Questions + Answers

From Alex

Allison

As a vegetarian (now vegan) of close to forty years, I was very interested

to read last week that you had been vegetarian for some time but, had now

returned to eating meat.

Having listened to your wonderful output from the early days ‘til now, I 

would have put money on you being a long time vegetarian.

I’m really not being in any way unkind or judgemental, but I would be 

very interested to hear why you decided to revert to being an omnivore.

I firmly believe that we humans were never designed to kill and eat our

fellow creatures. Just look at our hands and our teeth, they are not in any

way killing or flesh eating instruments.

I’ feel sure there will be Moorer take on this?

Very kind regards

Alex

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Dear Alex,

I was raised in the country, as you probably already know. I’ve had pet cows and goats, have nursed both with a bottle, and am generally pretty familiar with the lives of livestock, especially when they are free range. I watched my father and grandfather do the yearly worming, tagging, buying, selling, and I knew where the white packages of meat in the deep freezer came from. It never sat well with me that those cows I knew were the ones that ended up on my plate. I recognized some of their faces when we’d ride through the pasture. There was one I nicknamed Vance because he had curly hair on top of his head and Mama and Daddy had a friend named Vance that had curly hair. Made sense to me.

I have been vegetarian more than once in my life.

When I became pregnant with John Henry, I wasn’t a meat eater. I wasn’t one when he was born. I wasn’t one when I nursed him for 51 weeks. But when that period ended, he was on solid foods, and my body started returning to its previous state, I became ill. I felt awful, was constantly nauseated, and couldn’t stomach much of anything to eat except for milkshakes. I was shaky and rattled for days while new hormones rushed in and old ones left. And my body finally started telling me one thing — get some fish. Now. So I ate some salmon. And I ate some more the next day. And I started to build back my strength. Carrying, having, and nursing and caring for a child is incredibly hard work for a body. Almost everything I had before the experience had either been changed or depleted. I was not physically the same person I was before it.

For whatever reason, I have felt better when I have some fish in my diet since then, and that was 2010. I have the odd steak from time to time, but I mostly stick to water creatures. I know they all have feelings. I’m not at all happy they have to die to feed me. I try to be respectful and mindful about it. So that’s where I am on it.

Thank you for your question.

I hope y’all have a fantastic weekend.

PEACE. LOVE.

Allison

Send me a question at allisonmoorercontact@gmail.com

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