Being a Humanevore

hu·ma·ne·vore [hyoo-man-uh-vawr] noun:

a carnivore who only eats meat that has been raised in wholly natural environments, fed the most natural and healthy foods and treated humanely with as much care and respect as we expect ourselves.

Humanevore is not a real word.

It should be.

I’ve been reading a lot of Michael Pollan lately. I can’t get enough of him. I’ve been health-conscious all my life, and I’ve been actively studying nutrition for over a year now, but The Omnivore’s Dilemma opened my eyes and ears more than anything else has into the perils of being an uninformed meat eater, which I fully admit I was.

There are reasons why 100% grass-fed meat, pastured eggs and wild fish cost an arm and a leg (no pun intended.) Those reasons are worth it.

Pathfinder Farms, Catskill, NY

Another of Mr. Pollan’s books, In Defense of Food, led me to eatwild.com, a site dedicated to carefully-researched information (it's owned and operated by an investigative journalist) about eating the way nature intended. Among lots of other interesting facts and resources, it provides a directory of farms across North America that raise animals a Humanevore can safely eat. Each has met very specific criteria to be included in this directory.

What strikes me most about these criteria isn’t that these farms meet them, but that they even have to exist. Doesn’t it make you wonder what criteria all other farms meet? Or, unfortunately-but-likely-more-accurately, don't?

“You are what you eat” has taken on a whole new meaning for me. While it’s not my normal M.O., I’m going to get all spiritual on you. Beyond the nutritional (and of course animal rights) argument in becoming a Humanevore, there is another more poignant one: Most of us don’t choose to spend a whole lot of time hanging out with chronically sad and depressed people; eventually, their negative spirit would affect us. What kind of effect, then, is eating chronically sad and depressed animals having? I have to believe it’s compromising us in ways far beyond poor physical health.

It’s easy and financially convenient to “forget” all of this once the meat’s been packaged, the eggs are in cartons and the fish is in the case. I’d go so far as to say it’s inconvenient to remember, because for the most part, you have to go way far out of your way to shop as a Humanevore. But…

I think it’s worth it. What do you think?