Janaki Jambunathan
Active member
The story, as I know it, ends there — but I can’t imagine Tolstoy’s aunt ate Tolstoy’s chicken. She must have been rather exasperated, and Tolstoy was indeed a bit of a spiritual crackpot towards the end of his life. But the story of the chicken resonates with me. It demonstrates our denial when it comes to food. In our mind, there is a screen between the meat that we eat and the animals that are killed for that meat. We taste the flavour and enjoy the texture, but we behave as if the butchery never happened. We pretend that the chicken on the plate and the chicken on the chair are different creatures. But of course they are not. Tolstoy’s flapping, squawking chicken is Varma’s Chicken a la Kiev — and so, many years ago, I gave up meat.
The guilt and dissonance I still occasionally feel may soon be moot, though. Some fine scientists, much to be praised for their noble endeavours to better humankind, have recently found a way to grow meat in the laboratory, without a sentient creature being involved. Within a couple of decades, I predict, you will be able to eat a medium-rare steak that is, in every way, the same as any you would get today, except for the fact that no animal would be harmed in its
making. The organ it will come from would have been manufactured a la carte, and would never have been part of a living creature.
Interesting - What will happen to Hallal & Bismilla then!
https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjdwPPVpZ7KAhVFj44KHWCnBjUQFggfMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindubusinessline.com%2Fblink%2Ftalk%2Ftolstoys-chicken-and-the-expanding-circle%2Farticle8077778.ece&usg=AFQjCNFrs7R5R_Rib0RHqXez0dMoz8LzWg&sig2=fT6c1rnl0DxDdzuJJq4kgg
The guilt and dissonance I still occasionally feel may soon be moot, though. Some fine scientists, much to be praised for their noble endeavours to better humankind, have recently found a way to grow meat in the laboratory, without a sentient creature being involved. Within a couple of decades, I predict, you will be able to eat a medium-rare steak that is, in every way, the same as any you would get today, except for the fact that no animal would be harmed in its
making. The organ it will come from would have been manufactured a la carte, and would never have been part of a living creature.
Interesting - What will happen to Hallal & Bismilla then!
https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjdwPPVpZ7KAhVFj44KHWCnBjUQFggfMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehindubusinessline.com%2Fblink%2Ftalk%2Ftolstoys-chicken-and-the-expanding-circle%2Farticle8077778.ece&usg=AFQjCNFrs7R5R_Rib0RHqXez0dMoz8LzWg&sig2=fT6c1rnl0DxDdzuJJq4kgg
