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Eating the most ethically-raised meat on the planet made me vegetarian
How eating world-class Spanish jamón forced me to confront my own gastronomical ethics
“In Spain, everyone eats jamón. Even vegetarians.”
I thought about that a lot when I decided I wasn’t going to eat any more pigs.
“The pigs are vegan,” she continued, by way of explanation. “It’s really just acorns, no?”
These words were spoken by a woman who’d been plying us with high-end Cava since the early afternoon. She was in charge of sales for Cinco Jotas, legendary producers of jamón ibérico, and she was very good at her job.
My friend who works in gourmet food importing had invited me on a business-meets-pleasure trip to Spain. We toured olive oil groves and got wined and dined by some of the country’s most skilled food producers. It–and I cannot stress this enough–did not suck.
The Cinco Jotas pigs are arguably the most ethically-raised animals in the world, but eating them was the beginning of the end of my existence as an omnivore. I continued to eat meat for two years after my trip to Spain–and not just the ethically-raised, lived-a-good-life variety. I ate halal cart lamb-over-rice and bodega ham sandwiches and cheap pepperoni slices dripping…
