QUIZ: How Much Do You Know About the Food You Eat? (+ free download!)
"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight."
–Albert Schweitzer
Test Your Knowledge of Food:
Let's start simple: Are fish animals?
Um...you're making me question myself. They are, aren't they?
No, they're actually plants. It's all a conspiracy.
Yes. Just because they live in water doesn't make them any less alive.
Do cows sleep?
I guess I've never actually seen them sleep, but I'm fairly confident that they do.
No. Only humans, dogs, and housecats do, and that's a fact.
Yes. Because they are living, mammalian creatures, sleep is necessary.
Can chickens poop?
I've definitely seen my fair share of bird poop, so I assume that chickens, being birds, also do that.
No way! (Unless you count "pooping" eggs, which I certainly wouldn't.)
Of course. It all comes out of their singular excretion hole, the cloaca, along with urine, other bodily fluids, and eggs.
Speaking of chickens, do you know what eggs actually are?
Is this a trick question? Aren't eggs just eggs?
A healthy part of my daily breakfast.
(Actually, Option Two, it's illegal for eggs to be marketed as healthy or nutritious, so that's impossible.) Anyway, avian eggs, like human eggs, are the excreted end product of a bird's menstrual cycle. The reason it's impossible for their eggs to eventually hatch into baby birds is because the eggs were never fertilized by a rooster.
Do you put your mother's breast milk in your cereal every morning?
I sure hope not. Almost nothing could sound more repulsive.
Of course I do. Doesn't everyone?
Definitely not, which is why I don't put anyone's mother's breast milk in my cereal.
By law, how are pigs "humanely" killed?
I guess I don't know the answer to that one.
They aren't technically killed, per se. (Don't worry, it's a common misconception.) Pigs actually want to die, so they all sacrifice themselves by jumping neck-first onto the first knife they see.
They are first "stunned," or rendered unconscious. The most common way to do this is by lowering them into a gas chamber, in which they suffocate on gas for 20 to 30 seconds until they pass out (or, at least, they're supposed to pass out). Then, they are raised by the leg and sliced/stabbed in the throat until most of the blood drains out. If they are still unfortunately alive at this point, which is not uncommon, they are finally drowned in a vat of scalding water used to remove their bristly hair. Because no one -- absolutely no one -- wants to eat hairy pig skin.
How much food are we currently producing?
More than we need.
As long as I have some, I don't really care.
We produce enough food to feed about 10 billion people, yet there are still hundreds of millions of people suffering and dying from starvation, which means that about 3-4 billion people's worth of food is simply thrown out every year.
What is gelatin?
Isn't it that stuff that makes Jell-O?
Don't know, don't care.
It's most of the "unusable" parts of animals (even including animals we don't regularly slaughter for food, like horses) that humans can't naturally consume: hooves, ligaments, muscles, bones, horns. All that yummy goodness is compounded into a powder and used to create a gummy consistency in foods, beauty products, some alcoholic drinks, and so much more.
What about collagen? And how is it made?
I like to use the powder in my morning protein shakes to keep my skin glowing.
*See Question #8
Collagen is a protein found exclusively in animals. As we age, we produce less, and to counteract the physical effects of aging on our skin, many people take collagen supplements. Most of these supplements are made from cow and calf collagen. However, ingesting collagen doesn't actually help you produce collagen (just like eating muscles doesn't give you muscles). In fact, simply eating vegetables has been found to help restore the body's natural collagen.
How long would it realistically take to raise just one cow -- in a natural environment, not a factory farm -- to slaughter for food? And how many resources -- food and water -- would the cow use in the process?
Maybe a year? Two years? And, like, a lot of food.
Screw that. I'll just go hunt them down in the wild.
At the very least, it would take a year for a cow to be full-grown, though most beef cattle are slaughtered around 18 months of age, when they're still young enough to measure their age in months instead of years. Cows can drink as much as 30 gallons of water per day and eat approximately 30 pounds of food, which itself requires water and copious amounts of land to grow.
What actually is in sausage?
Hell if I know.
Trade secret. That's confidential information.
Seriously, it could be basically anything. Mostly flesh from animals that were old or "downed" -- used-up dairy cows, egg-laying hens, basically any animal that has been alive a few years -- is used in cheap meats like sausage, hot dogs, and fast food. It could be rotting anuses or ears or lips; it's anybody's guess what's in each individual sausage. And that's creepy as all heck.
What is fetal bovine serum?
That sounds like something a mad scientist would concoct in a horror movie.
Sounds yummy, like syrup.
Since dairy cows are continuously impregnated, even while still lactating to feed their prior baby (y'know, if their babies weren't kidnapped so humans could drink the milk intended for them), it's not uncommon for pregnant mothers to be sent to slaughter. (All cows and bulls are slaughtered in the dairy industry.) After killing the mother, the fetus is removed and also killed; not even calves that are old enough to live outside the womb are allowed to survive the slaughterhouse. Before the slaughter, their blood is extracted and sold to scientific research companies (because what's the point of killing a mother and fetus if we can't make some money from it?).
What percentage of greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture?
It's probably higher than I think. 15 percent?
Global. Warming. Isn't. Real.
