Tonight I'm going to tell you something so bleedingly obvious, you'll wonder why you haven't known it all along. And I'm going to tell you why you haven't known - you didn't want to know. In fact, you still don't.
Indonesian abattoirs aren't the only ones treating animals cruelly. Honest. Simply type 'Australian abattoir cruelty' into google and see for yourself.
*I don't recommend watching any related YouTube videos. You can imagine well enough from the journalism. The videos will make you wonder about the people we share our world with. They will change you. They will hurt you.
I know you don't want to. Because then you know the price of your dinner. But nothing makes me angrier than Australians getting all self-righteous about Indonesian practises when we refuse to look in the mirror.
Paul McCartney famously said 'If abattoirs had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.'
So why aren't we seeing news reports about Australian abattoirs on TV?
Well, for one, we're not dumb enough to let people with cameras in. We leave that to the Indonesians, and the Americans.
Two - remember how the beef industry got up in arms when their live export business got suspended? Imagine if their entire organisation was shut down. We can't handle that level of political fall out.
And thirdly, we like eating meat. And we like paying as little for it as possible.
Yes, I'm a vegetarian. It's 'easy for me' to say these things. Because I'm not being hypocritical complaining about the treatment of animals while munching on my pork crackling. But I'm not writing this blog to promote vegetarianism, or judge anyone for their personal choices. I believe in the circle of life; if you need it, take it. But if you don't need it, how about you leave it alone?
I'm writing this to promote education. To encourage people to research that little bit further. Because you have values, and ignorance isn't an excuse. It's hard. It's hard to shop ethically, to read the back of every item you pick up in the supermarket to check for palm oil, to investigate the factories where your clothes, your iPhone, are manufactured. It's exhausting, and completely un-rewarding.
But we are what we eat. We live and die by the choices we make. So isn't it best to know exactly what we're choosing?
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