Omnivores vs. Herbivores
Vegetarianism is a diet that excludes meat, poultry or fish and usually consists of vegetables, fruits, legumes and in some cases dairy products and eggs. There are five different types of vegetarians: Ovo-lacto-vegetarians who consume dairy products and eggs; ovo-vegetarians who do not consume dairy products and lacto-vegetarians who consume dairy products but exclude eggs. There also are the vegans who do not consume dairy products and eggs and fruitarians who only consume fruits. There are some people who call themselves vegetarians yet they eat fish and seafood once in a while, and some eat turkey on thanksgivings (Maurer 22). Over the past few decades vegetarian diets have become popular all around the world. Research studies were conducted by the Vegetarian Resource Group, a non-profit organization educating people about vegetarianism and its benefits. The results of these research studies showed that between 1994 and 2009 the percentage of vegetarians increased from 1% of the US population in 1994 to 3% of the US population in 2009 (Pribis 524).
People adopt vegetarian diets due to different reasons. A research study was conducted by Katie Ward in 2006 which examined reasons why people adopt vegetarian diets. It found that some participants had chosen a vegetarian diet because of its benefits on human health; some chose it for animal welfare i.e. to avoid killing animals and others chose it for environmental reasons believing that a vegetarian lifestyle protects the environment. It is a fact that the percentage of vegetarians is increasing; becoming a vegetarian would be a better choice for everyone because it is healthier, causes less harm to the environment and protects animals (Fox 424).
It is interesting that there are people who have actually started caring about the planet and the environment; what is even more surprising is that some people are trying to do something about it by adopting a vegetarian diet. According to a report by the United Nations, “eating meat is one of the most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” Overgrazing livestock hurts the environment. It harms rainforests, streams, native plants, causes soil erosion and compaction. Between 1996 and 2006, 80000 square kilometers of the Amazon rainforest were cleared to make pasture for livestock. Making one hamburger alone destroys 5 square meters of rainforest. This deforestation leads to the production of greenhouse gases. According to the FAO 18% of the greenhouse gases are produced by deforestation, animal farts and burps and manure decomposition. Later the World watch institute reported that producing livestock does not contribute to only 18% but 51% of the greenhouse gases. This amount is more than the amount produced by the transportation sector which contributes to only 13% (ProCon.org par.16).
Grazing farm animals has damaged 80% of the streams and 85% of the land in the western states of the US making these lands unsuitable for farming. In addition to destroying the environment, raising animals also causes air and water pollution. According to estimates by the USDA, livestock produces 500 million tons of manure per year which produces hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. Nitrates in ammonia pollute nearby waters and the hydrogen sulfide pollutes the air. The air is polluted not only from the hydrogen sulfide or the greenhouse gases, but also from the fossil fuel and oil used to produce meat. Producing one calorie of meat needs 40 calories of oil which is too much compared to the 2.2 calories of oil needed to produces one calorie of plant protein. Feeding livestock pollutes the water but it also uses a lot of water. 5000 gallons of water are needed to produce a kilogram of beef and about1350 to produce a kilogram of chicken. Adopting a vegetarian diet could conserve a lot of water; after all, only 360 gallons of water are needed to produce a kilogram of wheat (ProCon.org).
People eat the meat from animals, but what do animals eat? Animals usually eat grains and plants. About half of the world’s harvest of plants is fed to livestock, while 1/5th of the world’s population which is about 925 million people is undernourished. According to a research done in Cornell University, the grain used to feed US livestock could feed 800 million people worldwide. After all, producing about a kilogram of beef requires 10 kilograms of grains or plant protein; this 10 kg may feed 60 people while a kilogram of beef feeds only 3. (ProCon.org par.14, Rice par. 60).
In addition to eating grains, animals eat parts of their own bodies and manure full of hormones and antibiotics. Livestock are fed hormones and some other drugs to grow rapidly; this sickens the animals and causes bloating and liver diseases. These diseases and some of the poisons found in the drug could then pass on to people and cause health problems (Rice).
