Katie Holm
ESE 360
10/12/15
Paper 2
To Meat or Not to Meat: Trying to Answer the Question
I had the joy (horror?) of viewing the film Food, Inc. twice within the past three months. My inaugural viewing of the award-nominated film essentially changed my life. I know that sounds like an intense claim, but changing the way you eat is changing your life. “That’s it. No more. No more meat,” were the thoughts I had during and after seeing the film. How poorly the chickens and cows were raised and then also how this way of raising them led to disease among the animals, as well as then spreading to humans was horrifying (Food, Inc.). So, I have been a vegetarian since July 26, 2015 and I’m still going strong. For now. A lot of people might struggle with this issue of whether or not to become a vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, what have you. But it is definitely difficult to decide to just up and change your eating habits, a big part of your life, without fully knowing what you are getting yourself into. Which is basically what I did anyways. Only recently has it occurred to me that, like most things, articles, books, and films have a purpose. And Food Inc.’s purpose was to get us to change our eating habits! Well it worked for at least one person (guilty!). I am an animal lover and that was my main motive of going to the green side, so I let my emotions take control without completely understanding what I was doing. That got me thinking: Is it “right” or “wrong” to be an omnivore? Does being a vegetarian really have a positive impact on animals? Are there any real health benefits of being vegetarian?
When I told my friend Kate that I had decided to become a vegetarian we were out for food and drinks and the first words out of her mouth were, “Why?! I am legitimately angry that you are a vegetarian!” Now, she might have been angry because she had wanted to split the chicken lettuce wraps with me, but she was also annoyed that I had literally no logical reasoning behind my decision. Kate is getting her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Illinois in spring of 2016, so she had a lot to tell me about animals and her thoughts on eating meat. Her first point was about nutrition. Of course we need protein in a balanced and nutritious diet, and animal meat is a great way to include these “…highly bioavailable amino acids and minerals from meat proteins.” She pointed out that, “ruminants like sheep, cattle, and goats that are typically farmed for meat are most able to efficiently utilize and convert fibrous plant material into useable energy.” Our human omnivorous stomachs simply cannot break down and store the energy from foliage, etc. the way that livestock can. She went on to matter-of-factly say, “As a future member of the veterinary profession, I can attest to the fact that there are countless professionals that work day in and day out with animals that go into out meat supply to ensure their health and welfare (Kate White).” It is also comforting to learn from Dawn Aubrey, the Associate Director of Housing for Dining Services at the U of I, that she herself takes time out of her day to visit “meat processing facilities” and make sure that the animals are raised and killed in a humane way before purchasing the meat to feed to students on campus. She mentioned that there have been some facilities that have been rejected to buy meat from, and I can only imagine that those looked like the ones pictured in Food Inc. All she could (legally) say of those rejected plants is it is “…haunting after you leave.”
Although Kate was right, I did not have any rational basis for my decision, and she did make good points, I wanted to find out if I had made an impactful decision. So then I had to do my research. According to the Health Promotion website for Brown University, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), “…vegetarians are at a lower risk for developing heart disease; colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers; diabetes; obesity and; hypertension. This is because a healthy vegetarian diet is low in fat and high in fiber.” The emphasis here is on healthy. Cookies are vegetarian, but you should not live off of those alone. A healthy vegetarian chooses and eats a wide variety of foods, because there is always the chance of missing out on the vital nutrients contained in meat when you are not consuming it.
There are many reasons to be/become a vegetarian. For the health benefits listed above, religious beliefs, medial concerns, and in my case, ethical concerns about the animals and also about the environment. In an article from NPR that interviewed Alka Chanda of PETA, he says, “I don’t think so much about the numbers of animals who are spared as much as I think about the misery and suffering that I’m not contributing to as a result of my choices (npr.org).” This is what I initially thought as well, and it is a perfectly fine thought to have, whatever helps you sleep at night. But are animals actually being saved? I found multiple sources on the internet that say YES animals are being saved because our society as a whole, vegetarians and omnivores included, are choosing to consume less meat. The folks over at onegreenplanet.org have an article titled “A Vegetarian Saves More Than 404 Animals Each Year!” so I won’t go into detail on that article, I think you can get the gist of it. I mention though that only 34 of those 404 animals are land animals, the rest mostly fish and shellfish (onegreenplanet.org).
In conclusion, there is no real conclusion! The way I see it, it is up to you to make the choice to be a vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, or carnivore. There are positives and negatives in any life choice you will make, your choices in your diet being one of them.
Works Cited
Aubrey, Dawn. Personal Interview. 6 Oct. 2015.
“Being A Vegetarian.” Brown University Health Promotion. Brown University, n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
King, Barbra J. “Does Being Vegan Really Help Animals?” Cosmos and Culture: Commentary on Science and Society. NPR, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
White, Kate. Personal Interview. 7 Oct. 2015.
Zacharias, Nil. “A Vegetarian Saves More Than 404 Animals Each Year.” One Green Planet. One Green Planet, Feb. 7 2012. Web. 6 Oct. 2015