Many owners in the Outpost community, as well as in the general community, have given a great deal of thought to the issue of eating animal products, notably meat.  For people who care, it is a subject layered with many dimensions:  family tradition, spiritual beliefs, political/economic convictions, dietary needs, and consideration for the roles animals play in our lives.

The New York Times Magazine recently sponsored an essay contest entitled “Is It Ethical to Eat Meat?”  The contest garnered approximately 3,000 replies, and the winning essay, was, in my opinion, spectacularly thoughtful and beautiful.  A link to it: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/magazine/the-winner-of-our-contest-on-the-ethics-of-eating-meat.html

The upshot of the article is that yes, under certain very circumscribed conditions, it is entirely appropriate to eat meat.  I am not writing here to advocate for or against meat consumption, because I seem to be stuck, if not impaled, on the fence.

 I am in a state of continual upset at the conditions under which much American meat is produced.  There is a growing availability of ethically produced meat, yet we all know that it is expensive.  On top of that, my family only eats kosher meat, which means it must be slaughtered and produced under rabbinic supervision.  Finding ethically produced kosher meat is like finding a needle in a haystack, but it is out there.  Thus, meat is basically a rare event for us.

Outpost recently sponsored a showing of the film, “Bag It”, a documentary on the overwhelming dangers of plastics to the environment and to our health.  If you’re up for a stimulating and depressing film, this is it.  Once again, it brings home the fact, that each of us must always make conscientious decisions about what we consume and how we get rid of whatever waste our lifestyles leave behind.  The one thing I remember from high school physics is that matter is neither created nor destroyed.

All of the owners of Outpost can be proud that the staff, the owners and the Board, have created a community which takes these issues seriously.  As a Board member, I’d be most interested in your reaction to either the essay linked above, or “Bag It”.

All my best – Nancy Ettenheim