“Hey G, how come you’re a vegetarian?”
Like a lot of vegetarians, I am being asked this question frequently. And more often than not this happens while the inquisitor gorges on a slab of prime rib. Being the good-natured person that I am, I generally do not bite into this particular subject matter too deep during dinner. At that stage I simply politely state that I consider the taste & smell of meat rather repulsive, and that I generally don’t care much for eating anything that offends my nose or upsets my stomach.
More often than not other questions soon follow:
- Where do you get your protein?
- You eat chicken, right?
- Can’t you just pick the meatballs out?
- What if a monkey made you a sandwich? Would you eat that?
(Answers to these questions further down the page.)
Please note that I have no beef with other people eating meat. Each to their own I say.
Of course the taste issue is an important part of my vegetarianism. But there are other reasons. So for you, my dear inquisitive folks, here’s a list of some of them.
Ethical Issues
- I seek to live in harmony with my environment. Killing is not part of that aim. Respect for other life on this planet is. Unprovoked I see no reason to kill other sentient beings for nutrition when perfectly good vegetarian alternatives are available. Things would be different if I had to depend on hunting for survival, like numerous peoples around the globe still do.
- The manner in which most animals are being farmed & harvested is simply appalling. Personally I would have fewer objections to eating venison or livestock able to roam freely, having lived a good life (that being rarely the case these days). The meat industry appears to have turned into a textbook example of a multi billion dollar system based on rapidly extracting resources and turning them into profit with little regard for the environment. In this game, anything goes to maximise profit.
- Respect for life & death when we do kill. Few people in developed nations have killed an animal themselves these days. Would things be different if people were to kill their dinner at least once in their lifetime. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Would you kill a cow? A goat perhaps? Okay, an easy one: just a chicken will do.
Health Issues
- From a nutritional point of view we don’t need to eat meat or fish to survive or live a healthy life style.
- Among vegetarians there seem to be fewer occurrences of diseases such as bowel & lung cancer, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis & arthritis.
- Eating vegetarian meals is by and large much safer than a diet that includes meat: I don’t have to worry much about E. coli, mad cow disease, worms and other parasites (to name a few).
- Not eating meat can help keep one’s weight under control.
- In intensive factory farming, the high density of animals increases the risk of livestock diseases. Therefore the animals are being administered vaccinations and large quantities of antibiotics. To maximise profits they may also be fed growth hormones. All these substances will eventually end up on your dinner plate. This could not only put your own health at risk, but that of the entire human population. Why? It has been suggested that such over-consumption may seriously undermine the effectiveness of antibiotics: bacteria are becoming immune to existing varieties, and it’s getting harder to come up with new antibiotics.
Environmental Issues
- Meat consumption has tremendous impact on the world’s resources, ranging from methane emissions, water consumption and clearing of forests for cattle and feed production.
- A few years back the Worldwatch Institute’s State Of The World suggested that if every person in China would eat as much fish as people do in developed nations, there would be no fish left in the oceans within a year.
Social Issues
- Meat consumption in developed nations isn’t particularly good for developing nations: it often results in stock feed monocropping (such as corn) to be used to fatten up livestock in developed nations. This frequently unsustainable way of farming, may damage fragile ecosystems that are unable to handle the pressure to produce high yield crops for prolonged periods. This often results in lasting and serious problems for these nations.
No Pity Pretty Please
- Don’t pity vegetarians for missing out. We’re not. Believe me—really.
- And please don’t prepare meat substitutes for us—there is no need for substitutes. Consider the following: I recently had dinner at a Thai restaurant; the owner kindly had her staff prepare a grain based vegetarian meal for me and went out of her way to ensure it tasted just like… chicken. Yuck!
Further Reading And Resources
Answers
- Mainly green leaf vegetables, legumes and nuts.
- Of course not—a chicken is not a vegetable!
- No thanks. That doesn’t do it for me. I’d rather go hungry.
- As long as the monkey washed his hands I’d gladly take a banana sandwich from him.
