Hipsters Who Hunt

[SpartanDem]

I think the evolution of the new lefty urban hunter goes something like this:

2006: Reads Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, about the ickyness of the industrial food complex. Starts shopping at a farmer’s market.
2008: Puts in own vegetable garden. Tries to go vegetarian but falls off the wagon.
2009: Decides to only eat “happy meat” that has been treated humanely.
2010: Gets a chicken coop and a flock of chickens.
2011: Dabbles in backyard butchery of chickens. Reads that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to only eat meat he killed himself for a year.
2012: Gets a hunting permit, thinking “how hard can it be? I already totally dominate Big Buck Hunter at the bar.”

Hunting is undeniably in vogue among the bearded, bicycle-riding, locavore set. The new trend might even be partly behind a recent 9 percent increase from 2006 to 2011 in the number of hunters in the United States after years of decline. Many of these new hunters are taking up the activity for ethical and environmental reasons.
“It feels more responsible and ecologically sound to eat an animal that was raised wild and natural in my local habitat than to eat a cow that was fattened up on grain or even hay, which is inevitably harvested with fuel-hungry machines,” writes Christie Aschwanden, a self-described “tree-hugging former vegetarian.”

It is high time. And all it takes is overturning two long-held beliefs among many urban liberals: that it is wrong to personally kill animals and that hunters are all rural conservatives

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/12/hunting_by_liberal_urban_locavores_is_a_trend_good_for_the_environment.html

I say this a good thing more people should be aware where their food comes from, instead of just picking something up a styrofoam container.

[NoOneMan]

1. Nice to see people turning in this direction

I've increased my own fishing by vast amounts these last few years (due to environmental factors, as well as enjoying it).

[Warpy]

2. Taking responsibility for killing, cleaning and butchering

all your own meat will undeniably cut down on the quantity of it a lot of people are eating, so that's a good thing.

Still, I don't see any superior morality in shooting an animal and then tracking it until it collapses from pain or blood loss versus stunning a captive animal into quick unconsciousness before killing it by bloodletting. I suppose that makes me a very poor hipster.

I see no problem with people hunting for subsistence, there's a lot of that going on here in NM. My complaint is that too many locals can't get licenses because of too many out of state applicants hunting for sport.

Or hipsterism.

[NoOneMan]

5. Maybe there's more to it than your idea of morality.

Last edited Fri Dec 7, 2012, 09:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe its about the energy it takes to make both animals. One lives within the bounds of its local environment, needing no external inputs, while a raised animal requires mass deforestation for grains and petro-based inputs to produce the food it needs. Is there a "morality" more valid than that concerned with our globe, which is facing a massive crisis? By most measures, hunted food produces far less of a carbon footprint.

I also find the very act of being in nature and connecting with the animals (even the ones I prey upon) helps me put the environment into perspective and want to protect it. People who get their magic super-market food are only inclined to protect the system that ensures that food will continually be there; a system that thrives on the decline of ecosystems.

I look my prey in the eyes and notice its beauty. When I find a truly incredible animal I let it go. In times of scarcity, I refrain from killing completely (being in tuned with the environment lets me know when scarcity exists).

It is sad that some people's morality precludes them from taking a life directly and learning lessons only nature can teach.

[Warpy]

13. I try not to eat the grain fed stuff

If I eat beef (rarely, usually burger in spaghetti sauce), I get the 100% grass fed stuff. A lot of the land out west is only really good for growing grass and that grass is good for growing animals like cattle and buffalo.

However, I do get what you're saying about getting to know what you're going to eat and being careful which ones you harvest from the wild, even if I don't share it.

Somehow, I don't see you leaving good meat to rot because all you wanted from an animal was its head on your den wall.

[SidDithers]

3. Nothing goes better with PBR than venison...nt

Sid

[Paladin]

4. Let Me Know When There Are More Hipster Hunters.....

....and maybe I'll drag out my guns and buy a licence for the first time in years. Hunting is still overburdened by far right-wing shitheads, the kind of people with whom I refuse to associate.

The irony here is that the assault rifle/pistol crowd does not care for hunting, by and large. Their firearms are designed for another purpose. As always, daily proof of this phenomenon is available in our very own DU Gun Control/RKBA group.....

[Berserker]

8. What are our firearms

designed for pray tell? We are hunters we are target shooters we are for self protection is that bad to you fellow Liberal?

[JaneyVee]

6. IF you must hunt, AT LEAST eat what you kill.

I eat zero red meat, but do eat poultry & seafood. I have caught my own seafood. I would never kill my own poultry.

[RebelOne]

11. I do not eat anything with hair, fur or feathers,

though I do eat seafood. I could never kill any warm blooded animal.

[Lightbulb_on]

14. First time I saw a head pulled off a chicken it amazed me...

It was delicious though...

[Barack_America]

7. They're missing a timepoint. 2007 Justin Vernon of Bon Iver writes "For Emma, Forever Ago"...

...while in isolation in a Wisconsin cabin.

[kentauros]

9. The biggest problem for hipsters

is that their homes are hunting them.



Guests found the chimney’s expression unsettling, though Roger insisted
upon its benevolence. This turned out to be his undoing.

[RebelOne]

10. If everyone had to clean the animals that they killed,

there would be a lot more vegetarians.

[KWorth]

12. I've hunted all my life.

I eat what I kill, I don't buy meat from the markets if I can possibly avoid it.
I like the thrill of the hunt and I enjoy eating what I bag.