I’ve seen the subject of food and spirituality crop up on many a blog, and I’ve also noticed the attitude that “all vegetarians are militant fuckers, kinda like evangelical Christians, forcing lettuce/Christianity down your unwilling throat in a bid to “save your heathen soul!””. Yeh. You won’t often hear from us quiet vegetarians, because we are too busy managing our own lives to start telling other people how to live. I’ve never made a big deal of my vegetarianism, although there are times it crops up.
I recently went to a great New Year’s Eve party where the host was serving up sausage and bacon sarnies.. he’d graciously been out and bought me some Quorn sausages and made me the best damn sausage ‘n’ bread combo I’ve had 
I admit, I’m seriously tempted by bacon.. but who isn’t? I’ve known bacon-eating Jews. Yeh bacon smells good. No, I don’t eat bacon. I said tempted, it is possible to RESIST temptation! o_O
Meanwhile, other blogging veggies I have read about would have been scrumpled in a corner bitching about the meaty smell or pompously lecturing partygoers on the evils of animal slavery. Or of course, they’d not have attended, as a protest.
Palehorse likes his meat.. and he gets it. I cook a mean blue steak and I once won an award for my faggots. I love to cook and bake, and I have no problem handling and cooking meat. Bacon brownies anyone? 
Of course, I’ve had the whole “bad veggie!” thing levelled at me because I am not super-anal about avoiding all contact with meat.
I do think there is an element of controlling in the whole food debate. A friend, a lifelong “animal-loving” vegetarian was harangued into eating meat during her pregnancy by a midwife who thought she was a “silly little girl” for being vegetarian. So many women think “midwife knows best!”, especially during a first pregnancy, and of course a lot of people are intimidated by the medical profession in general. This smacks of bullying and a desire to humiliate on the part of the midwife.
So, wither spirituality? My own personal opinion is that one should care what they put into their body, as much as they care what they feed their mind. I am all for making conscious choices, and for exploring them that bit further.. something that makes “popular opinion” exceedingly uncomfortable 
Eat meat, eat dairy, eat people if you so desire, but do a little research if you haven’t already. Do you want hormones, food fillers and chemicals in your body? Whatever your diet, there are always healthier choices available.
I do not see eating meat as evil or unspiritual. For millennia, native peoples have hunted, and used every part of the animal they captured. For this reason, I have no beef(pun intended) with leather, skins or furs as a by-product of meat-eating.. and as an angry Goth dominatrix I need all the leather I can get.
I draw issue with the treatment of animals in the food industry. In traditional farming, before it was all mechanized and intensive, animals were treated with respect and meat was a once or twice weekly menu item, with the left-overs being put to use over the next day or so. The animals had a natural life, ate real feed and reared their young. The demand for a daily fix of meat has meant that most livestock are now treated like the cheapest mass-produced consumables, and have no hint of a normal life experience. They eat their ground up brethren and have their young taken at birth. Life should never be cheapened. This is why I buy organic and free range meat and dairy products when cooking for others.. and is as ethical as I wax on the subject.
Would you mindlessly accept everything fed to you by the media? Do you hate who you are told to hate and welcome the new “safety” measures you are told to applaud? Do you revel in a kind of grim martyrdom over your lot in life? Do you treat all your belongings as disposable? Well, if you do then I doubt you read our blog anyway
What I chose to eat, or not eat, is my business. I do not force my choices onto others. I can happily co-exist with, and cook for a carnivore without compromising myself. I tread the middle ground in the veggie/carnie spat.
This blog has been about my stance. Whatever your preference is, if it is in tune with your spirituality ..if you have thought about it.. and it is right for you, then that is all that matters. I do not think that vegetarianism is a prerequisite for being included in the top ten internet spiritual guru list, nor do I think it makes one a better person/yogi/tolle-ite/lover.
I’d never raise a child as vegetarian, for the same reason I wouldn’t tattoo a 2 year old. I don’t own my kids; it isn’t my choice to make.
Others do raise their kids as veggies, for many reasons and that’s fine, they are doing what suits them as a family. There are many diverse ways one can choose to live or express themselves. There is no right answer, no “true path”, except to be aware. You are a tenth-level ninja who loves steak tartare? Great. You don’t eat anything that casts a shadow? Cool. Whatever works for you.. just accept that it may not work for everyone, and take your “chick tracts” to recycling Lead by example, but understand that your way isn’t the only way.
Conscious spirituality encompasses a knowledge and understanding of what you consume.. mindfood, bodyfood, material goods. It’s about respect. Know and understand what you eat, in the same way as you would think about the latest conspiracy theory or what religion is doing it for you this week. To be spiritually awake is to be in touch with yourself and aware of your actions, and to make positive choices.
Unthinking roboticism is a soporific drug, and sadly, often easier than waking up.
–Gehenna
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