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Venison or Vegetables? A Vegetarian Reflects on Hunting [1]
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Date: 2024-10-30
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Keep It Rural, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Like what you see? Join the mailing list for more rural news, thoughts, and analysis in your inbox each week.
Over the weekend, my dad texted me “guess what I got?” – a message that to anyone else might be puzzling, but to me was obvious: the man shot a deer, at long last.
Ever since he moved back to rural Pennsylvania five years ago, he’s bought deer tags. The past two years, I’ve joined him on his wanderings through the woods in pursuit of a deer, but both times it was a fruitless endeavor. The deer seem to know exactly where not to be during the fall when the forests are alive with orange-clad hunters and their daughters.
It probably doesn’t help that each time I’ve gone with him, I’ve whispered an agnostic prayer that we don’t see any four-legged creatures. Usually, I’m the exact opposite: the outdoors is my favorite place because of the wildlife, but as a vegetarian, I am diametrically opposed to witnessing an animal’s death at my own (or my father’s) hand. I’ve cried every time I hit a bird or a squirrel with my car (yes, I DO brake for critters), and I have to cover my eyes when an animal is harmed in a movie or TV show. On a run recently, I stopped to move a slug from the middle of the road.
All this to say: I’ll be in Pennsylvania this Christmas, and I plan to eat the venison I know my dad will cook.
I’ve been a vegetarian for roughly 12 years. I decided to forgo meat as a teenager because I never ate much to begin with, and because – at age 14 – it was one of the few decisions in my life that was mine alone. Later on, my reasons grew: As I learned more about agriculture’s contribution to climate change and the conditions animals face in large-scale farming operations, abstaining from meat was the obvious choice for me.
I do not purchase meat because I refuse to create the need for that meat to be produced. The vast majority of the animal products available for purchase are produced cruelly, for both the animals and people involved. I live in the world as a vegetarian to encourage alternatives to this production, and to exist as a reminder that beans are just as good a protein as a hamburger.
And sometimes, I will eat a little bit of meat. When my partner – a bonafide meat eater, a big fan of lamb – orders meat when we dine out, I sometimes try it. It is almost always delicious. It gives me empathy for why it’s hard to give up meat – and it provides me with more proof that no matter how yummy, the carnivore’s life is just not for me.
But when I have eaten a bite of meat in front of some carnivores, I’ve watched their brains break. “But, but, but…” they splutter, in total misunderstanding of what my vegetarianism means. “You are a liar!” they declare, their only grasp of vegetarianism is that meat shall never enter my stomach. I usually refrain from trying meat in front of them because it is exhausting to explain that my diet exists to encourage our food system to create fewer meat products, not because I’m opposed to the literal consumption of a piece of meat.
When I buy tofu, I am telling the grocery store to continue stocking tofu. Any purchase we make is information to producers, telling them what’s popular and what isn’t, what they should and should not put money behind. Our purchases have power.
People tend to think that lifestyle habits require an all or nothing mindset. This is why so many people don’t become vegetarians: even if they like the idea of it, they fear it’s just not attainable for them, so they do nothing. This is a toxic mindset because it encourages the status quo, and right now the status quo is killing the planet.
Agriculture is responsible for 10% of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions. Much of the crops grown aren’t even eaten by people – they’re fed to livestock. For our own future, we cannot continue this way.
I also know that people will always eat meat. Which brings me back to where we started: hunting.
Of the people in my life who harass me about being a vegetarian, my dad is not one of them. On the surface, you might think he would – he’s a big, burly meat eater who grew up fishing and hunting with his dad, grandpa, and four brothers. To this day, he still goes out with his brothers on Muncy Creek to catch a rainbow trout (or a brookie, if they’re lucky), to fry up for dinner.
He was also a vegetarian for a good portion of the 80s, and since then has maintained a pretty low-meat diet. When he does buy meat, it’s the organic, free range, expensive stuff from the Wegmans all the way out in Williamsport – something he’s quite privileged to be able to afford (although I do believe if we limited the amount of meat we consumed, the price of better meat would be feasible for more consumers).
But this year, he won’t have to buy that stuff: the deer that roamed through his backyard last weekend will fill the gap. And while it’s painful to me, as someone who is deeply concerned about animal welfare, to think about the death of this animal, I also know its life was leagues above the conditions factory farmed livestock are forced to endure. I also know that it was given a dignified death, a right I think should be bestowed on every living thing.
Given the state of our planet, we, the residents of the richest nation in the world, must reconsider our consumption habits and do what is possible for each of us. My current goal is to consume less animal products in general – just last night, I bought vegan heavy whipping cream instead of the dairy option. I also bought eggs, because I am not perfect. But it’s these small things that, when done by many people, add up.
No habit will ever be perfect, and you will likely fail. Why do we think that’s a reason to give up before we’ve even tried?
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