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    Do You Eat Baby Animals?

    vealvealIs it me, or is veal really hot right now? It got a lot of bad press a while back when the veal industry was exposed for being inhumane -- calves were separated from their mothers and kept in dark, narrow crates to keep the meat extra tender. Cruelty is not delicious, so people stopped eating veal.

    But this year I heard about Strauss "Free Raised" veal and it looked really different: the calves stay with their mothers, aren't confined or tethered, can nurse freely with their grazing mothers, and aren't given hormones or antibiotics. Then I noticed some of my local, smaller family farms (Raindance and Slope Farms) were also producing veal under the same conditions. The veal is pink rather than white because the calves are getting more iron, but it's still as tender as, well, baby flesh.

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    This was good news to me because ... well ... I have a confession to make: I love eating baby animals. Is it really so evil? Let's take a look.

    First of all, how old are the other animals we eat?

    • Lamb is usually under a year old, though it's often slaughtered at around 6 to 7 months old. Meat from adults is called mutton and tends to be tougher and stronger in flavor.
    • Pig is slaughtered anywhere from 4 months old (when it's around 40 pounds) to a year old (when it's up to 200 pounds), but from what I can tell, the most common ages are 6 to 9 months old. Suckling pigs are between 2 to 6 weeks old.
    • Most beef is usually just under a year old, though grass-fed cattle are usually a few months older because they take longer to grow.
    • Free-raised veal is around 6 to 7 months old.


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    So when you look at it that way, eating free-raised veal isn't that different from eating lamb. I do know that Animal Welfare Approved, a program that certifies family farms that use high-welfare methods of farming, generally frowns upon weaning calves before 6 months (in most cases). So there does seem to be something special about animals reaching the 6-month mark. But my question is, if you're going to kill the animal to eat it anyway, why does the age matter? What's with the taboo against eating immature animals?

    Some people feel that living a humane life means living to see adulthood. Others consider the attachment mother cows might feel for their calves reason for not eating veal.

    What do you think? Would you eat pasture-raised veal? And if not, do you still eat lamb?

    Written by Adriana Velez for CafeMom's blog, The Stir.

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    Image via Strauss Free Raised Veal.

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    124 comments

    • Karyn  •  4 months ago
      timeing. Its all about.timing....
    • Karyn  •  Atlanta, Georgia  •  4 months ago
      Wow
    • Daniel  •  1 year 4 months ago
      I think its shallow to consider this an age only issue. The deeper concerns for most caring souls is the treatment of the animals and perhaps the purpose for their impending doom. If they are slaughtered humanely, it is still a raw deal, but most can live with it. Put in boxes and not allowed to move much so that "gourmets" can enjoy their more tender flesh? Now to me that changes everything, and goes into the ghoulish. I do eat most meats, much to my shame, but at least its good to ATTEMPT to give a crap about how they were treated. If you are turned into a baby veal in the next life, you would certainly appreciate that kind of concern from your overlord humans,before your slaughter, wouldn't you?
    • Jonny  •  1 year 7 months ago
      I love baby animals. They're delicious! Heck, I even eat unborn chicken embryos!!

      Speaking of this, isn't there a cheese-maker in Italy who makes cheese from womens breast milk?
    • IanW  •  1 year 7 months ago
      Yum, meat! i eat it all and love it, what does it matter if it is younger or older, it is bred for food. At the moment we are top of the chain and can eat what we want.
    • doe eyes  •  1 year 7 months ago
      I don't eat veal or lamb, but I have no intentions of giving up chicken, beef, pork or fish.

      To each their own.
    • NitaM  •  1 year 7 months ago
      I hear kittens are delicious!

      But, I'm a veggie so I guess I'll never know...
    • Storm  •  1 year 7 months ago
      i don't have a problem eating animals at any age, but i do have a serious problem about they way we raise and treat them. i think the animal should be given the respect any living thing deserves to live a comfortable life fitting to its nature, not raised in a factory setting, dark cramped cages or any of the other horrors that the meat industry does in the name of profit. I am also willing to pay for this. Americans do eat much more meat than their bodies need or is healthy.
    • Minty Me  •  1 year 7 months ago
      Lamb- no.
      Pig- some bacon now and then.
      Veal- no.
      Beef- love it!
      Venison- no
      Goat- no
      I also like eggs, chicken and poultry, shellfish, crustaceans and fish. So what's your point? People have been eating meat since time began.
    • Lisa  •  1 year 7 months ago
      Meat fairies... I like it. I have trouble eating meat, chicken, with bones. Makes me sad and sometimes I just can't eat it. And I ALWAYS say a little prayer and thank the animal that gave it's life. Seems wrong to not be appreciative. I still like the meat fairy option though....
    • Sydney  •  1 year 7 months ago
      Our mind is our natural equipment. ;)

      ..don't care for veal, Love lamb
    • Laura R  •  1 year 7 months ago
      I eat meat. Always have, probably always will. That doesn't mean that I am a brute, or that I can't get behind the vegetarian movement. I haven't had suckling pig yet, but would love to try it. I have had true veal, and was raised on yearling beef. I prefer the yearling beef, where it is more tender than older beef, but has more texture and flavor than veal. My grandfather raises cattle, and that is the yearling beef I have had, raised by him, with no cruelty, killed cleanly and humanely.
    • jay  •  1 year 7 months ago
      natalie, we are animals. go look it up. kingdom: animalia . go look it up. do you ever read ?
    • Christine  •  1 year 7 months ago
      I'm sorry to disappoint you, Dixie Darling, but while MOST humans do not need meat, there are a few whose metabolisms require animal products. For whatever reasons, their bodies are not capable of chaining together amino acids to form complete proteins, and they must consume those proteins somehow. My husband became very ill after attempting to go vegetarian; it took us a couple of years and several specialists to figure out the problem.

      Now, all that aside, I don't eat veal simply because I don't care for the flavor; that is, it doesn't seem to have much. I prefer the stronger flavor of mutton to lamb, and of mature beef to barely-out-of-babyhood. This isn't a moral issue for me, simply one of preference.
    • H. G.  •  1 year 7 months ago
      No one ever saw "2001"? LoL
    • JOHNformerlyofLAS VEGAS  •  1 year 7 months ago
      The biggest problem I have with eating meat is the way it is massed produced without regard to cruelity perpeptuated on another living creature. To raise a creature in a cage, deprive it of light, movement, or any social contacts with its own species simply for our own pleasure an conveniance, to me is immoral and is not what any God or creator intended.
      It is an unnatural act and eating the growth hormones pumped into these animals can not be good for your body. No wonder there is such a high incidence of cancers and tumors in this country.
      Oh and when the goverments Food and Drug Administration approves its safety, you might want to do your own investigating. Those studies are paid for by the same corporations selling you the sheeeeet!!!!
    • ZOM  •  1 year 7 months ago
      I Love animals!! Their Delicious!!
    • Tim  •  1 year 7 months ago
      anyone ever eat just regular baby? quite scrumptious if you ask me
    • A Yahoo! User  •  1 year 7 months ago
      Mmmmmmeat is Yummmmmmy. :D
    • Ilysse  •  1 year 7 months ago
      Since you bring up God. God gave us the ability to use and create many types of tools. We are commanded to slaughter animals in a certain way and we have tools to do that with. I keep kosher and would never kill an animal in any other way. God also told us what animals are fit to eat. If we aren't made to eat them, then we would not have been given this list.

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