The Ethics Of Lunch

Pulling apart the plastic package that enclosed the turkey slices, I tore off a few for my lunch and returned the rest to the package, placing it back in the box that also contained one of steak slices and another of ham. I thought of the millions of animals who die for us each day, then of the films I recently saw showing a big, placid cow getting stunned by a mechanical bludgeon and rolled onto a conveyor belt for butchering. I thought of all that is hidden as I peel open my neat, little bag of sliced food, and wondered, carrying the plastic box back to the fridge, what I would do if it was people — say, the lowest classes of society, judged expendable and bred for this purpose — whose sliced flesh wound up in my deli drawer? Would I do more than stop and think about it for a moment, as though about some abstract question, before going on with my day? (.......10sept)