Reading Response to "An Open Letter from a Farmer to Angry Vegetarians"

For starters, I really enjoyed this piece. The perspective is one that I really respect, as the author is someone who comes from the same initial background as her critics. She changed her view of vegetarianism for very valid reasons that many who subscribe to that lifestyle misunderstand and demean. People denounced her actions as murder, for crying out loud. This shows a lack of basic comprehension and illustrates one flaw I've found with vegetarians and vegans (obviously a minority, though) who are very high and mighty about their perfectly self-aware and loving life decisions, and get a sense of superiority from their lifestyle. They view the author of this article as a betrayer, which is frankly silly as all hell.
I like the way the piece is structured, too. It sets up with an introduction to give background, and then what follows is essentially an open letter to those people who don't understand and look down upon her life decisions. She justifies her actions with facts that vegetarians don't always take into consideration; things like the fact that the clearing of land to grow the crops that feed them displace critters and destroy their natural habitats, killing off animals even though they're not eaten. People think without really thinking and diving into the possibility of eating meat sustainably and morally. The types of letters she received from people show that explicitly. She deconstructs the kinds of things angered vegetarians accuse her of and gives very striking counter-points that illustrate a sort of unconscious hypocrisy.
I personally like the idea of eating local meat only and the stressing of a personal connection to the production of one's food. I think it is a very noble, intelligent way to tackle eating in a society that has an industrialized approach to food that has distanced the majority of people from the reality of what eating is. If we had a sort of renaissance regarding food where it became community based all around the country, and eventually the globe, think of how much more tight-nit humanity could be. Hopefully our future is a bright one.