To clarify, “vegetarian” here will refer to one who does not eat meat but does eat eggs, dairy or honey
Veganism is a topic for another day.
The benefits of a vegetarian diet are well established. It typically reduces that hot-button health topic obesity, as well as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and colorectal cancer.
Eating meat, especially processed meat, often does the opposite. In addition, vegetarian benefits continue to be discovered, such as the recent reveal that it lowers the chance of metabolic syndrome. Also, an informed vegetarian can easily get enough iron and protein in their diet.
Fast food burgers, frozen chicken nuggets and the toppings of a pizza are little more than junk. Compare the percentage of healthy meat to that of healthy fruits and veggies in a diet—which is higher?
On to the unquestionably disgusting meat processing industry. Have you ever been eating a hot dog and had someone ask, “You know how they make those?” and hurriedly yelled, “I don’t want to know!”
We’re angry about everything–whether that newscaster is a closet racist or how slow it’s taking for the food to get here, yet many of us simply don’t care to care what’s in our meat.
Ninety-nine percent of America’s meat is factory farmed, a truly horrendous process with a disgusting end product. Some cogs in that machine: pink slime, meat glue, large amounts of antibiotics and pesticides, animal feces. I’m getting hungry.
Now, to one of the most powerful yet polarizing points: animal cruelty. This isn’t about whether eating meat in general is moral or not. This is more about the absolute joke that is “humane slaughter.” This is beside the animals’ short, painful lives composed of cramped, feces-drenched living conditions and being pumped full of hormones, antibiotics and pesticides that grossly, unnaturally “blow them up.”
Have I said “you are what you eat” yet? Whether by throat-slitting or bolt-to-the-braining, it’s not odd for this to fail, leaving a paralyzed animal still alive far into processing. This largely accounts for “just” birds, but with birds being by far the biggest source of meat, that accounts for most meat.
Cramped conditions on all factory farms lead to the spread of disease. This is combated by antibiotics and pesticides (reportedly 70 percent of the pesticides used in the United States are used in agriculture). Those go into the meat (or the land), which then goes directly into the American consumer. Guess where many 24-hour flus come from?
Factory farming is a major part of environmental deterioration, deforestation and water use. The concentration of animals and chemicals is a major pollutant, a reduction of bio-diversity and an increase in animal extinction. It also involves a major emission of greenhouse gases, methane, nitrous oxide and the like.
This isn’t preaching. These are simply facts. Please, do savor that KFC in front of me. I’m not the one being hurt by it. Simply, we should be informed before taking that bite rather than shout “I don’t want to know!” or “I don’t care!” What we do with the information presented to us is our choice.
We care so much they put pickles on the burger when we explicitly asked them not to, yet we don’t care where the burger came from. We should be vegetarians, but at the very least, let’s be more aware
eaters.
Bravo
You are entitled to your opinion, however, you need scientific citations for the “facts” you present. In my opinion, you sound just as uneducated as the poor schlump that “doesn’t want to know” where his burger came from. Example: dairy and eggs are equally horrific as CAFO meat operations. Do you know your chickens & dairy cows?
I do not shop at a grocery store, I source my meat carefully, buying entire hogs & cattle at a time. There is no comparing this meat (texture, flavor, nutrients, effect on the planet, etc) with grocery store meat. Same with eggs and dairy (I keep 7 laying hens in my backyard).
A grain based diet kills more animals than you would think. Habitats are ruined by vast areas of monocultures.
Please familiarize yourself with Joel Salatin of Polyface farms, Robb Wolf and the Paleo diet, and the Weston A. Price foundation. This is a good starting place for an education to save Americans’ health and environment. Thank you for your time.
We didn’t include the sources due to space restrictions. Both Jax (the writer of the opposing side) and I have lists we can readily provide should anybody ask.
I’m also aware of the horrific nature of dairy and egg farms, which is why I generally avoid those as well (though even the alternative have issues, such as the deforestaton associated with soy and so forth). For the purposes of this discussion, where I am addressing an audience where the majority of people choose not to think of or pay mind to these things, I chose to ease into the opinion rather than take a stance that would immediately seem radical and off-putting to a number of people.
I am aware with some of the things you mention in your last paragraph, though I could definitely use a refresher on a few. I very much appreciate the informed response you gave, as it promotes discussion rather than simple disagreement.