Thanks for letting me share my dream with you.
I was in a restaurant with a lot of noise, people eating breakfast. Seemed odd to have all that noise so early in the morning. A woman next to me said she loved bacon with her pancakes and wanted more.
At that moment the louder sound to my left drew my eye. It was a conveyor belt with screaming pigs, trying to get their feet loose from the shackles. Others had their heads cut off and their bodies split in half. It was hard to believe I could see this right next door and it was visible to the people in the restaurant. Why was I the only one who saw it? One little pig got away and gave me a sense of freedom for a split second. When I looked back the blood and violence was still there. I took my iPhone out and set the camera to video mode. It wouldn’t work. I thought to myself “People have to see this! They have to know what’s going on.” Meanwhile the waitress put two strips of bacon on my plate. The lady next to me ordered a BLT (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato) sandwich to go. I restarted my phone and tried the camera again. The video still wasn’t working. I felt helpless and alone. The pigs were coming faster on the conveyor belts. Screaming, fighting for their lives.
It was a nightmare. I don’t have them often, but when I do I gratefully open my eyes and realize I’m safe in my bed. But, this morning, I feel a little sick in my stomach realizing there are millions of pigs (who are often called The Horizontal Human because of their organ similarities) being confined, tortured and stabbed this very second. I want people to see what I saw. It’s hard for me to believe that some people know the facts and don’t mind it. If you want to see how many pigs are being slaughtered in the time it takes you to read this post go to this site. (It’s over 25,000 pigs just in the time it took me to write it) 25,000. Can you imagine? A short blog post and this is what’s going on behind closed doors. Out of site.
There are CAFOs (confined animal factories) dotting the landscape in southern Minnesota where my parents live. Driving on the back roads and even the main roads you’d never know what’s going on behind those walls. They’re not just in southern Minnesota. Next time you see a large building off the road with no windows or signs you could be looking at a CAFO. These animals live on concrete floors with automatic feeders. When they’re big enough for slaughter they’re crated up and hauled to the kill floor.
Paul McCartney said, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.”
We’ve all been indoctrinated to think we need meat for protein. After this dream, I’m even more inspired to share my tempeh, mushroom and quinoa recipes with the world. They’re delicious, high-protein, low-fat and rich in fiber. I understand why people would rather not change or stand out as being different. I totally get it. It’s the reason I went to culinary school, to give myself and others alternatives that taste so amazing we can stop the madness and feed more people on this planet. Animals have so much intelligence to share with us. Just because they don’t speak our language doesn’t make them less than us.
My nephew Elliot with Curly at Precious Life Animal Sanctuary in Sequim, WA.