Is this a good thing?

The New York Times’ Dining section this week has a fascinating and disturbing story on a growing number of chefs who are developing “a new intimacy with the animals they cook.” Such chefs are trying to learn about - and educate their customers or audiences about - the lives and deaths of farmed animals.

A prime example is celebrity British chef Jamie Oliver, who recently slaughtered a chicken on air as part of a media campaign to show viewers the high cost - paid in animal suffering - of cheap, factory-farmed chickens.

Part of me thinks that anything that raises public awareness of these issues must be a good thing for the animals. Another part is saddened that people can speak, as Oliver does, of any form of slaughter as “a reasonably pleasant death.” And part just wants to shout that it’s all so unnecessary: Why do none of these chefs, nor anyone quoted in this article, even raise the point that people can lead perfectly healthy, fulfilled lives without eating animals at all?

Readers, do you think this sort of attention likely to have any good effects for the animals?

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