Gross? Yes, it is.

But that’s what eating meat entails. Whether or not the whole hog is in front of you at Fuel or if it’s a chop wrapped in cellophane in Safeway, the means by which the meat ended up before you is very likely “gross”. In Fuel, the pigs arrive already drained of blood, cleaned from dirt, hairs singed off. They don’t even have to do the grosser job of the actual slaughter.

Of course, humans didn’t always think of it as gross, back when humans actually lived with the everyday reality of food production. Given that food is substance that we incorporate in our bodies, I think it’s interesting how we’ve placed food production on the periphery. Before cities had consistent rails that led to the countryside, live animals were led to city markets and slaughtered, and people didn’t think of it as extraordinarily gruesome then (at least according to http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carolyn_steel_how_food_shapes_our_cities.html ). Once rails were invented, we shipped most of our food production away where we don’t have to think about them. And that’s why you get gross comments about Fuel–because Fuel brings out attention back to the realities of food production. Suddenly, we see the whole animal, instead of convenient slabs.

We have raised people who get grossed out by the idea of butchering but are happy to eat hotdogs. I’m a meat eater, and I eat meat while calculating the varying levels of “grossness” it took for that rack of lamb to arrive on my plate. I understand vegetarians who get grossed out by meat production. But people who eat meat but don’t accept the fact that meat-production means slaughtering and butchering? People who prefer to think of it as immaculate? That, I find odd.

In any case the place is folding, the original format is unsustainable.

Of course the anti Foie gras crowd will claim victory and the new restaurant can counter with FG laden Nachos or Poutine.

Are these people who don’t like meat, or people who just don’t like knowing where their food comes from?

As Ye Sow…….