it's a mad mad mad mad cow

megs pointed me to this rant by alton brown reguarding mad cow disease...

That’s right, Mad Cow disease isn’t the beef industry’s fault, it’s not the USDA’s fault, and it’s surely not the cattles’ fault. It’s our fault.

That’s right…you and I are to blame for the fact that hundreds if not thousands of animals will have to be destroyed because of the threat of BSE. We are to blame because our culture has come to value two qualities above all else: “cheap”, and “more”. How else can you explain the cancerous creep of Wal-Marts across our landscape, or the ever swelling American waistline?

You think wanting “more” for “less” is just good sense? Well let me tell you what you get: more of less. By demanding the cheapest beef (and food in general) we announce to all that we don’t place much value on our bodies, or the bodies of our children. We don’t value the pleasure of flavor, and we don’t value life. If we placed a little value on the life of the animal who’s dying for our dinner, maybe we wouldn’t demand that it be cheapest, and in many cases lowest quality, meat on Earth. Maybe, just maybe if we ate beef once or even twice a week rather than making daily pilgrimages through the fast food, drive thru, biggie-size feed lot, we’d be able to afford quality meet from an animal that was raised on honest to goodness grass.

he later goes on to point out that feeding cows with cows has been outlawed in america and canada since 1997 - but that there are still cows alive since before the law was passed. still, he raises a valid point about valuing what we put in our bodies.

of course, i can't afford prime cuts of meat. hell, i live and die by the drive thru. some days a dollar burger is all i can afford. okay, most days a dollar burger is all i can afford. and while i don't enjoy eating it and it doesn't do wonders for my tubby ass it still makes sure i stay fed.

this talk about being more concerned about what goes in one's body does give me an idea tho... i really don't make new year's resoloutions, but seeing as how this is a new year i'll just call it one. i'm going to make an effort to eat a better quality of chow at least once a week. my reasoning here basically follows the whole "if i start looking out for what i eat once a week it'll eventually snowball and i'll start eating better every day".

i give it a month before i forget that i said i'd do this...