Meatless Monday: A Chicken in Every Pot
I already shared some presidential knowledge from our friend, Tommy J., so today I figured we would fast-forward about 125 years and look at a campaign slogan often attributed to Herbert Hoover,
“A chicken in every pot. And a car in every garage, to boot.”
This slogan (whether officially used by the Hoover campaign or not) exemplifies the American ideal of democratizing the availability of meat, a symbol of status and prosperity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about equity and I quite agree, everyone–regardless of location or socioeconomic status–deserves access to healthful foods (on that note, let’s discuss food deserts at some point in the near future) but a chicken in every pot doesn’t mean chicken (or beef or pork) in every pot every day of the week.
In fact, the phrase was subjugated (as a fair many political slogans are) from its previous use by Henry IV of France,
“I want there to be no peasant in my realm so poor that he will not have a chicken in his pot every Sunday.”
A lot has changed since the turn of the fifteenth century and the rule of Henry IV, but how is it that in the evolutionary blink of an eye we have gone from viewing including meat in one meal a week as a lofty goal to feeling deprived if we forgo it for a single day?
At the risk of sounding like a hardcore militant vegetarian (I assure you that I’m not, this is fairly new territory for me and remember- mmm bacon) I find myself asking how meat was able to get top billing on our dinner (and lunch, and breakfast) plates in such a short time.
I just finished reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, and found that to be a helpful resource in starting to solve my quandary. For those of you not ready to invest time into this admittedly niche topic, I’d encourage you to read a recent NYTimes op ed piece that talks about the dangerous role of antiobiotics in meat industry intensification, The Spread of Superbugs.
Herbert Hoover was our president when the Stock Market Crash of 1929 occurred. We would do well to remember, whether in the stock market or the stockyards, unsustainable growth has serious consequences.
Meat, it seems, has always been a sort of status symbol in and of itself. You rarely hear someone boast about the exquisite yukon potato they ate, or a divine piece of celery. Now a juicy filet mignon or rack of lamb on the other hand, is frequently preceded by words such as unrivaled, sensational, and mind-blowing, to name a few. When exactly, did meat make the meal? Is it really that important to our health and wellness to have a major protein on our plate, or is the prestige of the meat simply a trump card in the world of food?