Defining meat

Lent began last Feb. 22, Ash Wednesday, and for observant Roman Catholics, it can be a complicated time of fasting and abstinence.

A simple summary: those aged 18 to 59 must fast on Ash Wednesday and every Friday, a fast defined as one full meal and two smaller meals—hey, that’s still three meals.

Those aged 14 to 65 must abstain on Ash Wednesday and every Friday and this is harder to define. St. Thomas Aquinas explains what’s forbidden in his “Summa Theologica”: “animals that take their rest on earth, and that breathe the air and their products.”

We know that’s mainly beef, pork, chicken, mutton, goat but can be extended to most terrestrial mammals … and birds. Using Aquinas’ definitions, fish, shrimps, crabs, lobsters, and shellfish can be eaten.

But there seem to be so many exceptions, with confusing classifications of animals. Puffins are birds but are exempted from Lenten abstinence supposedly because they’re seabirds, but I have not seen seagulls exempted.

Alligators were classified by the Church at one time as fish, even if they’re actually reptiles. Then there are beavers, capybaras, and muskrats, which are rodents, all allowed on Lenten Fridays.

Broth, soup meat gravies, sauces, and seasonings with meat are also permitted; what’s forbidden, remember, is flesh. One explanation is that Christ sacrificed his flesh for humanity.

There are even bishops who made an exception for eating corned beef for the Irish St. Patrick’s Day, even if it fell on a Friday.

In the Philippines, vegetarians like myself have a hard time trying to explain that we don’t eat meat—which can include mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. “Ah vegetarian,” waiters will say, “so, puedeng manok.”

“Karne” is the problem and that’s narrowly defined as beef. Aquinas did warn about the “concupiscences of the flesh,” read “lust,” that came from consuming meat, as in beef, pork, and all the other meats I mentioned earlier.

Note that several cultures celebrate Mardi Gras, a few days leading to “Fat Tuesday,” right before Ash Wednesday, with people going wild dancing in the streets and holding carnivals, the word related to carne or meat. (There are debates on the actual etymology, but the switch from feasting to somber fasting and abstinence does suggest an attempt toward penitence.)

Catholic priests often have to remind people that it’s the spirit of the law that needs to be observed, Lent being a time for simplicity and penance, some urging abstinence from expensive fish and seafood.

For environmentalists, especially those concerned with climate change, what to eat and what not to have become part and parcel of environmental activism. Producing “meat,” particularly beef and pork, means consuming resources like land, water, feeds, much more than producing plant-based food, so voluntary abstinence, within or outside Lent, becomes a part of maintaining planetary health.

Which takes us to an emerging new trend in food.

I was at a Pet Express outlet a few days ago and noticed several new products being promoted as “crunchy snacks.” All had, as its major ingredient, “insects,” with other food added like tuna, chicken, salmon, rabbit. I got one pack of “insects with tuna.”

The snacks were a hit with my dogs and I figured it was healthier than beef, pork, or even chicken, which have too much fat.

I had read about “alternative protein” products being offered for human consumption, including plant-based ones (mainly soy and pea), as well as cultured meat “grown” in laboratories from animal tissue but without slaughtering the animals themselves.

I haven’t seen insect-based products for humans here in the Philippines, but we do have a long history of eating insects, the technical term being “entomophagy.”

There’s the june bug, better known as salagubang. There’s the mole cricket or kuliglig. Bee larvae, too, carpenter ants, and, surprise surprise, termites. I tried an omelet made from carpenter ants many years ago working as a student volunteer in Mountain Province and had a severe allergic reaction!

To help save the Earth, shifting to insect protein could help. It doesn’t quite work though if your objective is to reduce the suffering of animals.

As for Catholics and Lenten Fridays, read my article again and go figure!

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