6 billion people, meat on the table and grace before dinner (file under: the day I gave up chicken mcnuggets)

I am no vegetarian. I don't even want to be. Not like some people who think maybe it would be best if they became vegan or vegetarian, I just love meat. Especially pork and beef and chicken, along with fish (raw), lamb, especially in a curry, goat, simmered a long time in curry. If it's a chef specialty, I'll ocassionally have the duck.

But I want to be healthy.

And I want to have a healthier world.

Plus, I've come to believe that we are, on a planetary level, losing our respect for animals, turning them more and more into a product to be consumed, and in turn, damaging our souls.

Today, for instance, I read about the 27+ ingredients in a chicken mcnugget, which resembles nothing like a chicken. Soon after, I read about a 'promising' new method of agriculture that increases the amount of fish we can raise, harvest and thus consume. The method is called "aquaponics."

And throughout, it appears we've lost our understanding of nature and animals and life -- thus, our spirits, our right to have dominion over the creatures of the Earth.

I do not even try to convince myself that the world will give up meat. I probably won't. And, as your guide through this age of the Great Leveling, I can tell you that while America's shart of the overall pie may diminish, hundreds of millions at least will be lifted out of desperate poverty and hundreds of millions more, at least, will enter the middle class over the next few years.

The more that do, the more will consume animal products. Meaning, fish farms and industrial agriculture and genetically modified crops are unlikely to go away. For now, that is not my battle. For now, my battle is to restore my health and replenish my spirit. I can afford to purchase meat that is raised ethically, organically, sustainably. Maybe you can, too. I can and will give up eating 'meat' products that have essentially been whitewashed fully of their connection to the originating animal.

I will, before every meal I eat, give thanks and praise to God and remind myself of what I am eating, how it came to my plate and honoring its lift.