Meat: To Eat or Not to Eat

The vegetarian debate is one of the most controversial issues in environmental circles. Not only in environmental circles but in our society. There are plenty of pros and cons when it comes to animal meat consumption. The main three pros include: (1) it's hard to find an overweight vegan; (2) it's better on the environment to raise crops than animals; (3) farms breed animals just for consumption. In this video it talks about the reasons to become a vegetarian. Some images may be graphic.

 

It is easy to understand that if your diet lacks meat you are less prone to gaining weight. When factories process their meats, they add many preservatives that contain fattening ingredients. Also there have been studies that have led some scientist to believe that these preservatives contain chemicals which can lead to addiction to meat products. The factories that contain these animals give off bad chemicals that are not good for the environment. The book "Animal Factory" by David Kirby talks about how the shift from family farms to factory farms have led to the increase in environmental harm. Also, in Mason and Finelli's "Brave New World" it states that factories harm "...the atmosphere, polluted by fossil fuel use and methane gas, generated by the immense numbers of ruminant farmed animals, adding to global warming..." He uses this to show that the factories aren't to concerned about the damage done to the environment but are more concerned about maximizing their profits.The most important pro I mentioned was that raising and breeding animals SIMPLY for food consumption is species-ism. It is proven that animals feel pain and do suffer from mistreatment. The utilitarian view is that we as a society need to look beyond our own personal wants for tasty treats and begin to start treating animals just as we treat ourselves.

Even though, there are some pros for meat consumption. These include: (1) Organic foods are more expensive; (2) malnutrition can result from not having a balanced diet; (3) "the circle of life" allows organisms to live and eat off each other. Many families are not wealthy enough to buy organic foods. If a parent had to choose between spending more money on foods that don't contain meat products or feeding their child a bologna and cheese sandwich, I believe they would choose the latter. According to the food pyramid to the right, if you were to cut out meat products you will be loosing 25% of your daily nutritional diet. The major pro for eating meat is that it is part of "the circle of life." All animals eat one another in one way or the other. In the Lion King, Mufasa explains the circle of life.

Mufasa was explaining to Simba what many people have come to agree and live by, we all are part of a cycle that lives and eats off each other. This cycle is evident in all parts of the environment from the antelopes who eat the land, to the lion who eats the antelope, and finally to the land that is enriched by the lion's dead carcass.