One of the great things about the new media world is that when your kids start talking about “channels” they’re not talking about broadcast, cable or satellite TV.
No, they’re talking about YouTube, Vimeo and other sources of video entertainment.
One such channel is Alyse Parker, with 730,000 subscribers watching her advocate for many things, but especially Veganism.
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals.
So far, so standard. Except that something awful has happened to Alyse:
I Tried The CARNIVORE DIET For 30 Days (ex Vegan)
“I swallowed my pride and decided I’d give it a shot,” she continued. “Full-on carnivore. I woke up the next morning feeling more mentally clear, focused, wholesome, and healthy than I had felt in years.”
No? Really?
Making it even worse is the following information on her YouTube clip:
This video was sponsored by ButcherBox ~ a company focused on making sustainable, grass fed meat available to more people around the world.
Ahem! Alyse. Just thought you should know that I live in a nation where almost all the meat comes from grass-fed animals. Looking for New Zealand promos on your site soon, NZ Meat Board?
You’re welcome. Now admittedly Alyse has some other themes that she’s pushed which reveal a certain …. trait:
- Why I don’t shower
- How I stay confident with body hair
- The dreads are gone
But naturally it’s the meat one that has not gone down with her fans too well:
“If you had to kill every animal you ate in this video… We all know you would go back to vegan immediately.
Oh I wouldn’t bet on that! And especially now that Alyse has broken one barrier, the next one is teaching her how to use guns so she can get that meat. Double the fun of just eating meat.
An introduction to Brenna Spencer, University of Tennessee graduate, should suffice:
No Minister 
No Alyse, ignore him.
Do you really want to sruggle for an hour and a half, half lost most of that time, through fly and mosquito-laden swamp to get to that hill that only looked about 500 yards away when you started? Half lost because you can only see the hill (mountain) containing the hillside you are aiming for about 30% of the time – and it still looks 500 yards away.
When you finally get to the base of the hill, after fording a stream about the size and anger of the Colorado River, you discover that most of the ground is covered by rocks, most starting about the size of your boots (Those Boots!) and getting both bigger and looser as you ascend.
When you finally get to the ridge you’re aiming for (and wait, exhausted, about three hours and you see, in the distance (sometimes) a deer or goat or some such. I hope it’s deer, goats taste like shit.
It only looks about 300 yards away in the very, very clear (kept clean by those gale force winds you are experiencing) air and you risk a shot.
You see the animal go very quickly down the slope but you don’t know whether you injured it, killed it or just pissed it off.
Those three hundred yards take another two hours to cross so you can inspect the area the animal was for blood etc. Luckily, most likely there won’t be any but if there is you then must climb down the hill looking for the animal in case it’s dead (back-steaks) or hurt and needs killing.
Any of those scenarios mean you then have to camp the night (always, but always, in a freezing clearing in pouring rain and then repeat the walk in reverse the next day to get back to civilisation.
No Alyse, if you fancy guns and shooting join one of the local country boys on an evening bunny shoot but do your meat hunting in the appropriate aisle of your supermarket.
Alyse, choose something grown, slaughtered, cut and, if possible, dressed at a New Zealand Freezing Works.
Then all your friends will understand you are a real meat eater.
That scenario you describe sounds like one really great adventure!
Simply going to the supermarket in some over priced over sized 4dr ute that can get stuck in a flat paddock is boring by comparision.
Well I’ve had a few wet, cold nights in the bush so can sympathise, and I gave up that sort of hunting in my early 20’s not just because of work but also because such trips showed to me that my nature was not filled with hearty joy by the experiences – as it was other young men my age who thrived on it, loved it!
Another way I looked at it was that when the inevitable day came that the body was too worn out to keep doing it those guys would have a big hole in their lives, whereas I’d be sitting inside a warm house with a cold beer and a laptop feeling no loss.
Of course not even the guys I knew kept at it much into their 40’s. My Dad went on Fiordland Wapiti hunting trip when he was 55 and Mum thought he was nuts. But that was his last such trip.
snap