It's trickier than I expected it to be.

I have no issue whatsoever being honest about where it comes from (we're buying 1/4 of a cow this week, and will be enjoying dear Bessie for a while, and hope to get half a lamb when we're running out of Bessie) and I agree that it's important for the DSs to grow up knowing where things come from, and respecting that. And understanding that some animals are kept to give us milk, and some are kept to give us meat, or to ride, or for all sorts of other reasons. And we look after them, and then use them, and we take good care of them before and after (including not wasting food, etc).

It's the personalisation of it that bothers me ...

That being said, I've got a friend whose parents are farmers, and every now and then she still opts out of the meat at dinner, if it's an animal she was particularly friendly with.

I guess it's all just part of life.