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Tag: beef

Masculinity and Meat: Re-Defining What Makes a “Real Man”

There is a prevailing myth in our culture, played out in our language and in marketing, that meat is masculine and plant foods are for wimps. Meat is a metaphor for strength, virility, and manliness, while vegetarianism/veganism is feminine, effeminate, and even emasculating. “Real Men Eat Meat” and “Tofu is Gay Meat” are just two examples of advertisements that perpetuate this myth and secure it in our consciousness. Studies show it’s working. Join me for a meaty episode that will shake you out of your vegetative state. If you don’t want to be a fruit, learn how you can be a beefcake.

Co-Existing with Carnivores: A Conversation with Project Coyote’s Camilla Fox

The TRUE carnivores of the world provide SO much benefit to our ecosystems, but they’re misunderstood, maligned, and systematically killed, mostly because of the HUMANS who pose as carnivores. Animal agriculture doesn’t only affect the billions of its direct victims, it also destroys the lives and habitats of millions of individual wild animals.  Today’s guest on Food for Thought has devoted her life to changing attitudes and policies about the most maligned members of our communities. Camilla Fox is the founder of Project Coyote, a national nonprofit of scientists, educators, ranchers and citizen leaders who work together to change laws and policies to protect native carnivores from abuse and mismanagement, advocating coexistence instead of killing. 

Co-Existing with Carnivores: A Conversation with Project Coyote's Camilla Fox. "Animal agriculture kills millions of wild animals as well as billions of domesticated animals." Click To Tweet

May we come to view coyotes, wolves, mountain lions and other misunderstood predators who are native to the United States with understanding, respect and appreciation — rather than with fear, ignorance, and brutality. Listen to learn how YOU can help! 

Animal Characteristics in Word Histories: Who They Are in What We Say

Whereas the word veal in English simply means “flesh of a calf” and pork in English means “flesh of a pig used as food,” hidden in many of the Anglo-Saxon/Old English and Proto-Indo-European words for the living animals are clues about the physical, behavioral, or vocal characteristics of the living animals, reflecting a tendency to name animals based on typical attributes or activities. 

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Old English Pigs and Old French Pork: The Linguistic Cleaving of Animals

Roughly 10,000 new words entered the English language during the Norman occupation and assimilation, particularly those having to do with the world of the ruling class.

The effects of the linguistic class division are most apparent in the culinary realm, where words used by the aristocracy have French origins and words used by the commoners have Germanic origins.

This is evident even today in the way we talk about certain animals, particularly those typically eaten by Westerners, with words rooted in Anglo-Saxon / Old English to indicate the living animals and words rooted in Old French to indicate the slaughtered animal as flesh for consumption.