The Past: Our Relationship with Livestock

Where has technology and civilization taken us except away from our roots, away from our earth and the animals we depend on to survive? We have lost a sense also of what we eat. The patty in a hamburger does not conjure the image of a slaughtered cow, but that of a “McDonald’s”. The amount of processing in most of the food we consume pushes this disconnect further. Over time, our connections to animals - physical, mental, and emotional - have numbed, and are beginning to pass away.

rock painting - c. 8000 BC

Humans began as hunter-gatherers. Their connection to the animals was rooted deep, because their lives depended on these animals. Not just the meat of the animals, but the animals as whole beings. All parts of the animal were used for some purpose of survival.

egyptian hieroglyphic painting - c. 3200 BC

With the domestication of animals in Egypt, much was gained, and yet something was lost. The vigilant hunt passed away - no longer were skills of stealth and aim honed in the same manner, or for the same purposes.

sheep exit a livestock railroad car - 1904

With the growth of civilization and the expansion of food networks, animals became increasingly distant to humans (especially those of middle and upper classes). Livestock was no longer live when humans interacted with it. Instead it was transported, killed, and butchered before consumers ever laid eyes on it.

beef jerky - 2004

Consumers today think little about the process of raising livestock and bringing it all the way to the packaged meat they buy at the supermarket. Meat is processed so much in developed societies, that there exists a strong visual, olfactory, and emotional disconnect to the animal from which it came.

in vitro meat - 2007

To bring this disconnect a giant leap further, meat can now be produced without a live animal in the first place. These advances in science bring meat entirely into the artificial realm. So much of our connection with real animals has, and continues to die, to pass on, leaving us out of tune with the world’s natural systems.