The (Un)Appetizing Side of Meat

I have continued to question the American reaction to meat. As perhaps, avid reader, you may recall, I am not a vegetarian, nor am I averse to trying the slightly strange dish of animal parts on the table. Even with all this said, I am still curious as to why, in the American culture, we generally find it appalling to associate meat with the living animal. It is a status symbol, to be sure, but we prefer that is hidden away. We prefer to say, “I’ll take the Filet Mignon,” rather than “Just bring me a hunk-o-cow-meat.”

Recently, I received a text from a friend who was traveling in the Middle East this past week, asking me if I was “ready for a food idea?” He messaged me a photo he had taken at a market of a hanging animal carcass. (Being on the small screen of my phone, I still am unsure which animal it actually was, but my first guess would be lamb.) It was not the first time I had seen this, in picture or in person. In fact while I was traveling abroad, it was a very common occurrence.

Out at dinner the other night, my friend and I were exploring the Pizza menu, a little perplexed at some of the ingredients; we questioned the waiter, “What is Lomo?” He answered a bit vaguely, “Uh, it’s a cut of pork … I’m not sure exactly where from on the animal.” With that description we both slightly cringed and immediately agreed on the three-cheese pizza option.

My first thought about our waiter was that he wasn’t very good. I mean if you want to sell something, then sell it! (I’m thinking something like: “Well, it’s similar to bacon,” is a good start!) My second thought was why we were both so turned off by his description of the pork, he didn’t say anything inherently unpleasant about it, but rather simply attempted to describe it for exactly what it was – a part of an animal, and for some reason we found that rather unappetizing.

I got to thinking about the animal carcass text message on my phone, which also airs on the side of unappetizing. It does not bother me to think about or even see meat in, how shall we say this, it’s animal form; however, it does not strike that appetizing note for me either.

Perhaps because we are so accustomed to our food coming in packaging that screams, “Eat me, buy me,” that when it is not presented in that obvious manner, we immediately assume that it is not any good. I am left to question whether the culprit is in fact the marketing of the product. Marketing tactics have taught us that meat comes in clean, bright packing rather than a living animal. Furthermore we have become so reliant on the market to direct us in the way we need to go, that when it is not an obvious direction, we are thrown off and left to question the legitimacy of the product itself. But, we can’t give all the credit to the market; perhaps the market is simply feeding off the consumer preference. So, which comes first, the chicken or the egg?