Whole Foods' Meat Counter

If you take a look at Whole Foods Market's exhaustive website, you will see that they have a lot of "values," and some of these concern the meat that they sell.  They hold the corporate philosophy that every animal deserves to be treated with kindness and respect, even those being raised for slaughter, and the consumer deserves the freshest, healthiest and most natural meat available if they're willing to pay Whole Foods' premium prices. Don't believe everything you hear. It would be nice if you could believe everything you hear, but you just shouldn't.

In spite of the fact that my local Whole Foods Market sold me and my townspeople previously recalled ground beef last summer, I still salivate whenever I walk past their meat and seafood sections. They're just so pretty. Who would have thought dead and decomposing flesh could be so aesthetically appealing?

Last Sunday, while I was picking up my eggplant, tofu, et al., I got a glimpse at the fresh seafood. They had wild-caught Alaskan salmon. As much as I like regular ol' farm raised salmon, comparing it to the wild kind is like putting Little Debbie swiss rolls up against a gourmet buche de noel- it just isn't fair. Fourteen dollars a pound, and I'll bet that ruby red flesh was worth every dime. Then I saw the baby octopus for sale next to it. If you don't know, I have a bit of a kinship with the octopus- it's my favorite animal- and it just wasn't all that great seeing those little infant corpses with their tentacles sprawled out on the counter like that. I lost my appetite.

I also couldn't help but scratch my head over the $25/lb. veal chops. (Scallopine was $19.) I assume that one has to be crafty to produce cruelty-free veal... but I must say it had to be the most beautiful meat I'd ever seen.