If the publishers of the dictionary were looking for an example of the word “irony” to place next to the definition they probably couldn’t do better than the word “beef.”
To most Americans beef is a proud American icon, backbone of the American economy, a symbol of status, and deliverer of strength, virility, and quality nutrition. To people who want to recognize the truth, beef is an American calamity, backbreaker of the economy, symbol of environmental destruction and global hunger, and deliverer of illness and chronic disease.
How could Americans have strayed so far off course? The short answer is a complex web of psychological, physiological, sociological, economic, and political influences, forces, and barriers. The long answer would require volumes. A better question is, how do we penetrate the falsity so we can embrace the truth?
The short answer is, let’s begin right here.