扎克伯格的新挑战：只吃自己猎杀的食物

    用马克•扎克伯格自己的话说，如果他没有忙于穿越寰宇联络众人，那么他一定是在追寻全新的“个人挑战”。这位Facebook的创始人兼首席执行官最近透露：“我只吃自己宰杀的动物的肉。”

    对这位27岁的互联网亿万富豪来说，这种食谱的转变颇为古怪。但是自从他开始喜欢自己动手宰杀山羊、猪和鸡以来， 他就表示：“我现在会吃很多更健康的食物；同时还学习了很多有关可持续农业和动物养殖的知识。此前，我们现在每天都能吃到不错的食物，所以很容易认为我们吃到这些是理所当然的。”

    对这些话不用感到诧异，扎克伯格的新饮食目标是在Facebook上公之于众的。5月4日，扎克伯格在其私人页面上向其847位朋友发布了一条帖子：“我刚宰杀了一只猪和一头山羊。”

    这条帖子立即引来了无数人情绪激动的评论，有困惑，有好奇，还有表示非常的反感。扎克伯格随即贴出了自己的回应。他解释说，自己每年都会制订一个个人挑战计划（2009年，这个挑战是他每天都打领带），而今年这个挑战有关动物和肉类。

    引导扎克伯格踏上这条奇特之旅的向导是硅谷赫赫有名的大厨杰熙•库尔（Jesse Cool）。她住在帕洛阿图（Palo Alto），与扎克伯格相距仅有八栋房子之隔。在当地，她经营着一家名叫跳蚤街咖啡馆（Flea Street Café）的饭店。库尔将扎克伯格介绍给了附近的农户，在他第一次杀鸡、宰猪宰羊的时候，还为他提供建议。库尔指出：“他用刀割断羊的喉管，这是杀羊最普遍的手法。”

    当然，宰杀只是第一步。这之后，被宰杀的动物会被送到圣克鲁兹（Santa Cruz）的一个屠夫那儿大卸八块。接着，扎克伯格和他相处日久的女友普里西拉（Priscilla）会一起烹调他宰杀的动物，大吃许多人不敢享用的部分。最近，他吃了一只鸡，连鸡心和鸡肝也吃了，还用鸡爪做了鸡汤。在Facebook的个人主页上，他贴了一张这只鸡的照片，还有一份用这只鸡做的各式佳肴的菜单。

    只有扎克伯格本人才能解释这么做的真实意图。现在，正在欧洲参加Facebook会议的他给《财富》杂志（Fortune）发来一封电子邮件，详细阐述了他的想法：

    首先，让我告诉你们一些我正在做的事情的背景。最近这几年，我每年都会树立一项个人挑战计划——包括去了解世界，扩展自身兴趣并让我能更好地自律等等。此前，我几乎将所有时间都投入到创建Facebook中了，所以这些个人挑战就是那些差点因没有时间而错过的事。

    比如，去年我的个人挑战就是学习中文。我每天都拨出一个小时来学习，一直到现在。这是一段让人吃惊的经历。我一直觉得，学习新语言富有挑战性，所以我想接受这一挑战并要试图学习一门有难度的语言。不过，这段经历让我锐气大减。学语言时，你绝不可能像处理其他问题那样，只是“搞清楚”就行了——你必须不断练习。学习普通话还促使我到中国旅行了一次，了解其文化和历史，还碰到了很多有趣的人。

    今年，我的个人挑战是对我必须要吃的食物保有一种感恩的态度。我想，很多人已经忘了，要吃肉，就有动物要为之牺牲。所以我的目标是牢记这一点，并且心怀感恩。今年我基本上变成素食者了，因为我吃的仅有的肉只来自自己宰杀的动物。到目前为止，这种体验很不错。我现在吃很多更健康的食物。同时我还学习了很多有关可持续农业和动物养殖的知识。

    去年在家吃烤乳猪时，我开始思考这方面的问题。不少人告诉我，虽然他们爱吃猪肉，他们却不愿意去接受猪曾经是鲜活生物的这一事实。对我来说，这就显得没有责任感。人们吃什么我并不想干涉，不过我认为，他们应该对所吃的食物富有责任感并抱有感恩之心，而不是试图无视食物的来源。

    尽管扎克伯格的新食谱还没有像Facebook那样获得飞速传播，他却表示已经看到有些人对此做出了积极响应：“我正用多种方式探索各种领域，让我惊讶的是，我有那么多朋友开始对其中一些领域感兴趣。他们中很多都是素食者，有些人喜欢打猎，有些人甚至自己耕种。不过，在这方面，女友是我的主要伙伴，因为我们总在一起用餐。”

    扎克伯格的学习曲线是循序渐进型的：先是海产品，再到陆生动物。他第一次杀的是龙虾，是用开水烫死的。他说，那是一次艰难的杀戮，至少从情感上来说是这样。当他咬下一口时，一种全新的感受油然而生：“最有趣的一点就是，在好一阵没吃海鲜或肉后，吃龙虾的感觉是那么特别。”

