Ethics, not emotions (Vegetarianism)

Member Name: caro

Product:	Vegetarianism
Date:	09/04/01 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better for the environment, health and animals

Disadvantages: Others' attitudes, poor choice when eating out

I’ve been vegetarian for eleven years now, and have never considered going back to eating meat. Over a decade later, I still don’t miss meat. There is so much other delicious food available, so many vegetarian meals I haven’t even got round to trying. Beyond pasta bakes, nut roast and cheese salads, are any number of cuisines offering vegetarian dishes: Thai, Indian, Greek, Turkish, Chinese, Italian, Eritrean, the list is endless.

However, at eighteen, I made an ethical decision to become vegetarian. So far so good, but why not eat meat?

First, it isn’t because I didn’t enjoy it. I ate a lot of meat, and now find nothing more annoying than people who say that they couldn’t go vegetarian because they like meat too much. I used to love meat, including rare steaks and the other cliches supposed to make vegetarians faint. I ate good-quality, beautifully prepared meat; I ate junk meat in mass-produced pasties and sausages; and just about every sort in between. Nonetheless, I gave it up without much difficulty.

The other obvious reason for going vegetarian is cruelty to animals. The rearing and slaughter of animals involves truly horrendous treatment, which I don’t propose to go into here as it is well-documented in other opinions. However, I felt that I could not abdicate the moral responsibility to the government, farmers and food industry if I continued to be a consumer of their products with all that it entails (not only creating a market, but also a demand for cheaper meat products, more meat products, and so on).

Cute animals in the fields were no part of my decision! I’m actually the least animal-loving person in my (otherwise omnivorous) family: I don’t have pets, and don’t even particularly like the company of many animals. I grew up in a farming community, so the connection between the animals in local fields and the meat on my plate was always well-kn
own to me. This was always an ethical rather than emotional issue, although the cruelty so often (but not inevitably) involved in the meat industry does of course disturb me emotionally too.

Less obvious are the environmental issues. To put it simply, to provide us with a certain amount of energy – ie calories – in the form of meat takes about ten times the amount of grain that would be required if we ate the grain directly. (This is because most of the energy in the food is used by the cow to live rather than ‘stored’ as flesh). Raising cattle therefore does not only involve deforestation because it’s cheap to clear trees to provide grazing land. Producing beef also has to use much more land than raising vegetable crops. The double impact upon the environment is quite devastating.

Health? I can’t pretend that I personally have a particularly healthy diet. If chocolate and chips weren’t vegetarian, it might be a different story! However, I’m at least as healthy as when I ate meat.

When I became a vegetarian, BSE hadn’t happened. The overuse of antibiotics wasn’t well known. Foot and mouth was thought to be an historic problem. There was less awareness of salmonella being virtually endemic in chicken. Listeria and e-coli hadn’t entered the public consciousness to the extent they have now. Suffice it to say that none of these food scares has led me to regret my decision!!

Finally, is my diet unnatural? Actually, a lot less so than one involving lots of meat. Yes, humans have always eaten meat, but until recently this would make up a very small amount of our diet: rather less than 5% for our prehistoric forebears, with meat eaten as little as once a month. How does this justify the daily consumption of meat common in 21st century Britain?

So, do we have the right to eat meat? Actually, no, I don’t think we do. We don’t if
we wouldn’t be prepared to kill our own meat, and I know I wouldn’t – the least we should do is fully face up to where our food comes from. We certainly don’t if we won’t take responsibility for the environmental damage, the health damage and the cruelty involved. Farming of animals could be much better, safer and less cruel; but until it is, how can it be right to eat meat?

Having said that, I don’t harangue meat-eaters. I don’t force my arguments down their throats (as long as they don’t try to force meat down mine!). I can sit at the table with people eating meat and not say a word about their choice. I just wish that more people would stop and consider the issues, ignoring the stereotypes of lentils and hippies, and not making excuses before they even begin. Sure, not everyone would become vegetarian, but maybe more people would. Maybe more of those who don’t would pause before they buy their cheap, tempting, but factory-farmed meat.

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