that he supports ethical butchery and conscientious meat-sourcing, and it is also because of our cultural identity that we feel comfortable really looking at the realities of the meat industry.

Being vegetarian ts into the clich of the white middle class environmentalist and is fueled by niche-market corporate advertising. It smacks of elitism.
Instead of condemning something they often know nothing about, vegetarians should look at Pomeroys example of ethical butchery and analyze the way that their cultural stigmas inform their criticisms of meat-eaters.

that has sprung up in response to industrial meat production. e ethical butchery movement seeks to reconnect the consumer and the slaughter-destined animal through a revival of small-scale meat production and artisanal butchery. e image of Pomeroy and the dead pig, rather than glorifying the pigs slaughter as many animal rights activists have claimed, is meant to elicit the importance of a deepalmost spiritualconnection between a meat-eater and the soon-to-be meat. Pomeroy, besides shoving delicious meat down the throats of her customers, wants to shove this connection into their consciences. is is why her butcher block is the centerpiece of her restaurant, why she tries to visit every farm from which she sources her meat and why she uses every part of the animal. Basically, she believes that if youre not able to face the living animal that your meat once was and the profound sacrice it made to end up on your plate, you

PHOTOGRAPH BY SAM MARGEVICIUS

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DEANNA HORTON

Pomeroys restaurant Beast features a huge butcher block in the center of the kitchen.

The Portland Meat Collective offers butchery and charcuterie classes with Portland meat masters.