the Roam

Daily I expend 4-10k of calories depending on distance and hilliness. Today was a light day as I only went 23 miles over largely flat terrain. I ate like a fast food king though. The trip constantly pounds “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” into my head, so I take my calories where I can find them without waiting for something better. Luckily, today I came upon a Hardees.

Hardees has, since their reboot into thickburgerdom made the most decent of the large chain fast food burgers. Before people comment and say that Hardees can’t compare to Shake Shack or In n Out let me clarify that I do not consider either of those small regional chains to be a large fast food burger chain.

On the road the most readily available burgers come from McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys and Hardees. All but Hardees are horribly bland, disgustingly textured and a waste of beef that should have gone to serve a more delicious purpose.

The Hardees burger is juicy with melted fat and has a satisfying smooth texture. There could be more flavor. Salt seems to be the dominant seasoning, but it is better than the complete blandness one gets with other fast food fare.

I still feel bad eating it. Though its decent taste lets me enjoy the burger and harken to all my burger making memories and wonderful burger-centric experiences in my life I’ve shared with friends and loved ones, it is still not the meat I would choose to eat if I had the option.

Now I don’t have the option and neither do most. In New York I could go to Whole Foods and get beef, or lamb my preferred burger meat, and I could see how far and what farm it had come from.

Hell in Brooklyn if you really want to know where your meat comes from you can go to a halal or kosher live market. There are many within walking distance of my apartment. There you watch or participate as your chicken, goat, lamb, w/e you have ordered is killed. John Hodgman has spoken about this on his podcast Judge John Hodgman and expressed his opinion that this is something a meat eater should participate in at some point in their life, and I agree. Facing the animal that is going to provide you with its flesh while it is still an animal and not a neatly packaged product on a shelf I can only imagine forces us to rid ourselves of any rationalizations or willful ignorances that enable us to eat meat without being bothered by the implications of its production.

Someday I’ll have to force myself to participate in a slaughter to earn my right to eat meat and I don’t look forward to it, but it seems like a necessary step if I wish to continue to consume what I love.

In most of the world and in most of America though these options for more humane and local food production are not as common. Unless you are friends with a farmer who might sell you a side of beef from their own personal supply you are probably buying meat at a Walmart or Aldi’s, somewhere where the meat was produced as efficiently as possible but not as ethically or environmentally.

Efficiency must be the ruling factor though with an ever increasing population. Its the unfortunate truth we must face to stave of starvation and malnourishment. I know many people say we will soon turn more towards bugs as a source of protein, but selling that to the western world will be difficult. I have had crickets on tacos though and that was great.

We make so many moral compromises to live in the leisurely way that anyone reading this lives. Not only our food taints us. The harvesting of resources for the materials in our cars, batteries, homes, the treatment of cheap labor in developing and opportunistic countries, the violence used to control the earths resources, these all compromise us. They are our modern original sins anyone born into the developed world takes on without realization and continues into adulthood with a willful ignorance. The very least we can do is try to learn all we can about the consequences our decadence forces upon others and the earth. Maybe then we can start to atone. I can’t see anyone of us giving it all up though. We can only try to be better creative problem solvers and push to find some sustainable solutions to make the demands of our lifestyle, our morality, and the resources of the Earth meet.

I’ll continue to eat burgers of questionable origin though because it is a source of many calories and protein, two things I need a lot of on this journey and I can’t pass up the opportunity.

Day 32 – Rest day … and yes I did eat a box of bagel bites. I am properly ashamed.

Day 33