What is the fuss about meat? Why is everyone talking about eating less meat? Why is there more and more vegetarians, and people who only eat meat on specific days? Why cannot just eat my meat like I am used to? What is this crazy idea to eat beans instead of meat?!

My answer to all of these questions is very simple. The way we do things, the way we created a so called meat industry is the problem with eating meat. The way we treat the farms animals, they way we slaughter, butcher and sell them is the problem with eating meat. And most people know nothing about it.

I was more than interested in these, so I went to a farming school, to an organic one in Denmark to learn more about farm animals, crops and in general where the hell our food is coming from, what are the regulations in this modern, european foodsystem. It was an interesting experience, and also the fact that I had many classmates, who just like me, do not particularly want to be farmers, but came for the knowledge and with some interest in self-sustainability methods. The best part of the school was, that we visited a lot of farms.

I do not think people ever wanted to know the fact, that meat was a living animal. They just hunted or kept them, and someone caught, slaughtered, butchered and cooked, and everyone was happy and had meat. Sometimes. On weekends, holidays, celebrations, feasts. But not every single day. Not for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, and for midnight snack, like we do nowadays. And because we want meat in every single minute of the day, we want it to be cheap, and we can buy it cheap. It is in the shop, it looks like meat, and we want meat, ergo we buy it and eat it. The question is: is that really meat? Yes and no.

I think there is really few people who know facts about modern farming. Where do we get the information from? Obviously from the package of the products. That is our only relation to meat, besides the price, which is  a huge factor. If we can buy a chicken for 3 euros, why would we pay 30 euros? But I ask like this: who pays the 27 euros price difference? Because it is still there, so someone has to pay.

I visited different farms, with organic certification and without, also free range, conventional, and biodynamic ones. Not that everyone should to do the same, but just think about that amount of money what you pay for meat. What if you eat less, but better meat? Or do you think that a chicken which was kept for 30 days in a lightless, airless hangar, without being able to move-because of limited space and also because it could not even lift its own breast after 15 days- fed with its own shit and fish food and colored with curcuma, will not have an effect on you or your kids?

Naturally, death comes with every piece of meat. If you want meat, some animal must die, and someone has to do it. Not everyone should have a farm in the backyard or in the garage, but everyone should know where the meat is coming from, so you don't only decide to buy that piece, because of its price. The price is always the same, the question is just, who pays? You or the animal.

We are humans, designed to eat meat. But also to think and to feel. I eat meat, because I love it, but I love animals too, and I cannot live with the thought that they had a bad life, if you can call it a life at all. I respect life, so I pay for meat, and I know the farms where they were born and slaughtered and how. I only eat meat from sources I know, and I do it very rarely. Here comes the bean...