On Vegetarianism
Transcript of a speech I gave in high school on vegetarianism.
What do Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Bugs Bunny have in common? It is neither their widespread fame nor their ability to look at any problem in a creative way… it is rather their choice to become a vegetarian!
It’s amazing how we take care of the environment, buy hybrid cars to reduce air pollution, keep the faucet off while brushing, but continue to eat meat. We worry about our health, workout in the gym, demand for nutrition labels even on our water bottles, but continue to eat meat. Not just that, we love our cute, intelligent animals, hire human “tasters” to test our dog food, protest animal cruelty, but continue to eat meat.
If we truly want to save our environment, our health, and our animals, we have to start thinking about one thing … it’s all about what’s for dinner?
The livestock sector is one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. According to a 2006 UN’s Livestock report, the livestock business worldwide generates more greenhouse gases than all other forms of transportation combined (Steinfeld et al xxi). Raising one beef cow or steer produces 10,000 pounds of C02 in its lifetime, mostly released during the production of the cow’s feed (Begley). To put this in perspective, a couple of pounds of sizzling steak produce as much greenhouse gas as driving for 3 hours and leaving all the lights back home turned on (Begley). We may like the aroma of meat, but the atmosphere doesn’t, and it’s not just because of carbon dioxide. Cows release gigantic amounts of harmful methane from both ends of their digestive system… eww. The livestock sector accounts for more than 1/3rd of man-made methane emissions in the world, a gas with 23 times the global warming potential than carbon dioxide (Steinfeld et al xxi).
But Ronald McDonald doesn’t stop at the ozone. Producing one pound of beef requires 2200 gallons of water – with most of the water being used to grow the cow feed (Robbins 367). This means that eating a one-pound uses as much water as an average family of four taking a month of showers… or just my sister taking a month of showers (“50 Water Facts and Conservation Tips”). And that’s just for one pound – in United States we consume meat at the colossal rate of 268 pounds of meat every year for every American – or around 12 ounces of meat a person every single day (Bureau of Census). Furthermore, almost a third of our Earth’s land is needed for livestock grazing and to grow the colossal amounts of grain that our livestock require (Steinfeld et al xxi). To produce just 1 lb of beef requires 28 lbs of corn, grain, and hay (“The Future of Food” 95; Wulf). 15 million children or around 11 a second die from hunger every year and around 800 million people are malnourished our corn and grain continues to be eaten up by our livestock. These children want to know, What’s For Dinner?
Meat not only clogs our environment, it also clogs our hearts. Cardiovascular disease, or heart disease, is the number one killer of Americans taking around 871,000 lives in 2004 or almost 100 lives every hour (American Heart Association 4).
One of the largest causes of our broken hearts is our consumption of meat as it creates high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels. The saturated fat from meat doubles the risk of death from heart disease for non-vegetarians compared to vegetarians (Robbins 19). One study of diet and blood pressure published by the American Dietetic Association and the Dieticians of Canada shows that 42% of the meat eaters had high blood pressure, compared to only 13% of vegetarians (757).
Furthermore, Dr. William Castelli, the former director of the Framingham Heart Study, a heart disease study running for over 50 years, says that “vegetarians have the best diet” and have the “lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country” (qtd. in Elkins 62).
Before we bite into that juicy, meaty burger – let’s chew on this. Animal based diets are high in fats and do not have the antioxidants present in plants – one possible reason why meat eaters have high risks of cancer. A diet study of 149,000 people between the ages of 50 – 74 published in Journal of the American Medical Association in 2005 shows that those who ate just 2-3 oz a day of the most processed red meat were 50% more likely to develop colon cancer (“Eating Lots of Red Meat Linked to Colon Cancer”). According to a CNN news article, a similar diet study of 35,000 elderly women published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and shows that diets which have a lot of meat, animal fat, and hamburgers, can increase the risk of developing lymph node cancer by 100% (Halsey).
And we can’t dismiss the benefits of a plant-based diet as a bunch of baloney! Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist at Cornell University, and the author of the China Study, a comprehensive study over 20 years of health and nutrition states that, “Vegetarians obtain plenty of calcium and appear to have higher rates of bone density, which predisposes them to lower rates of osteoporosis.” He also states “the vast majority, perhaps 80 percent to 90 percent, of all cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and other forms of degenerative illness can be prevented, at least until very old age, simply by adopting a plant-based diet” (qtd. in Lang). What’s For Dinner?
As much as meat consumption decimates our environment and ruins our health, as the old joke goes, it’s hard out there for a… cow. Slaughterhouses and livestock farms aren’t exactly your neighborhood parks. Overcrowding, overfeeding, and keeping animals in miniscule stalls for their whole life certainly make living horrendous but even death doesn’t come easy. According to a Washington Post article in 2001, squealing hogs are scalded and then dumped into hot water (Warrik). Supposedly “stunned” cows hanging by one leg sometimes kick and arch their backs to straight themselves up and show that they are still alive – some even survive their tail being cut, belly ripped, and hide pulled off (Warrik). We cannot promote peace, love, and non-violence and at the same time be cruelly slaughtering these innocent animals just to satisfy our tastes. Even Socrates has said “The highest realms of thought are impossible to reach without first attaining an understanding of compassion” (qtd. in “Food for Thought”). What’s For Dinner?
Out of all of those skilled at the art of deception, meat takes the spot as the ultimate master. It charms us with its tastes, intoxicates us with its stomach-grumbling aromas, and lures us with its “apparent” nutritional value making us forget that meat has a dark, or rather rotten side as well.
This meat has been devouring our earth, our hearts and our health all along. This age old habit must be looked at with a fresh perspective! Now I am not asking to cut your meat intake cold turkey. Habits are hard to change, but we can moderate our meat intake bit-by-bit, bite-by-bite. Even the chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, says that people should have one meat-free day per week to cut greenhouse gases (qtd. in Juliette). And chopping out a day of meat is not going to shrink our protein intake… in fact, in America our average protein intake is already double of what’s recommended (Rice 54). And according to the American Institute of Cancer Research, one should eat no more than 18 oz of red meat a week (“Limit Consumption of Red Meats (such as beef, pork and lamb) and Avoid Processed Meats”).
We have a choice to make for our environment, our health, and our animals.
Let’s chop out our pork chops, slice down our steaks, and beef up our vegetables.
Let’s cut back on meat by simply ordering differently at restaurants, and eating meat as a side dish instead of the main one.
Let’s use meat substitutes, and try vegetarian recipes from around the world. Instead of garnishing our meat with parsley, let’s garnish our salads with small bits of meat… and perhaps even eat some animal crackers.
From Meatless Mondays and Salad Sundays, Veggie Wednesday and Fruity Fridays, help preserve our environment, keep up our health, and be compassionate to our animals.
Tonight at home, let’s ask ourselves the question that Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and Bugs Bunny asked themselves every night. What’s for dinner?
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