Ethical Eating
Apologies for the delay between posts – I came down with the plague. Many hours of Gilmore Girls were watched, many cups of tea were drunk, and many shots of Nyquil were endured. I also killed a forest with tissue-use, sorry Planet Earth!
Anyway, last week sometime I went shopping for supplies for my $1.25 a day Lent eating plan and found a great deal on eggs, one of my favourite foods and an absolute protein-must during this period of oatmeal and rice. The problem was, to bring eggs down to 14 cents per egg, I had to buy a pack of 60. 60 eggs for $8.99.
Doesn’t that seem a little grotesque? These eggs are most definitely not cage-free. I’ve been seasoned to pay $4-5 for a dozen cage-free eggs, for the pleasure of knowing that my consumption was not preceded by pain and misery for the wee hens. I’m certainly not rich by Californian standards* yet certainly not poor by that same standard, but after paying my extortionate Westside rent and all the other monthly bills (which reminds me…) I can still take my lumps and pay $4-5 on eggs to feel better about those hens.
But something I’ve realized while doing this Lent experiment of eating at the world poverty level is that the truly poor—and the truly poor in America who are getting by on dollars and food stamps—don’t have the luxury of ethical eating. That is a luxury reserved for the wealthy and the getting-by-just-fine. The hypothetical struggling single mother trying to feed her kids on food stamps might be saddened by the thought of dozens of hens crammed into one little coop, but that image might not be so dissimilar from the one of her own one-room apartment that she shares with her children.
As for the poverty-ridden in the developing world… well, the rise of factory farming seems to be a regrettable result of the Industrial Revolution in the West, in order to meet the demands of an increasing population who could afford meat and cheese on a more regular basis. The irony is that the very people who can most afford to eat meat, cheese, and other once-pricier items, demand the cheapest products they can get their hands on.
I don’t mean to sound preachy. I’m in no way exempt from these modern practices—I love getting good deals on chicken, beef, and yogurt. Eggs are simply the easiest food to separate the ethically good from the bad. And I’ve got a livable paycheck, but not enough to blow it all at the super expensive, organic markets here in SoCal for every single product.
Another irony is that there is no way I can finish all these eggs before they start going bad. The next few days will be very egg-heavy and I’ll hard boil as many as I can to extend the shelf life another five days. If any of you known to me personally need a dozen or so eggs—for free!—please let me know.
* Though by international standards I fall somewhere in the top 3-4%, according to the Global Rich List calculator, as do many middle class Americans. Check it out and feel both really great and really terrible at the same time!
i have 2 questions 1) if you go heavy on the eggs wont that go over your $1.25 a day even tho you bought all the eggs in the first place to fit into the $1.25 “restriction”?
2) when i first read your blog i clicked on the lick you provided and read a bit about the couple who did the $1.25 poverty thing. not sure if i would call it a diet. but it seems as tho the trick is to buy your main ingredients in bulk so it lasts and you can make many meals out of it. like buying 60 eggs for $9. my observation is that isn’t something that could be practiced in real life. most families dont get enough in food stamps to afford to buy in large amounts of multiple items. at least that is my own personal experience growing up. for one person it may be easier but for a family of 4 i imagine it’s more difficult.
just a few thoughts that i had that i thought i would share. you are a braver person than i am doing this.
It is sad indeed that poverty seemingly necessitates poor eating habits, and perpetuates the cycle of unsustainable agriculture and meat/animal production. I’ve cut all meat from my diet unless it is raised ethically. I eat less meat as a result of the higher prices, but I enjoy that meat a lot more.
Well, I am no expert on food stamps but I know of a couple that lived on them for quite a while and they were eating steak almost nightly. Which is much better then I eat normally. Of course every situation is different but if you go to Ralphs, they show which products are available with food stamps (some Ralphs anyway) and they are able to buy things like Coca-Cola products and good cuts of meat. Maybe for your next project you should find out how much in food stamps you would get if you qualified and then purchase the things you would be able to with those food stamps. Then again, you will probably be dying to be over with food projects by the end of lent lol