    在龙虾之后，接下来落到他手上的动物是鸡。再下一个会是什么呢？他跟大家说，他对外出打猎开始感兴趣了。

    扎克伯格表示，这种全新的“自己杀，自己吃”（kill-what-you-eat）的食谱并未改变他习惯中外出用餐的计划和地点；区别在于他只是将自己局限于那些素食餐厅了。同时，这种食谱也产生了一个未曾预料的副作用：他发现，当邀请朋友到家里来时，朋友们不喜欢吃太多他做的菜肴。他把这种情况归结于朋友们担心他家里的食物是否够吃。“我猜他们是觉得我没有多少肉可吃，所以应该把这些食物留给我。不过，我喜欢分享。”说这话时，扎克伯格的腔调正像是一位真正的社交媒体巨头。

    译者：清远

    When he's not too busy connecting people across the universe, Mark Zuckerberg is pursuing a new "personal challenge," as he calls it. "The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself," says the Facebook founder and CEO.

    It's an odd dietary direction for the 27-year-old Internet billionaire, but since he has taken to killing goats, pigs and chickens, "I'm eating a lot healthier foods. And I've learned a lot about sustainable farming and raising of animals," he says. "It's easy to take the food we eat for granted when we can eat good things every day."

    Zuckerberg's new goal came to light, not surprisingly, on Facebook. On May 4, Zuckerberg posted a note to the 847 friends on his private page: "I just killed a pig and a goat."

    This drew a stream of emotional comments, which were a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and outright disgust. Zuckerberg posted his own comment in response, explaining that he fixates on a personal challenge each year (in 2009, he wore a tie every day), and this year's is about animals and meat.

    Zuckerberg's guide on this strange journey has been a well-known Silicon Valley chef named Jesse Cool. She lives in Palo Alto, eight houses away from Zuckerberg, and owns a local restaurant called Flea Street Café. Cool has introduced Zuckerberg to nearby farmers and advised him as he killed his first chicken, pig, and goat. "He cut the throat of the goat with a knife, which is the most kind way to do it," says Cool.

    Killing is just the kickoff. After that, the dead creatures go to a butcher in Santa Cruz, who cuts them into parts. Zuckerberg and his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla, have been cooking what he slaughters, eating what many people would not dare consume. He recently ate a chicken, including the heart and liver, and used the feet to make stock. He posted a photo of the bird on his Facebook page, along with a list of the dishes he made from it.

    Only Zuckerberg can explain what this is really about. Now in Europe for Facebook meetings, he sent Fortune an email detailing his thoughts:

    To start, let me give you some background on what I'm doing. Every year in recent memory, I've taken on a personal challenge -- something to learn about the world, expand my interests and teach myself greater discipline. I spend almost all of my time building Facebook, so these personal challenges are all things I wouldn't normally have the chance to do if I didn't take the time.

    Last year, for example, my personal challenge was to learn Chinese. I blocked out an hour every day to study and it has been an amazing experience so far. I've always found learning new languages challenging, so I wanted to jump in and try to learn a hard one. It has been a very humbling experience. With language, there's no way to just "figure it out" like you can with other problems -- you just need to practice and practice. The experience of learning Mandarin has also led me to travel to China, learn about its culture and history, and meet a lot of new interesting people.

    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. 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.

    I started thinking about this last year when I had a pig roast at my house. A bunch of people told me that even though they loved eating pork, they really didn't want to think about the fact that the pig used to be alive. That just seemed irresponsible to me. I don't have an issue with anything people choose to eat, but I do think they should take responsibility and be thankful for what they eat rather than trying to ignore where it came from.

    While Zuckerberg's new diet hasn't exactly gone viral in the way that, say, Facebook has, he says he's seen some people warming to it: "I was surprised by how many of my friends have interests in some of the areas I'm exploring in such diverse ways. Many are vegetarian, some enjoy hunting and some even farm. My girlfriend is my main partner in this, though, since we eat the most meals together."

    Zuckerberg's learning curve has been evolutionary: moving from sea creatures to land animals. His first kill was a lobster, which he boiled alive. He says it was a difficult kill, at least emotionally. He had an entirely new feeling once he took a bite: "The most interesting thing was how special it felt to eat it after having not eaten any seafood or meat in a while."

    After the lobster, the next animal to fall at his hands was a chicken. What's next on this journey? He's told people that he's interested in going hunting.

    Zuckerberg says the new kill-what-you-eat diet hasn't changed his frequent restaurant goings; he just limits himself to places where he can eat vegetarian. There has, however, been one unintended side effect: he notices that when he invites friends over to his house, they're loathe to eat too much of what he's making. He attributes that to them wondering if there's enough to go around. "I guess they feel like I don't have too much meat, so I should eat it myself," he says. "I prefer sharing though." Spoken like a true social media baron.