[jennofay]

the hens we kept were for eggs. they were "food" animals, not in the sense that we were making fried chicken out of them, but in the sense that they were providing us with food.

i have had contact with beef cows, dairy cows, chickens and turkeys intended for meat, etc. not at my own home, but at other various locations.

my point still remains, though... do we have to have physical contact with something to understand it? perhaps the fact that people are more health conscious, and vegetarianism isnt as mysterious...along with the introduction of more vegetarian convenience foods, people are sarting to take a look at what they eat. although people are not in as close contact with "food animals" as they might have once been, other factors in the environment (as mentioned above) have lead to peoples rethinking of their diet.

i have never met an elephant, but i know i dont want to eat one. and i know killing them isnt something i agree with.

i think that the question that was first put on the table was, as maggie clarified, what is the correlation between people moving away from physical contact with animals and their migration towards an animal-friendly diet. in order to answer this, one must look at all the factors that could cause such a revolution of vegetarianism... theres much more here to look at than you may think.