In addition to these diseases from the animals, there are many other health problems caused by meat. A study done in Harvard in 1994 proved that eating meat increases the risks of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes while a vegetarian diet full of grains and soy proteins controls glycaemia in diabetics. The same study also proved that consuming meat, especially processed, more than five times a week increases the chances of having colon cancer. Some other studies show that meat consumers are 40% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than vegetarians (Procon.org par. 12).
While meat increases the chances of having cancer, soy proteins which are in the vegetarian diet lower the chances of breast, prostate and colon cancer. Another fatal disease cause by meat is heart disease. Meat which has high levels of animal fat can form blood clots in arteries therefore increasing the chances of cardiovascular diseases. These animal fats can also cause obesity by filling up the adipose tissues (Higgins 1998). A study done in Oxford University showed that vegetarians have a body mass index of 8.3% less than meat eaters; therefore a vegetarian diet is healthier (ProCon.org par. 11). Kidney and gallstones are another problem caused by meat eating, because animal proteins contain some type of acid that excretes the major components of kidneys and gallstones. This all can lead to a lower mortality rate in vegetarians than meat eaters.
Some people say that meat is an important source of iron, fish is a source of omega 3 and proteins; what they probably don’t know is that they can get more of these proteins and some vitamins from vegetarian diets (Rice par. 77). The USDA and the American Dietetic association proved that people can get complete nutrition from a vegetarian diet. Omega-3 can be taken from walnut, green leafy vegetables and olive oils instead of fish. Even if people who eat animal products get more calcium into their body, an acid in the meat makes the body excrete the calcium with urine. Vegetarians can get their calcium from other products like soy milk or tofu which would not be excreted (Rice par. 77). Human health can also be affected indirectly by the use of antibiotics. 70% of the antibiotics sold in the US are to use on livestock in order to decrease diseases; therefore, people are indirectly consuming these antibiotics through eating meat. These antibiotics may decrease the diseases but their overuse develops resistant bacteria which affects human health (ProCon.org par. 21).
Meat and especially fish are usually contaminated. According to the USDA, in 1995 10 million animals were already dead due to diseases before taken to slaughter houses; these animals would be dirty and contaminated (Motavalli par. 21). Animals are usually raised in confinement and overcrowded place which would lead to the spread of diseases between them and passed on to humans. Meat is mostly contaminated in slaughter houses. In order to remove the hairs, the carcasses are put in a water tank to make it easier to detach the hair from the hide. This water tank is very large so it is not usually cleaned; it becomes full of dirt and bacteria from the animals (Robert 4). Fish are also contaminated because the sea is polluted; they get methyl mercury from industrial pollution and get diseases consequently passing them on to humans (Procon.org 24). Other diseases also caused by eating meat are bird flu, mad cow disease, swine flu, SARS and foot-and-mouth which can all be prevented just by adopting a vegetarian diet (Friedrich par. 4).
