Healthy Hunting

             Looking back on this week a big theme was the idea of eating healthy, and why this may be easier said than done. Healthier food is generally viewed as not being as convenient or cheap as unhealthy food, which makes it harder or less desirable for low-income or working class families to seek them out and buy them. In the documentary In Defense of Food Michael Pollan states that in order to eat healthy, one must simply eat less meat in an otherwise normal diet. He suggests perhaps cutting down to eating meat once a week or using meat as more of a side to a meal rather than the main course. While hearing all these terms and concepts and theories as to how we as a society could eat better and more responsibly, I couldn’t help but think about this possible solution for low-income people in rural areas: hunting. While fishing, foraging, and farming are also potential solutions to our nation’s unhealthy food problem, hunting is what I am most familiar with. As opposed to obtaining meat from stores such as Wal-Mart or Safeway who obtain the majority of their meat from factory farms, harvesting meat from the wild is ethical, healthy, and natural, although not very easy or convenient. It’s tougher than going to the store for sure, but this makes the potential payoff of hunting all the more rewarding. This is also a very individualistic solution; mass, organized hunting would be no better than factory farming today.

   It must be stated though that I’m speaking about hunting from the perspective of a person who has spent his entire life growing up around people who take pride in hunting safely and responsibly, and who has from a young age been instilled with the same desire to hunt ethically. This means only shooting what I have a tag for, and shooting to ensure that where I hit the animal it’ll go down as quickly as possible. My knowledge of hunting is also fairly limited compared to some people. While I have been hunting since I was 10, my only real experience with hunting has been for deer, specifically Blacktail deer in southwest Washington. My dad and I have experimented in the past with bear, elk, and mule deer, but the vast majority of my experience is with Blacktails. I’ve also only ever hunted with modern firearm (ordinary hunting rifles) and never bows, which I’ll state why later on. The central point I’m getting at here is that hunting is not for everyone, and that’s understandable, especially if the individual lives nowhere near a hunting spot, but if a person is very serious about eating the healthiest meat, and has the time and work ethic to spare, hunting, along with fishing, farming, and foraging, is one of the best, if not the best way to get your meat fix, and I’ll state why by explaining how it’s the most ethical, healthy, and natural way to do so.

                First off, hunting is ethical, IF DONE RIGHT. Hunting is not ethical if the individuals doing the hunting are trigger-happy morons who have no problem with gut-shooting a deer so that it dies slowly. The same applies to poachers who take more animals than they have tags for. With the proper training and education and if surrounded by the right people, one can learn to hunt while also still having a respect for their natural surroundings and for the animals they hunt. The key to this is having respect for the animal, and that includes hunting only the animals that are worth taking. Animals that are too young or (in some instances) female are not to be taken unless absolutely necessary. If one researches the conduct of factory farm workers one will find out that the workers are encouraged to treat the animals as more of a machine than a living being, as our reading of the first chapter of Food (page 5) this last week can attest. In these crowded and inhumane environments animals like cows, pigs, and chickens are abused, tortured, and eventually put to death, so there meat can eventually become part of a McDonald’s cheeseburger or sold in the meat aisle in Costco. Of course one can always do their research to insure that their meat is coming from a legitimate farm, but as stated earlier this option may not apply to lower income families in rural areas who just want to buy whatever is cheapest. Unlike the meat from stores, meat that you harvest from the wild has grown up naturally, as opposed to spending life in a crowded factory farm. This makes the meat leaner, healthier, and devoid of any of the dreaded GMOs that people get so upset about despite eating them on a regularly basis if they are aesthetically pleasing. But it must again be stated that respect for the animal is key. You are taking the life of a living creature in order to feed yourself, so it only makes sense that you would want to make the death of the animal as quick and humane as possible. This may require a lot of practice with a hunting rifle. This is why I don’t bow hunt, as I believe that the chances of severely maiming the deer rather than killing it quickly are far greater than if hunting with a rifle. This is not to discredit all those highly skilled bow hunters out there who can take down a deer in one shot, but the margin of error while bow hunting is simply much greater than if hunting with modern firearms, and firearms are easier to use effectively in taking down your game. Our modern technological prowess has gifted hunters with the ability to kill deer relatively quickly and painlessly, if they are a good shot, so why not utilize that resource?

            Next on the list as to why hunting is good for eating healthy is the fact that it is healthy. The meat you get from the wild is simply far healthier than anything you’ll find in the store that doesn’t have a jacked up price. The process of hunting itself is also a very healthy activity for the individual, as it requires some physical activity (depending on the kind of hunting) and time out in the open air. Hunting is also a good way to spend time with family, as I know from personal experience. A common argument against hunting is that it doesn’t provide enough meat to sustain a family for long periods of time, and while this may be a truth, I do believe this to be a good thing in the context of my argument. Michael Pollan himself stated in In Defense of Food that in order for us to eat healthier, we can eat meat but just not too much of it. A single deer can feed a family of four who don’t eat meat on a regular basis for about half a year, and that length of time goes up if more than one deer is harvested. And this is only referring to a family who hunts for only one kind of game. This is good in this context as the family in question can seek other, healthier alternatives to meat.

            Hunting is also natural, especially when pairing it up against factory farming, in the sense that animals are hunted directly from their natural habitat. The meat is obtained in the wild, and not from the store. The amount of stress experienced in its natural habitat is much less than the stress it experiences while being processed in a factory farm. In addition to this, hunting helps to cull game from the environment that would otherwise go unchecked due to the lack of natural predators in the wild. This is especially true in southwest Washington where there is really nothing to get in the way of Blacktail deer overpopulating the area and overeating certain plant life. It is sometimes beneficial to cull game from the wild as well, especially older bucks who keep the younger ones from breeding, or older or sick animals. Population control is good for the environment especially, as it prevents the extinction of certain kinds of plant life in a given area with a large deer population. 

            In today’s world eating meat is a choice rather than a need. In America we don’t need it in abundance to survive anymore, but I as well as billions of others in this country still like to eat our meat. Hunting allows us to indulge our desire for meat, but moderately and responsibly, while also doing so in a way that supports the conservation of plant-life at risk of becoming scarce due to overeating caused by the unchecked growth of animal herds. Of course getting one’s meat this way is not for everyone and is certainly not convenient for people who live deep in the city, but for those who may have the option to hunt, I believe this to be a very valid and ethical means of getting meat. I believe that especially today, where we often do not know where our meat comes from or how the animal was treated prior to its slaughter, that a new appreciation and motivation for hunting your own meat should be fostered within those in this country who have the option to do so. 

Here are the links I've posted to two videos from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's YouTube channel that I believe act as a sort of introduction to the sort of responsibility that hunters must have for themselves while hunting in today's world, as well as links to two articles that briefly detail both the health and economic benefits of eating wild game:

Responsibility of Hunters Today: 
Honoring the Hunted

Hunting is Conservation
Health Benefits:
Livestrong.com - Benefits of Eating Wild Game
Field & Stream - Benefits of Eating Wild Game