‘Necrovores’: Rethinking our language on meat eating and why it matters
A 'necrovore' is someone who eats packaged or refrigerated dead flesh, unlike a 'carnivore' who preys on animals and eats their raw flesh. Most humans don’t eat freshly killed animal flesh. They get their meat in stores and restaurants, usually weeks or months after the animal is killed. Calling meat eaters 'necrovores' exposes meat for what it is, it provides material for discussion, and perhaps shock people out of their complacency
PALA NAJANA: Many meat eaters take pride in labelling themselves as “carnivores.” But they aren’t. Even those people who follow a “carnivore diet” and try to live exclusively on meat (despite lack of scientific evidence and serious health concerns related to this diet) cannot truthfully be called carnivores. We should start referring to meat eaters as what they truly are: Humans who consume meat are necrovores.
Accordingly, the “carnivore diet” should more accurately be called “necrovore diet”… Based on the most accessible definitions,… a necrovore is someone who eats dead flesh (e.g., packaged or refrigerated) unlike a carnivore who preys on animals and eats their raw flesh. The term derives from Greek nekros, meaning “dead” and appears to have been coined by Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society…
Most humans — even hunters — don’t eat freshly killed animal flesh… The meat that people get in stores and restaurants may be weeks, months or even years old and is often bleached, chlorinated, dyed, injected with carbon monoxide gas or treated in some other way to cover up the decomposition process, which starts at the moment of death… These tricks can make even rotten meat look fresh. In fact, recent investigations have revealed that rotting meat has been “mixed in with fresh” and sold by unwitting supermarkets for years — potentially decades…
By calling meat eaters “necrovores”… it exposes meat as what it is. It can stir irritation, raise questions, provide material for discussion — and shock people out of their complacency… Even when they “know” it, many meat eaters don’t truly realize that they are consuming the secretions and dismembered body parts of dead animals. The meat industry does everything to keep the gruesome reality of slaughterhouses out of people’s minds. The term “necrovore” is a reminder to be honest with ourselves and see meat as what it really is: the murdered carcass of an innocent animal…
It also removes the false link to animals of prey. Some meat eaters like to compare themselves to predatory animals, such as lions. Humans have very little in common with lions. Lions need meat to survive. Humans don’t. In fact, population studies have shown that we are healthier without animal products. The term “necrovore” draws a clear distinction between humans, who can choose whether to consume dead animals or not, and real carnivores, who don’t have that choice…
Yet, none of the above is meant to imply that it would be better or healthier for humans to kill animals and consume them raw. In fact, eating raw meat brings a range of additional health risks. Also, it doesn’t remove any of the devastating impacts that meat consumption has on animals, humans, climate, and the environment. SOURCE…
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