Facebook執行長Mark Zuckerberg每年都會對自己許下一些挑戰目標，像是2009年全年都要繫領帶，2010年學中文，2011年的全新挑戰則是：只吃自己殺死的動物的肉。或許乍聽Mark Zuckerberg的新飲食挑戰，會讓你覺得很驚訝，不過他親自寫了一封Email回覆Fortune記者，看到這些初衷和理念之後，就能瞭解為何他會這樣做了。
Mark Zuckerberg並不是以暴力訴求為主，而是希望能夠感謝食物，並且改變更健康的飲食習慣，這個挑戰也已經展開，他在矽谷名廚兼鄰居的Jesse Cool協助之下，到鄰近的農場中學習如何自己「處理」雞、豬、羊等動物，之後還會和女友一起料理食材。若是外出用餐時，無法吃到自己親自動手的肉食，Mark Zuckerberg就會選擇素食，他的年度新挑戰也影響了身邊的親朋好友，許多人紛紛加入素食行列，並且更感謝食物。
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.
