Long before AI breakthroughs were the center of headlines about Silicon Valley billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg was making news for something else, even far from technology.“Killing his own dinner’Sounds gross, right? In 2011, the then-27-year-old Facebook founder quietly took on a “personal challenge,” and it became one of his most talked-about details when he chose to eating only meat from animals he had personally slaughtered.
It all began with his Facebook post
The story broke after Zuckerberg posted an offhand update on his private Facebook page writing, “I just killed a pig and a goat”, which set off a wave of confused and disgusted reactions from his 847 friends.Later in an email exchange with the Fortune magazine, Zuckerberg laid down his surprising reasons as to why he had done it.Zuckerberg said that it was an exercise in gratitude and responsibility rather than a stunt.
Why he took on the challenge in the first place
Zuckerberg told Fortune he sets himself a new personal challenge every year, in 2009 it was wearing a tie daily, and the year before this one, learning Mandarin Chinese. For 2011, the goal was directed towards food. In his letter, he explained, “This year, my personal challenge is around being thankful for the food I have to eat. 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.”
Where did his idea originate from?
The origin story, as Zuckerberg told it in his email, traced back to a pig roast he’d hosted the previous year. Guests admitted they loved eating pork but didn’t want to think about the animal being alive. He wrote that this struck him as “irresponsible,” and that people should take responsibility for what they eat rather than ignore where it came from.
From boiling a lobster to butchering livestock
Zuckerberg’s first kill was a lobster, boiled alive, something he called emotionally difficult but oddly meaningful once he ate it, “The most interesting thing was how special it felt to eat it after having not eaten any seafood or meat in a while.”From there he moved to chickens, pigs, and goats, guided by Palo Alto chef Jesse Cool, who introduced him to local farmers. Describing his goat kill, Palo told Fortune that “he cut the throat of the goat with a knife, which is the most kind way to do it.” The animals were then sent to a butcher before returning to Zuckerberg’s kitchen.By August 2012, the diet had quietly ended; he mentioned casually on Facebook that he was grilling again, and with that he moved on to the next yearly goal that he does every year.
