Vegetarianism Revisited

*I'm working on making this post smaller. Concision!*

In June of 2006 I wrote a post relating why exactly I wanted to such a crazy thing as not eat meat (and why I decided to have a vegetarian barbecue.) However, I find it hard to talk about the things that are actually important to me, which is why I write about them. (My agnosticism is something I'm fairly obvious about, as it's not something I view as important.) I'm writing this one so my new friends can read about the issue, and because I don't think I explained myself properly last time.

Environmental
These are the most important factors for me, as my concern for the environment is greater than my concern for animals or my health. Livestock production adds to certain environmental problems. Many of these result from the fact that producing a certain amount of meat requires much more feed, so not only does production directly lead to problems, it indirectly means more grain must be grown.

The first problem is pollution. North American (edit for Isabel :P) agriculture relies heavily on chemicals and machinery, which require oil and produce pollution. For instance, eutrophication is a process by which fertilizers leak into a body of water, which causes algae to grow until too much has produced, at which point all life in the body dies. Second is soil erosion, where topsoil is eroded and the land loses fertility, which must be replaced using machinery and fertilizer, see above. Third is water use. Meat requires feed (which requires water) and water on its own, so that my biased sources claims that a pound of beef requires 30 times as much water as a pound of grain. Canada has the world's largest water reserves, so this is hardly a concern for this country, but it still causes problems locally, and the fact the we have water is not a reason to waste it. The final issue are resistances caused by overuse of pesticides and antibiotics. Antibiotics are added to the feed, leading to resistant strains of bacteria, while the extra produce grown to feed animals leads to extra pesticides, and recent pesticide-resistant pests are causing all sorts of trouble.

Ethics
In my previous post I stated that I didn't care about animals. That's not true, I care about them, just not when the benefit to humans is greater than the suffering of the animals. So for a while I occasionally felt bad about eating meat, but hey, meat is delicious! However there are no benefits to eating meat, which means there's only the needless suffering of animals world wide. And suffer they do, whether it's cows immobilized in stalls so that their meat tastes better or pigs wallowing in shit with hundreds of other pigs. (Well, technically they wallow in their shit all the time, not just in factory farms. Factory farms being predominant in North America, and being the most "efficient" (cheapest) form of production.") If you feel like making yourself ill, there are many sources on the internet.

I am slightly hypocritical in that I haven't given up on dairy, but I am trying to minimize the extent that I consume dairy, as there are just as many offenses associated with that industry as with the livestock industry.

Health
It is healthier to be vegetarian, despite the supposed trouble of getting all that protein. Here's a statement from the American Dietetic Association: "Vegetarian diets offer a number of nutritional benefits, including lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, as well as higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and phytochemicals." Notice that lower levels of animal protein is listed as a benefit. Most North Americans get about twice the protein that they need. On a similar note, as an adult milk loses all the benefit for your bones that you have as a child. There are better source of calcium, such as dark leafy vegetables (such as those used for -real- lettuce, not your watery iceberg crap.)

In any case, health isn't a huge factor as I eat fairly healthily, and to be healthy I would need to eat more and exercise.

The point of all this (this being my third attempt to explain vegetarianism) is to explain myself and hopefully make some of you give it some thought. I won't condemn you for your lifestyle choice, though, I'm not that sort of vegetarian. :P

Why I'm Planning to Become a Vegetarian

At my barbecue party pretty much everyone was wondering why I want to become vegetarian (when I get to Canada.) This post is in response to your wonderment. Before I get properly into this, let me say that I'm not a compassionate vegetarian. I don't really care about cows, pigs, or chicken, and I don't mind their being bred to be eaten. That last clause is why everyone (cough, Daniel) who claims that they're not responsible for animals dying is lying to themselves- their whole purpose in life is to die and be eaten. This fact also causes me some trouble because I would be unable to kill a cow, for instance, except perhaps in dire circumstances where I would have no choice. Not being in those circumstances, I feel hypocritical when I eat meat because I wouldn't have killed it myself.

That, however, is a minor dilemma that hasn't stopped me from eating meat for the past 16 or so years. The real reasons I plan to be vegetarian relate to health, current farming practices, and the environment. Vegetarians are healthier. It's a fact. And no, it's not because they're more health-conscious or active people than the norm, because they live longer than their equally health-conscious and active meat-eating counterparts. This has several causes, some of which are the fact that vegetarians eat less saturated fat, less protein, more fibre and more vitamins and minerals. The negative health effects of saturated fat (and the bad chlosterol found in meat) are fairly well-known. However research has shown that people do not need as much protein as was thought and that an excess of protein is harmful because the amino acids it is broken down into acidify the blood, causing calcium loss. Far from meat protein being necessary, it's harmful. So vegetarians win again. The benefits of fibre, vitamins, and minerals are also well known, and these are all present in larger quantities in a vegetarian diet. Essentially vegetarians are at less risk of heart disease, various cancers, and other problems.

So it's more healthy. But I'm not particularly concerned about my health (although I do eat fairly healthily.) More important to me is the environment. A pound of beef costs several pounds of grain to produce and requires several more gallons of water than a pound of grain. Growing this extra grain leads to problems like soil erosion, which will become a problem in the United States in future (if it already isn't- something I need to research) and is already a problem in many other countries. And the harm of more water being used is not really something that requires much explanation. This extra production also requires more oil to produce the pesticides and fertilizers as well as to transport the grain.

Finally, I don't want to eat meat that is grown the way it is today. The regulations in Austria (Europe in general) are stricter and conditions are better, so I don't have much trouble eating meat here or in Germany (I'll only be vegetarian for the months where I'm not with my parents because firstly I wouldn't want to force them to be vegetarian because I am and secondly because they live in Europe.) In North America, however, animals live in horrible conditions in industrial factory farms where they're stuffed full of hormones and antibiotics. Slaughterhouses are similarly brutal and nasty. That's not the sort of thing I want to support, so I won't.

Well, there you have it. I'll probably add statistics to my claims when I get home, and also rebutt some of your foolish arguments.

Woo, first real post in this blog!