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Bacon is delicious. I know it, you know it, even the pigs probably know it. Despite its tastiness, however, eating meat is bad for the environment and human health and causes billions of animals to suffer needlessly.
Albert Einstein once said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet,” and he was right. This is especially true today as mechanized industrial farming has become the norm for poultry and swine production, and cattle feedlots have increased drastically in size and number.
Livestock agriculture is the leading cause of soil and water pollution, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. This is due in part to over fertilization of food crops — there is simply too much excrement and not enough land to absorb it without causing massive runoff into the water table. Waste from processing facilities, like Tyson’s meatpacking plants, adds to the problem. A U.N. report also identified factory farms as the leading cause of anthropogenic (human-caused) greenhouse gas emissions, more so than all modes of transportation combined. Simply put, our environment was not meant to handle the massive amounts of waste produced by industrial livestock operations or the fossil fuel emissions required to ship meat from rural communities to cities.
Industrial livestock operations also pose a large risk to human health. Keeping large numbers of animals in confined buildings is a recipe for infectious diseases and forces farmers to administer subtherapeutic antibiotics to stave off infection. This means animals get medicine before they’re even sick, and it is one of the greatest contributors to antibiotic resistance. Lack of genetic diversity in factory farms makes the spread of disease that much easier — we raise the fattest, meatiest animals and that means only a small gene pool.
Jeremy Bentham, a founder of moral utilitarianism, put it succinctly when he said, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but, ‘Can they suffer?’” Pigs, chickens and cattle feel pain the same way we do. Their nervous systems make debeaking and tail docking, quite regular practices, as painful for them as it would be for us. More than 10 billion animals die every year to put meat on our tables, and they all suffer. Most pigs and chickens never see the light of day or feel fresh air on their faces. Rationality requires consistency — if you wouldn’t treat a pet this way, why is it permissible to torture and kill other animals? This is especially poignant for pigs, many of which are more intelligent and personable than the average dog. Is your ham sandwich really worth this suffering?
Lastly, choosing a plant-based diet over meat can help alleviate global famine pressures. Anyone who passed Biology 198 knows the “Rule of 10” — animal flesh only gives us 10 percent of the energy the animal consumed. Massive amounts of grain go to feed livestock when that grain could be feeding starving humans. Limited arable land means there is a direct trade-off between crops for animal feed and crops for human consumption.
A vegetarian diet is ideal, but not your only option. If you just can’t stand to give up your BLT, make an effort to buy meat from local farmers. Ask your grocery store if it buys locally, and if not, why not? Small farms that spurn industrial methods do exist, though they are quickly dwindling. The best way to transition away from industrial farming is to vote with your pocketbook: Create a demand, and the supply will follow.
I might not have answered all your questions, and, possibly, I raised even more. For further reading on the issue, I would highly recommend “The Meat You Eat,” a 2004 book by Ken Midkiff.
More and more people are becoming enlightened and choosing a meat-free or reduced-meat diet. Shouldn’t you take it upon yourself to find out why?
Beth Mendenhall is a senior in political science and philosophy. Send comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.
114 comments
and meat has at least one benefit:
If you are starved for food and meat is the only available option, then it has the benefit of quenching your hunger.
love,
Arrrrrrg
and meat has at least one benefit:
If you are starved for food and meat is the only available option, then it has the benefit of quenching your hunger.
love,
Arrrrrrg
Please explain to me where you keep seeing these "diseased, mistreated" cows in CAFOs. Those cattle are fed, checked and tended to daily. They live outside in the sunshine. If they are sick, they are treated just like you would treat a child. They are happy, and we know this because they gain weight. Ag people are mad about change or the possibility of change. If you haven't noticed, the industry has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Her article has obvious flaws and is definitely spun to get her point across, and that's fine. But don't say that what we think is ignorant. We believe what we are doing is in everyone and everything's best interest. We don't mistreat our animals, it's not in our best business interests. Just because you have a different opinion than we do does not make us wrong or you wrong, it makes us different. I don't know Beth Mendenhall, but I am sure that she is a fine person, one who I would love to speak with about this subject. The fact of the matter is that a large majority of Americans buy meat raised on family farms AND fed at CAFOs, because they produce a safe, healthy, nutritious product that has a minimal impact on the environment without infringing on human-based standards of animal care and use. In my mind, that's pretty amazing. Please support your local meat counter and your local farmer.
