Zuckerberg goes on a diet: Only meat he eats is what he kills

• OneBuckeye

  

  http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18149799?nclick_check=1
  

  Every year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes on a personal challenge. Last year, it was to learn Chinese. This year, Zuckerberg has taken on a meatier task: Any animal he eats must die by his own hand.
  
  Palo Alto resident Zuckerberg has joined the growing ranks of people learning to slaughter their own meat, according to a Fortune blog post that Facebook confirmed Thursday.
  
  "This year, my personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat," Zuckerberg, 27, told the magazine. "I think many people forget that a living being has to die for you to eat meat, so my goal revolves around not letting myself forget that and being thankful for what I have. This year I've basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself. So far, this has been a good experience. I'm eating a lot healthier foods and I've learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals."
  
  Zuckerberg, according to Fortune, was baptized into the practice of slaughtering his own food, including lobsters, chickens and goats, by prominent Bay Area foodie and neighbor Jesse Ziff Cool, the owner of the Menlo Park restaurant Flea Street Cafe.
  
  "He cut the throat of the goat with a knife, which is the most kind way to do it," Cool told Fortune.
  
  According to several Bay Area butchers licensed by the state to "break" or cut up beef, pigs and other animals for customers, including one who thinks a Zuckerberg-slaughtered hog arrived at her business stuffed in the back of a luxury sedan, the kill-your-own-supper movement has become increasingly popular among Silicon Valley's high-tech crowd.
  
  Dave Peterson of Corralitos Market & Sausage Co. near Santa Cruz, one of only a few area butchers licensed by the state to cut up carcasses for individuals, said he's seeing more and more rich young entrepreneurs "coming in from over the hill" from Silicon Valley.
  
  "They all want to learn how to do it; they want to come in and watch us cut it up, because I think these days people who have the means to kill their own food want to see exactly what they're eating," he said.
  
  Zuckerberg told Fortune that he started thinking about slaughtering his own meat after he held a pig roast at his home last year and was troubled when others said they didn't want to think about the pig being alive. "That just seemed irresponsible to me,'' he said. As part of his new regimen, he said, he now only goes to restaurants where he can eat vegetarian.
  
  Karl Wada, sous chef and part-time butcher at Berkeley's Café Rouge, which has offered butchering classes in the past and plans to do so again, says the appeal for carnivores is the same as for vegetarians who frequent organic farmers markets to buy their produce.
  
  "I think people just want to fill in the gaps of what they didn't know about what's on their plate," Wada said. "It's not for everybody. It's kind of an elitist thing. "
  
  Sarah Lewis, whose family has owned Freedom Meat Lockers & Sausage Co. outside Watsonville for three generations, suspects it was Zuckerberg's hog that arrived at her business about a month ago.
  
  "We'd had a conference call about a month ago with these rich Silicon Valley types who'd never killed their own meat before and they were asking me a million and one questions,'' Lewis said. "It was like they were interviewing us, asking how things are processed here, and why should they pick us.''
  
  The following weekend, several young men showed up at the shop. One of them opened the trunk of his luxury car, and there was the byproduct of the conference call.
  
  After a call from this newspaper, Lewis said one of her butchers googled Zuckerberg's picture, and felt a shock of recognition. "He said he recognizes Zuckerberg as the guy who came in with the pig in back of the Lexus."
  
  Contact Mike Swift at 408-271-3648. Follow him at Twitter.com/swiftstories.
  
  
  
  

• BR1986FB

  Wut?
  
  "This year I've basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself."
• OneBuckeye

  

  That's what happens when you have too much money and live in San Fran. Ridiculous.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Eating goat?
• Commander of Awesome

  

  SMH.
• Sonofanump

  BR1986FB;782886 wrote:Wut?
  
  "This year I've basically become a vegetarian since the only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself."

  
  +2
• gerb131

  

  ^^^^^^ All that.
• Scarlet_Buckeye

  

  Disturbing and weird.
• derek bomar

  

  this is not what I would be doing with a billion dollars...
• justincredible

  

  The only reason I find this weird is because it's Zuckerberg.
• Mr. 300

  

  Guys a goof. A rich good mind you, but still a goof.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Mr. 300;783178 wrote:Guys a goof. A rich good mind you, but still a goof.

  
  A rich good indeed.
• friendfromlowry

  Maybe he'll starve to death.
• Bigred1995

  

  Wasn't Jeffrey Dahmer on this diet?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  What, to soon?
• Heretic

  

  Bigred1995;783277 wrote:Wasn't Jeffrey Dahmer on this diet?
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  What, to soon?

  
  Yes. About an hour and a half too soon, as I was going to make a cannibalism joke, but now the moment is ruined.
  
  
• BR1986FB

  Dahmer...smh. I'm sure I mentioned this before but his mom used to work at my company. Before my day but I heard she was a monstrous (in size) woman.
• like_that

  

  Props to him for trying to make himself a more rounded individual, even after making billions. I am more so referring to the learning Chinese.
• BR1986FB

  like_that;783396 wrote:Props to him for trying to make himself a more rounded individual, even after making billions. I am more so referring to the learning Chinese.

  
  Agreed. I've killed deer, rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, etc hunting but I don't think I could slit a goat's throat.
• Heretic

  

  BR1986FB;783397 wrote:Agreed. I've killed deer, rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, etc hunting but I don't think I could slit a goat's throat.

  
  Well yeah...and there's the problem that Ben Watson would likely get very pissed if you tried to slit his throat. And you don't want Ben Watson pissed at you.
• BR1986FB

  Heretic;783399 wrote:Well yeah...and there's the problem that Ben Watson would likely get very pissed if you tried to slit his throat. And you don't want Ben Watson pissed at you.

  
  Shit rolls down hill. If I messed with Watson then I'd have his bromancer, Mantooth, stalking outside my window (again).
• Heretic

  

  BR1986FB;783400 wrote:Shit rolls down hill. If I messed with Watson then I'd have his bromancer, Mantooth, stalking outside my window (again).

  
  After a while, you get used to that. The hardest part is ignoring the eyes on you through the bathroom window when you're pissing. Creepy.
• BR1986FB

  Heretic;783404 wrote:After a while, you get used to that. The hardest part is ignoring the eyes on you through the bathroom window when you're pissing. Creepy.

  
  At least he doesn't cheer you on while you're pissing.
• FatHobbit

  

  BR1986FB;783397 wrote:Agreed. I've killed deer, rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, etc hunting but I don't think I could slit a goat's throat.

  
  I think it's funny that they want to act like this is some kind of new fad. Every day people have been killing their own food for a long time. They didn't need a million dollars to do it.
• BR1986FB

  FatHobbit;783443 wrote:I think it's funny that they want to act like this is some kind of new fad. Every day people have been killing their own food for a long time. They didn't need a million dollars to do it.

  
  Who said it was a new fad? I just said I don't think I could slit a goat's throat.
• Little Danny

  

  I thought for sure when I clicked on this thread the answer was going to be penis.