Since a very early age I have learned that the recreational harvest of fish, game, and wild edible plants such as berries and fruits can provide not only a unique opportunity to avoid the monotony of everyday eating habits but also a successful means for attaching the eater to the eaten.
Meat from the butcher arrives to the consumer on a styrofoam boat wrapped neatly in tightly stretched cellophane; unfortunately, this phenomena may completely detach human beings from both the instinctual as well as gory side that comes with being a carnivore.
By removing the undesirable aspects associated with the killing and consuming of countless different species of animals we as citizens have been able to dodge an ethical curve ball. For instance, when you hunt a deer (weighing an avg. of 90lbs) the deer does not commit suicide and magically transform into 500 conveniently wrapped packages of steaks, sausages, and roasts before your very eyes...... instead, the hunter must intentionally pull the trigger; he must chose (willingly) to take the animals life, to stop their heart so that their own may continue to beat. In doing so, it is important for the hunter to analyze a way in which to not only ensure the least amount of suffering by the prey, but also ensure the seizure of the food necessary for the harvester's longevity. From the point of squeezing the trigger to the point in which the remnants of a venison pot roast dinner evacuate your body you have been 100% engaged with the animal and have earned your meal in a way that few can appreciate.
I would argue that, if educated properly, almost anyone can harvest fish, game, and wild edibles on their own, however the ultimate dilemma becomes whether or not that person is physically and mentally capable of overcoming the norms of the supermarket butcher window or vegi-section.
If done with proper intention, recreational fishing and hunting offer not only stress relief but very lucrative benefits to those who chose to participate. Fish such as salmon, halibut, trout, and steelhead are all readily available in the beautiful pacific northwest yet the masses continue to spend eight to fifteen dollars per pound of flesh for such "delicacies" from the local supermarket. It seams as though many people would rather pay the large capital to avoid the messy hands-on work that is necessary. Further, deer, elk, moose, bear, grouse, pheasants, rabbits, quail, ducks, geese, and many many more species of recreational harvestable species of animal are also available here in Washington state and the greater pacific northwest. Big game such as deer and elk offer hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of pounds of harvestable meat that can be used to supplement the daily diet of beef chicken and pork from the supermarket. If properly executed, it is 100% possible to balance game and fish harvests in such a way so as to completely eliminate the necessity for visits to the butcher or fish market.
Unfortunately, this entire document speaks to the carnivorous crowd and does not take into account vegetarian or vegan dieters. Understandably it may sometimes be hard for those who do not eat meat to comprehend the necessity for recreational harvest; when the present market is so flooded with commercial product why shoot bambi instead? The answer, in my opinion, is quite simple; the quality of commercially produced meat is far inferior to the quality of wild edible species and this void is only widening. With genetic engineering controlling much of the modern day food market and the space for grazing cattle or raising crops quickly diminishing food standards in the U.S. are in rapid decline.
When all is said and done, fishing, hunting, and gathering are not for everyone. In fact, only a very small percentage of the population can tolerate the more grim aspects of taking a life for the betterment of self.
Just some food for thought.
The following are suggested readings for anyone interested in further information:
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). Fishing in
2 comments:
yea i agree that American society needs to make a change in our sources of meat production and certainly our amount of consumption. I don't think ignorance should be used as an excuse anymore for people to continually buy and sell genetically modified meat products or meat products which come from mistreated animals raised in unsanitary conditions. For the most part people should have the right to see just where they're food comes from, except they'd probably look away if they were directly confronted with that information. If consumers knew the shanks of beef they were buying from their regular butcher shop came from a cow that died of mistreatment, do you think people would be more willing to raise they're own cattle? Or would they just move on to the next butcher shop who gets they're meat from a different source. Why are people so reluctant to change their eating habits, knowing that their habits will lead to an unhealthy lifestyle and, in correlation, an unhealthy society?
There are connotations untouched on here. Say a big % of folks got turned on to hunting in the NW . Sustainable? Only if we curbed our own numbers to match whats available, Or start stocking deer,fish,foul to match our pop, and thats a road to where we have been for the last dozen decades. One answer is to curb our use only meat for protein/aminos. As our population is artificially bolstered, we only see fit to have an unnaturally supported food supply that we are sold rathere than gather. Your chosen path is certainly more natural ,I just wonder what our society would look like patterned on a natural path. What would it take to get there?
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