the perils of living to eat

Have been quite affected by recent readings, as well as by talking to a friend and a relative who volunteer at the SPCA, and by undergoing an animal handling course for work just this week. For those who boldly claim that animal research is inhumane, do consider the methods by which patties find their way into our hamburgers:

"Formerly, a person could not easily have forgotten that pork and beef were the creation of an intricate, symbiotic partnership between animals and human beings. One was not likely to forget that pigs and cattle had died so that people might eat, for one saw them grazing in familiar pastures, and regularly visited the barnyards and butcher shops where they gave up their lives in the service of one's daily meal...
As time went on, fewer of those who ate meat could say that they had ever seen the living creature whose flesh they were chewing; fewer still could say that they had actually killed the animal themselves. In the packers' world, it was easy not to remember that eating an animal was a moral act inextricably bound to killing... Meat was a neatly wrapped package one bought at the market. Nature did not have much to do with it."
- William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, 1991

and more recently echoed by animal activists and even the chefs behind our sumptuous meat dishes, including Jamie Oliver (I'll put the quote up if I can find it).

Am considering going vegetarian for a couple of weeks, so I can better appreciate the sacrifice animals make for us (and reduce my carbon imprint!). This might also perhaps be due to the 5x yusheng and overloading on various sumptuous dishes this CNY - it's getting hard to enjoy food, or find something really, REALLY good anymore. There must be something wrong there, no?