I just became a vegetarian. I had been considering vegetarianism for some time ever since my brother became a veggie last year. Over the past year, the case against meat has become more and more compelling in my eyes, and I just recently took the plunge. In a society so focused on meat, backed by a government that subsidizes meat, vegetarianism can at times be a struggle simply because the overwhelming prevalence of meat in our culture. However, I have found so many reasons not to eat meat, my decision to become an herbivore was fairly easy to make.
There are two major reasons for my vegetarianism: environmental and salubrious. Meat is astonishingly bad for the environment because of the resources and land needed to sustain it along with the greenhouse gasses produced throughout all aspects of its production and transportation. Take for instance the fact that producing eight ounces of beef requires 25,000 liters of water. Also, it takes far more fossil-fuel energy to produce and transport meat products than to deliver equivalent amounts of protein from plant sources. In the U.S., 56,000,000 acres of land produce hay for livestock. Only 4,000,000 acres support vegetables for human consumption. In Central America, 40% of all the rainforests have been cleared or burned down in the last 40 years, mostly for cattle pasture. These facts make a strong case against meat.
But, what really took it over the edge for me was my reaction to the film “Food Inc.,” which I strongly recommend. This film explored the modern meat industry and showed the horrible, unsanitary, hormone-riddled conditions of today’s mass production “farms.” Honestly, I don’t care that much about the inhumane treatment of these animals. It’s unsettling, but that prompts pity, not lifestyle change. What really sparked disgust were the unsanitary conditions of the pens and slaughter houses. Take cows, for instance. Cows in large factory farms spend their whole lives knee deep in their own feces, and they go to slaughter caked in manure. No matter how well these cows are washed, some of the manure inevitably winds up in the meat. Or what about chickens, who are pumped full of hormones so that they grow as fast and as large as possible, so fast and so large in fact that their bone structure cannot support their weight so they cannot take more than a few steps without collapsing. These images and explanations disgusted me, and coupled with my knowledge of the environmental impact prompted me to turn veggie.
But what about the arguments for meat? Ummmmm… it tastes good. That’s about it. It harms the environment. It is unhealthy. It is a leading cause of obesity, heart disease and e-coli. I’m a vegetarian and I’m proud of it.