Perhaps, just perhaps, the way it's been done for decades is better than the anti-ag propagandists let on...just a thought.
Without agriculture, you wouldn't have wheat to produce bread, soybeans/canola seed to make oil on your dressings, fruits/vegetables on your table, leafy greens to eat in a salad or lentils and beans to compliment a healthy vegetarian diet. Vegetarianism in itself is not a bad choice, but to be a healthy vegetarian, you need all of these things, things that come from agriculture.
American farmers are trying to keep up with the demand for their products. In order to supply enough of these products for people who chose not to partake in agriculture, farmers and ranchers partake in the use of fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides. Fertilizer is NOT cheap, therefore, farmers cannot AFFORD to overuse it. All herbicides and pesticides we use are approved by the United States Department of Agriculture; have been approved by your very government as safe to use with little residue left behind for you to consume. Farmers practice many forms of conservation to preserve the very soil that provides their livelihood. Why would we wish to destroy the very thing that provides for our existence?
You cannot blame agriculture for all of the greenhouse gasses either. The average household produces 4 metric tons of greenhouse gasses per person per year (E.P.A..gov). This comes in the form of electricity, heating, waste, etc. Whilst I'm not denying that everyone has a share, you cannot point fingers and say that agriculture is the only problem. Yes, agriculture DOES ship meat into metropolitan areas. This is so that you can live your urban lifestyle without having to get your hands dirty or smell the excrement that comes from the produce you desire so much. By using the EPA website, I have effectively proven that you should not pick and chose which facts you share just to make your story look better. There are two sides. On to human health. I agree that there are many industrialized farms that take confining large quantities of animals to the very extreme, but to assume that ALL farmers/producers do this is insane! We depend on our animals. The longer they live comfortably and happily, the more they produce for us and the more we can pass on to you. An unhappy, unfed, unhealthy animal just will not produce what we need to make you happy. Besides the fact that as caretakers of these animals we genuinely CARE for them, it is just not efficient to treat them badly. It is bad for production and bad for business. Do you ever remember receiving a vaccine, modified live virus, or antibiotic to make you healthier? This was to ensure that you did not get sick and die from a disease! The same is true for animals. If you are totally against this thought, then maybe the program of “all natural beef” is something you should look into. They have never been given any antibiotics, vaccines, or treatment. If they are, they are taken out of the program. You will pay a little more, but your conscience will be clear. Visit Laurasleanbeef.com. You said in your article that we do some very inhumane things to animals in our care. These things included docking tails, which you called “shockingly common”. The reason the hog industry does things like dock tails is because hogs, as naturally carnivorous creatures, will bite off one anothers tails and sometimes bite it so continually, that infection gets into the spinal cord and reproductive tract rendering the animal paralyzed, sick, and in much greater pain. If you will visit a hog farm, you would see that most, if not all of the hogs DO get to see the light of day and carry on very normal lives, unless being treated in the sick bay. There is a reason to everything. We are not evil, torturing souls.
Please take this information and use it. I really feel it is unnecessary to attack an industry without first doing some in-depth research. There are two sides to every story. Thank you. If you have any questions, feel free to post here.
Kelsie Ptacek
Fertilizer: most farms use synthetic fertilizers nowadays that have gone through years of government scrutiny and testing to ensure they are not damaging to the environment. It's the organic farmers (hmm imagine that, another trend that vegetarians tend to cite as "healthy" alternatives) that over use cow poop to make their plants grow. Plus why would someone trying to argue in favor of going vegetarian even bring up fertilizer on crops? Do you not eat plants either? Fertilizer has nothing to do with eating meat.Cramped living conditions: Yes these exist. We've all seen the PETA videos taken from KFC feeder farms. But is that the standard? No it's the exception. But really it's all a mute point. We as humans have free will, and with that free will comes the choice to put whatever we choose to put in our own bodies. I have plenty of vegetarian friends and there is an understanding among us that it's a choice. They choose to not eat meat, I choose to. We do not try and persuade each other to switch to the other's choice of diet. They do not talk down to me because I choose to eat meat, and I do not call them commie-hippies for choosing not to. When we try and convince others that what we choose to do is better than what others choose to do, we end up looking smug and creating unnecessary anger.