I guess now that I have a blog, I feel like I need to post my views, for the record. Isn’t that what a blog is for? Or should I be instead telling you that I sat outside on the back porch in my dormitory-like 4 bedroom apartment clipping my fingernails and drinking coffee. Yet again, I am dredging up and editing an old post to a email list that I am on. I guess I am crazy enough to spend an hour crafting an email to a list, so I might as well also post it for the world to see, or really all 3 people who might read this blog.

So the topic I am dredging up now is why I have slowly become a vegetarian and strive for eating no animal products. Lots of people like to argue, for some strange reason, that humans are not meant to eat meat. That’s a pretty silly argument since we have canine teeth like tigers and wolves, and we have the digestive tract and ability to produce enzymes that allows us to derive a lot of nurishment from meat. So I have to say I am not opposed to the idea of eating meat, and I will never deny that meat or dairy products taste really good. But there are numerous bona fide reasons that humans should eat a lot less meat, like one or twice a month at maximum.

To start with, the levels of meat eaten in the rich countries are far from sustainable It takes a lot of feed to get cattle and pigs up to market weight. The iconic image of this idea is the vast amounts of rain forest that is cleared every year to make fields for beef cattle. If the whole world ate this much meat, we would have very, very little forest left. The fact is most of the world subsists on beans for protein, not meat.

Next, cattle yards, pig pens, and chicken sheds generate a shitload of pollution. If you have ever been anywhere even close to one of these places, your nose will tell you how bad it is. And its not just odor pollution. What comes out of these places kills the surrounding plants, rivers, lakes, etc. as it leeches thru the soil. The animals wade thru it continuously in conditions so bad they need to be constantly on anti-biotics.

Then there is the issue of humane treatment. People like to think of cute family farms, where all the animals have names, but the truth of the matter is that those places are brutal meat factories. They spend their lives packed into horrible places wallowing in their own excrement. The sight of it is absolutely disgusting.

Then there is the issue of workers rights. The meat industry has injury and death rates that are 5 times the national average. Meat factory workers are treated among the worst of any out there and paid very low wages.

And if you think that its ok to gorge on meat as long as its “free range” or “organic”, read this article and think again:

It’s Not Enough to Be a Vegetarian By Christina Waters

I am sure there are other reasons as well, here’s some more on related topics:

Chemical Farm, By John Feffer

Finger-Lickin’ Bad, By Suzi Parker

Fowl Play In the Slaughterhouse, By Stan Cox