Some final thoughts from Sarah Cunningham on Matthew Scully's Dominion, including helpful motivation and practical advice for seeking out more humanely raised animal products:

Scully suggests humans have an instinctive connection with animals.  From a young age, we wince at the sight of animal suffering (hurt dogs, deer hit by cars, abandoned baby birds ...).  We may even feel a natural inclination to intervene to help creatures in need.

Even so, many of our food production practices, which cause unnecessary suffering to animals, occur out of sight.  The result?  Our ability to sense our natural response (likely sympathy, or maybe even outrage) is removed.  So society accepts extreme measures from food producers, without even knowing it (for example: hormone therapy, which matures cows an entire lifetime in just one year).

We could learn from the basic philosophy of those who once hunted and raised animals for survival (prior to meat becoming industrialized).  They believed it is morally permissible to raise and slaughter animals for food, particularly when  necessary to promote our own survival – a moral good.  When we take animal life to nourish ourselves, there is sacrifice involved.  But the loss of life has meaning. 

Even in slaughtering animals, we have at least a minimal obligation to protect animals from unnecessary suffering.  Now, because of advanced agricultural production, eating animals is not necessary to our survival.  So we are no longer weighing inhumane practices against our need to survive; we are weighing inhumane practices against our desire to eat what gives us pleasure.

Here's a final quote from Scully, before passing along some practical advice:

But I don’t answer to inevitabilities, and neither do you.  I don’t answer to the economy.  I don’t answer to tradition and I don’t answer to Everyone.  For me, it comes down to a question of whether I am a man or just a consumer.  Whether to reason or just to rationalize.  Whether to heed my conscience or my every craving, to assert my free will or just my will.  Whether to side with the powerful and comfortable or with the weak, afflicted and forgotten.  Whether as a [buyer] in a free market, I answer to the god of money or to the God of mercy. (p.325)

As an aside to my posts on Dominion, I recently shared some information on how to find humanely produced meats in grocery stores.  The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) claims consumers pushed grocery chains to increase their humane food offerings by 23% between 2008 and 2009.

But how can consumers use their voices and dollars to point the restaurant industry the same way?  John and Patricia Eddy of Cook Local suggested a letter writing campaign.  The following is an excerpt from their post “How To Talk To Restaurants About Their Meat Sources”:

If you’re interested in finding out whether your favorite restaurant sources ethically, here is a template that you can copy and email to them.  I encourage everyone to contact as many restaurants as they can.  The more inquiries a restaurant gets, the more likely they are to try to make changes to eliminate inhumanely produced meat from their sources.

"Greetings, 

I am a long time patron of your restaurant and I’ve always enjoyed my meals there.  However I have recently decided that I need to eliminate all meat from my diet that comes from CAFOs (confined/concentrated animal feeding operations).  So I am writing to you today in the hopes that you’ll be able to share whether your meat is sourced from a CAFO or from a humane and natural source.  If you can confirm this, I will happily continue to order animal products from your menu.  If not, I hope you’ll consider sourcing your meat from free-range, pasture-fed, and hormone and antibiotic free farms and I will simply order vegetarian dishes when I patronize your restaurant.  I appreciate any information you might be able to share with me.

Sincerely,

A concerned lover of food.

Another more proactive idea comes from Curt Ellis, posting on CivilEats.com ("My New Year's Resolution"), who leaves the following behind at restaurants after he dines, on a special card:

You may have noticed that I didn't order any meat today.  It's not that I'm a vegetarian - I'm an eager carnivore - But I've made a commitment to only eat animal products from humane, sustainable, family farms.

I hope you'll consider offering local, free-range, pasture-fed, and hormone- and antibiotic-free protein here soon.  If you have trouble finding it, you might ask at the farmer's market about wholesale buying, visit eatwellguide.org, or email me at ...

I look forward to coming back soon - and thanks for listening!

Respectfully, Curt Ellis

(Many thanks to Sarah for sharing the above, adapted from her posts at SarahCunningham.org: "What Inside Makes You Wince?", “Pain Vs. Pleasure” and “Restaurant Patrons Unite :)” (also see her post “I’ll Have The”).  Sarah is also author of the recently released memoir Picking Dandelions.  Photos © Farm Sanctuary and Cathy Yeulet/123rf.com.)