People don’t adopt vegetarianism only for its health benefits or conservation of the environment. Some people feel sorry for the poor and innocent animals that are being killed. They refrain from eating meat because they feel it is immoral and unethical to kill animals and nothing else. Animals are now crammed in windowless, small crammed spaces, where they don’t see light, they don’t get to feed their own children, or build nests; they don’t get to have life. They are taken directly from these spaces to slaughter houses. Food animals are not slaughtered humanely. Slaughter houses are required by the HMSA to stun animals unconscious before slaughtering to decrease their suffering but the HMSA is always ignored and animals keep suffering. Animals are also raised in confinement where the beaks and the toenails of the chicken are cut off so they wouldn’t hatch their own or others’ eggs (Procon.org par. 20). Some are raised in the factory-farm system where they would be exposed to toxic environments and develop lung, heart leg disorders, then they are electrified and finally slaughtered. Some videos show how pigs were crammed in small spaces that they started biting themselves until dripped with blood and then they were thrown in dumpsters still alive. Other videos show how some employees were cruel to the chicken. “They ripped the chickens’ heads off to write graffiti in their blood, plucked their feathers to ‘make it snow’, suffocated them by tying gloves to their heads, squeezed them like water balloons to spray feces on other birds, threw the chickens at the walls, stepped on them, twisted their necks.” Slaughtering them is different, but torturing them for fun is just immoral and irrational (Rice par. 53). Fish feel pain even when being fished out of the sea. According to scientific studies even a small injury causes pain to the fish, especially wild ones. They become stressed and actually remember that stress later on, if they are not killed. As for cows and sheep, they are transported many times throughout their lives before taken to slaughter. Humans may enjoy traveling but animals are tortured by it, they feel pain during the cruel transport experiences with shipping distances about 1600km (Rice par. 63 ) Eating meat is not worth the pain and suffering of millions or rather billions of animals. If there were no alternatives, it would’ve been acceptable, but there are alternatives.
In addition to all these reasons, humans biologically thinking should not be eating meat. The human body is made like an herbivore’s not a carnivore’s whether its intestines or teeth. Carnivores usually have short intestines suitable for digesting meat, while humans have long intestines made to digest plants. Carnivores have large and sharp teeth in order to break and chew the meat easily, while the human teeth is flat for chewing plants, vegetables and fibers, not animals(Procon.org par. 2).
Vegetarianism is a better option, but most people believe that eating meat is not wrong. Some say that it is not cruel because everyone is meant to die, sooner or later; dying is natural. The idea that animals are living beings and it is immoral to eat them is not important to meat consumers, and their answer is that plants are living being as well, they also feel pain and fear. They have many answers and arguments to the health reasons why people refrain from meat. Meat provides the essential proteins, irons, and vitamin B12 that cannot be taken from any other food. According to them abstaining from meat is not the reason vegetarians live longer, it is the healthy lifestyle they try to live by exercising and consuming less fat. There are some reports that show that producing soy proteins also can cause deforestation and emit greenhouse gases. Most of the reasons why people become vegetarian are considered myths to non-vegetarians. They believe that meat does not cause heart diseases, cancer or health problems; people have been eating meat for the past 2.3 million years but these diseases are not that old. According to a study done in 1994 in California seventh day Adventists, vegetarianism does prevent colon, prostate and breast cancer but it develops brain, skin, cervical and ovarian cancer. Another ‘myth’ is that human body is not made for meat consumption. Apparently, the stomach produces hydrochloric acid and many other enzymes which are not found in herbivores; and herbivores have multiple stomachs and long intestines which are not found in humans. Therefore, the body is made for meat consumption as well (Byrnes par. 5, 9, 10). According to meat consumers it is not the animal fat that causes cardiovascular diseases; it is the processed and hydrogenated vegetable oil which contains free radicals. One of the major arguments of vegetarians is liberty. They have the freedom to eat what they want and no one should forbid or stop them. They criticize vegetarians who don’t eat meat because of environmental reasons. Thinking about it, there are many vegetarians who drive SUVs, eat eggs and dairy products, some may even wear fur or other animal produce, while some meat eaters use solar panels, drive a bike and grow their own vegetables. Not eating meat may reduce environmental problems but there are a lot of things vegetarians do that cause them (Procon.org par. 22).
No one has the right to criticize the other; vegetarians and non-vegetarians both have rights to choose their own diets. Both have logical reasons and studies to support them. But being a vegetarian is still better. Yes, dying is a part of nature, but being tortured to death is not. Meat does provide essential proteins and vitamins, but what is the use if it also takes lives? Many things pollute the environment, but meat contributes to 80% of the pollution. So meat does have its benefits, a lot of them but the whole world becoming vegetarian would solve major issues or problems like poverty, different types of environmental issues and would make the world a better, cleaner, healthier and a more peaceful place to live.