Just a Burger? ~ Everything you love is problematic

Burgers are a profound in every sense of the word. They bring people great emotion and cause intense debate. This could be over what burger people find best or because they bring feelings of nostalgia. It could be because of the environmental impact of the beef industry or the ethics of meat consumption. Every ingredient brings a vastly different set of flavors, sensations, feelings, and anthropological significance. I love them and they are problematic.

I can’t say that I weigh all of these implications everytime I sit down to eat a burger, but I do try to practice mindfulness and presence as much as I can. Just because I enjoy and choose to consume this particular food in no way passes judgement on anyone who chooses not to. By no means does my mental calculation of these complexities have any merit other than the conclusion I have arrived at for myself. Like most things, it’s just incredibly fascinating.

From purely a taste and textural perspective, the burger is a dish that can achieve great heights with simple preparation. That is, once you arrive at the ingredient level of the burger. You could get in to the immensely complex topics of our food system regarding bread, beef, and if you so choose, cheese production. Maillard reaction is incredible if you get down to the science of a burger. Such flavor complexity from such simple ingredients is amazing though.

I recognize there are massive problems with our food systems in the world. Meat, and especially beef production, is causing terrible results in the human environment. Is consuming beef ethical? Industrial farming certainly doesn’t feel ethical but the sheer amount of people in the world rely on it, food disparities and all. At what level of organism do we draw the line on what is okay to eat? I don’t pretend that my personal conclusions are the right answer but I do try to treat all the things I enjoy as a gift.

Can I just enjoy the damn burger? Turns out, yes I can. Is it possible that someday things might change for me, or for the world, that affects that ability? Seems more and more likely. A fascinating trait of ours to be able to love something despite its flaws.