A film by animal rights organization PETA on conditions in livestock farming made Marissa Rigas a radical vegetarian. But at some point she became clear: vegetarianism can also have dark sides. She has written a book about her search for an ethically correct and sustainable diet.
Online Time: Mrs. Rigan, your book is called Meat Food for vegetarians. Quite provocative for someone who claims to care about animal rights.
Marissa Rigan: I wanted to show with my book that meat eaters can also feed mselves attentively. Vegetarians are not automatically more ethical eaters. Meat consumption and vegetarianism can both be ethically justified.
Online Time: If people want to eat meat, animals must die. Is re a good, ethically permissible way to kill m?
Riga: I think so, even though many deny it. Of course, it's still killing. But I believe that our consumption always causes suffering; Wher it's about our food, clothing or gasoline for our cars. We cannot completely eliminate this suffering. We must acknowledge that. The key is to keep suffering as low as possible.
Online Time: That means concretely?
Marissa Rigan comes from a US-Italian family where eating toger was always important © Hear KresgeRiga: We must ensure that animals live as well as possible. That y are bred and slaughtered in most humane conditions possible...
Online Time: Human is actually called human or humane. What exactly do you mean when you use this word for animal husbandry?
Riga: I think word fits. By treating animals well, we also preserve our own humanity. I believe, however, that it is not done to pay attention exclusively to suffering of animals. We must also minimise suffering of workers in production and at same time reduce burden on environment. This means, for example, that we have to ask about working conditions in fields and in animal husbandry.
Online Time: A key scene in her book describes moment when, after a tutorial from Internet, she displaces her first chicken herself – a pretty impressive project after seven years in which she had nourished herself with no meat. Why did you really want to take this chicken apart?
I have repressed that meat comes from animalsRiga: Before I became a vegetarian, I repressed that meat comes from animals – when I became aware of it, it disturbed me so much that I did not want to eat any more meat. When I wanted to return to meat consumption again, I decided not to make it as easy as it used to be. Instead, I made up my mind to look very closely. I wanted to understand where meat came from. For me this meant: I had to process this dead animal myself into meat.
Online Time: Why did you want to eat meat again?
Riga: I chose to do so when I met farmers on my local market, who used livestock as part of an integrated biodynamic food production system. Although y sold meat, ir farms were environmentally conscious, y were family farms, and farmers ' welfare was at heart of community. I felt it was more sensible to support this type of food production. Instead of boycotting existing system, I wanted to help create something new.
online time: "I had to find out that perfect, harmless food was not re", you write. What do you mean by that?
Date Of Update: 31 March 2018, 12:02