It depends on who you listen to. The government says it's between 14 and 18 percent (which is still more than all transportation combined at around 13 percent.) The science says it's 51 percent, or maybe even more. Regardless, there's far too much public focus on carpooling and biking to work instead of just having a veggie burger for lunch.
Why are you addicted to cheese?
(It's like you can read my mind! I've wondered that for years.) If I had to guess -- which it seems I do since I'm taking this quiz -- I'd say it's because I just eat it too often.
I'm not. I'm perfectly in control of the amount of cheese I eat. I just happen to enjoy putting it on everything, thank you very much.
Cows' milk is secreted for only one reason: to feed their babies. Just like humans. In milk, there is a substance called casomorphin that is mildly addictive and attaches to the same receptors in our brains -- and the brains of calves -- as heroin and morphine. This exists to encourage babies to continue coming back to their mothers to drink. However, in cheese, in addition to the excessive fat and salt that we're already addicted to, the casomorphins are concentrated through the coagulation process, making them even more potent.
How is honey made?
Bees go to flowers to pollinate and then somehow make honey out of it.... (I'm realizing now I know a lot less about this than I thought.)
Seriously? You're bringing up insects of all things? Who cares?
Honey is made for bees by bees, and it is their natural source of energy and nutrition. In order to make a pound of honey, bees visit two million flowers, which requires many lifetimes of hard, dedicated work. Additionally, the queen bee has her wings removed by beekeepers to ensure that she -- and the rest of the hive, taking all their profitable honey with them -- doesn't fly away.
Can roosters lay eggs?
Unless we've got a seahorse situation here, I'm pretty confident that they don't lay eggs.
What a stupid question. Of course not.
No, but because approximately half of baby chickens are male, the vast majority of baby boys are killed just after birth. They are generally slaughtered through vicious, "humane" methods: gas chamber, suffocation, and shredding alive. Each year, this amounts to about one billion lives cruelly taken at only one day old simply for the fact that they can't lay eggs.
Where does protein come from?
Animals and animal-based foods.
MEAT. ONLY MEAT!
All protein originates in plants. Animals get enough protein from eating plants or, for omnivores and carnivores, eating animals that eat plants.
How many wild marine animals are killed every year?
My initial thought is about 100 million, but because I tend to underestimate, my guess will be a billion.
There's no such thing as marine animals. As I said before, fish aren't animals.
About 2,700,000,000,000 (2.7 trillion) marine animals are killed per year. This number is so big that it's impossible to truly fathom. However, it's not actually targeted species that are the bulk of this number. For every one pound of fish intentionally killed (such as wild-caught tuna or salmon), there is an additional five pounds of other species killed (dolphins, whales, turtles, seabirds). This is known as bycatch, the hundreds of billions of animals unintentionally slaughtered by consumers supporting the fishing industry.
Would you enjoy working in a slaughterhouse?
Maybe if I was making six or seven figures to do it.
Of course. It's natural, and those workers, whoever they are, should hold their heads high knowing that they are doing essential jobs so the rest of us can eat.
No, and most slaughterhouse employees don't enjoy it either, which is why they have some of the highest rates of substance abuse, domestic violence, homicide, and suicide. I can't imagine having a job in which I had to kill innocent creatures, one after another, every single day.
How many gallons of water are used to produce one pound of beef?
Probably a lot.
This question is irrelevant. We have enough water.
Approximately 2,500 gallons, or 9,464 liters. For context, one pound of corn only requires about 100 gallons of water.
How much of the planet's land is used for animal agriculture?
Maybe like 10%...?
Which planet?
About 45% of all land on Earth is used just for livestock. (This doesn't even count ocean fisheries in which the second-most number of farmed animals are killed each year.)
Would you eat your companion animal?
No way!
I do eat them. It's how I assert my dominance.
No. Because there is no reason to eat my rescue dog, there is no morally justifiable reason to eat any other animals.
Analyzing your results
If you answered mostly Option 1:
You admit that you don't know much about the food you eat, including where it comes from and the processes used to create it, but you're willing to learn. And once you learn the truth, there's almost no way those kinds of "foods" seem palatable or morally justifiable anymore. I encourage you to continue learning more. (There are resources linked below to help get you started.) Good luck!
If you answered mostly Option 2:
You know nothing about the food you choose to eat, but you hide behind bravado and apathy to pretend like you do. Or maybe it's just to protect yourself from the realization that the way you eat is far more sinister than you ever realized. Either way, it's never too late to learn, and if and when you choose to eat more compassionately, us plant-eaters will accept you with open arms (and some great food to boot!).
If you answered mostly Option 3:
You know a great deal about the food you eat (or don't eat), giving me a run for my money. Because most of these facts aren't common knowledge or made easily accessible to the public, I have to assume that you've done quite a bit of research on the subject to learn about what goes on in the food system. Bravo!
be conscious, be kind, be vegan
Take the other quizzes:
"QUIZ: Are You an Herbivore or an Omnivore?"
"QUIZ: Are You an Animal Lover?"
Resources
Books
How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease
Documentaries
Podcasts
Magazines
Vegan Food & Living (UK-based but available in the US)