I'm reading Fast Food Nation right now. It's a scary book. I'm mildly irritated by the partisan US politics that show up here and there in the book, but that seems to be kind of inevitable with most of the left-wing non-fiction I've been reading lately.

I've just gotten to the part of the book that covers the meat industry. Like many people, it's got me wanting to eat less meat; we had a vegetarian meal last night (well, nearly; we snuck some chicken stock into it), and I'm planning to have daal and rice some night in the near future as well, since night__watch has got me craving lentils and rice.

I don't have any illusions about my ability to go vegetarian, though. My parents tried, repeatedly, when my brother and I were kids. I can't convince myself to eat enough tofu/tempeh/wheatmeat/beans/etc to provide enough protein. I am, inevitably, going to continue to eat meat.

As a leftist socialist (as opposed to a leftist libertarian), my tendency is to want the government to intervene more strongly. Mandate testing of each and every cow for e. coli, BCE, etc. Put stronger safety regulations in, both for workers and for the product, etc.

There's a rant floating around about economic systems, but since I have no better alternative to offer, and may nto know what I'm talking about, I'll just leave it there.