You are what you eat.

You are what you eat. But you are also what the animal eats. When you eat an animal, you are consuming everything they ate, the environments they inhabited, the air they breathed, the water they drank, and the experiences they lived. As consumers, we have become so dissociated with the meat we find on our plates. Peruse any grocery store, and you will see rows and rows of clean, butchered, defeatherd, deskinned, and plastic-wrapped meat. We are completely disconnected with the lifecycle that came before the meat touched our forks. Yes, you are what you eat—but what you eat did not start out as a clean, untouched piece of beef. 

You must look at the lifeline of the animal. A cow in an industrial agriculture system grew up in a confined space with no sunlight, was fed grains that made it bloated and sick, was pumped with antibiotics, slept in its own waste, and then inhumanely went to slaughter. That is a life with no life—no sunlight, no grass, no river crossings, no rocky terrains, no open pastures, no miles traversed, and no fresh air. This is a life without any life—a life far from what nature intended. 

A life for a cow in a sustainable or regenerative agriculture system looks drastically different. From the moment the cow entered the world, it was allowed to grow slowly and at the pace of nature. Throughout its life, this cow explored acres of grassland, drank from lakes and rivers, interacted with other animals, crossed valleys, climbed mountain ranges, breathed fresh air, and rested in the sunlight. This cow interacts with the whole ecosystem that it inhabits. From the early morning sunlight, to the dew on the grass, to the microorganisms in the soil, to the fresh air of the open range: this is life supporting life. And this is the kind of food that I would choose to support my life. What kind of food do you want to support yours?