Balance Requires Meat Analysis

In the world today there are 16 million vegans. But what are Vegans? A Vegan is a herbivore, meaning they do not eat any animal products such as, meat, dairy, poultry, fish or honey and for some who are more extreme, do not use leather, silk, fur, wool, and any other product that contains animal byproducts. So why might someone want to be Vegan? There are a number of reasons for someone to pursue veganism. For some it is ethical, and others environmental or health reasons, but there has been a recurring question on whether Vegans are getting enough iron and protein. Organic Authority said, “that per calorie kale has more iron than beef.” In regards to protein, a 100 calorie portion of steak, contains 5.4 grams of protein, whereas a 100 calorie portion of broccoli, contains 11.2 grams of protein (Hite 2013). Clearly eating a Vegan diet does not mean that there will be a deficiency of protein, iron or any vitamins besides B12, which has to be supplemented. Environmentally, agriculture is very damaging as well. As stated by Cowspiracy “64% of greenhouse emissions, are a result of livestock, their byproducts, and transportation of the

“Against Meat” by Jonathon Safran Foer (2009, New York Times Magazine) is intended to educate current non-vegetarians on what vegetarianism is, the benefits of it in terms of health and animal rights, and also the struggles of consistently being a vegetarian. Although Foer does not specifically express what a vegetarian is we can assume he is going off the generally known definition of a person who does not consume the meat of an animal, as oppose to a vegan who does not consume any animal products at all. According to an article about vegetarian Americans, 5% or 16 million Americans classify themselves as vegetarian in 2015, compared to the 1% back in 2009, making vegetarianism a growing trend throughout the US (Raw Food World). Foer proves his opinion on vegetarianism by backing it up with facts from the USDA and his own personal experiences with his babysitter, growing up struggling with being a vegetarian that loves meat, and the decision to marry and raise his child vegetarian. Foer does, however, have a few gaps in his argument about nutrition, the costs associated with vegetarianism, and the lack of a definition of vegetarian.

In the article I have chosen which was Harvest Day by Kingsolver she gives the point of view of someone that was a former vegan and soon realized how much it didn’t really stop the cruelty of animals and that it’s inevitable to get others to stop eating animals. Therefore she gave her audience an insight to what many people should do for these animals in factory farms and that is actually respecting our food and giving them a good way of life and a good and respectful way of dieing in a sense. In addition as I go into researching this topic I actually found a lot of other people agreeing to this idea of changing factoring farming to actual farming and are making a change about it as well because it not only treats the animals more civilized but also benefits us in the sense of our health and global warming.

We always tell others and teach our child to be nice to others but what about the animals? You should do what morally right for them. Watching the animals being slaughtered and be eaten everyday is very shocking. Those who care for these poor animals, they all believe that animals are like human. They should be treated equally as us, although they do not have a voice but their minds and heart speaks it. In Cesar Chavez Speech, which is written in 1992, for his acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award from In Defense of Animals. In his speech he talks about the basis for peace is respecting all creatures. Although animals are small and powerless, they have a heart, a brain and a feeling also. What influences Cesar Chavez to go vegan is because he realize that “animals feel afraid, cold, hungry, and unhappy like we do.” (Chavez) People need to be aware what is going on around them. The animals they eat everyday get slaughtered and killed. All consumers do is going to the market and purchase the meat but they never see what is the process of cutting the piece of meat up. I would agree with Cesar Chavez that we need to protect the animals. People think the animals are to be raised and eaten. As us human, we do not need to eat meat or any meat products to survive. People need to understand that animals can be our friends too. For example, everyone love to have a pet dog or cat. What if people start to eat dogs, would more people stand up and protest? Of course because they think dogs are like human and that they are a friend. If dogs be treated like that shouldn’t animals like cows and chicken be the same. Those cows that you get dairy from and meat from are suffering. In the farm, they are all stayed closely together, no space to move around. For the cows, to produce the milk you drink everyday, the cows are getting pregnant and once the baby was born, it is taken away from its mom and the

As one can see a person can eat meat and enjoy a healthy life as long as they exercise moderately and stay away from an excessive amount of saturated fats. The problem with the Lyman’s premise B is he overlooks the impossibility of all 6 billion people on this planet transferring to a vegan lifestyle. Only 3% of earths land is suitable for crop production, 10% of that is land based. Roughly 2/3 of the land is not suitable for crop production due to cites, swamps, snow, deserts etc. Of the 35% that can be donated to crop production less than 1/3 can be cultivated to produce products that can be digested by humans, leaving the rest to be covered by shrubs, grass etc. It is for this reality that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) promotes the use by humans of both plants and animals. “Domestic farms are crucial for food and agriculture, providing 30 to 40 percent of the agricultural sector’s global economic value. Around 2 billion-one third the global population-depend at least partly on farm animals for their livelihoods.

While researching books for the major project, I stumbled upon a book over the ethics of eating meat: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, published on November 2, 2009. Coming from a rural, agrarian background, my curiosity about why anyone in his right mind would want to become a vegetarian grew immensely when I discovered the book. Foer’s main audience appears to be those on the fence about whether to eat meat or those uninformed about factory farming. This book was not meant for individuals with an agricultural background, as Foer attempts – and fails – to explain how farms operate, massively overgeneralizing several aspects. Throughout the book, Foer seeks to inform readers about the atrocities committed on factory farms, to

In “Eating Well vs. Being Good’ the author, David Katz, addresses the ethics of eating animals. The writer believes that being a vegetarian/ vegan is found to be healthier than being a carnivore. The writer also argues that animals are just like humans and have the same rights as us. He ends the passage with statements that infer that everyone should be on a plant based diet.

To improve their articles support, the writers for Vegan Outreach should rely mainly on logos to back up their claim that animal consumption is morally wrong and that they should switch to a less cruel alternatives to source food. Although the authors do originally provide evidence throughout the text, their argument is poorly constructed. For example, in one case Vegan Outreach used a statistic without indicating from where they attained the statistic “...[b]y avoiding the meat of chickens, turkeys, and pigs, you can prevent the suffering of more than two thousand of these animals during your lifetime!” (11). The initial issue with Vegan Outreach’s document is that it fails to reference their work, the second issue is that it does little to reference the sample statistics of other animals, which makes their application of logos unreliable. In addition, this example statistic is not their

This is even more so if the hormones that were used to modify the meat for production have side effects that are passed down via this new food chain. If anything the regulations that the animals will get will end up being a regulation for humans too. It is something that is needed for health regulations not only of humans but of the animals that are in the business. The grounds for this argument are the horrible conditions that animals are faced with that include medical modifications, hormone and antibiotic injections, animals receive, and the why conditions in which they are stored to grow up in affect the output product. Along with the bad things that come from the lack of strong enough regulations the point of organic meat will help support the main claim by showing how that kind of meat is more beneficial. The main opposition to the core of this argument would come from the vegetarian standpoint. Knocking everything down from the meat, that would be the vegetarian point of view. This opposition will highlight the vegetarian diet and show the downsides of meat based on the quality of both diets.

You may not know this, but what you choose to eat has a huge impact on the environment. There are many stances for these view points, but two people have very different opinions from one another. Jonathon Safron Foer is a strong advocate to not eat factory farmed meat in his essay “Against Meat”. On the other hand, Christina Serbenz flips a 180 on her view about food in her essay “7 Reasons Why I Refuse to Stop Eating Meat”, she argues that meat is vital for nutrition and adds a huge social benefit. There are many pros and cons according to each author.

I do agree that animals should have the same rights as we do, but must argue that animals do have feelings. In the video Meet your meat you see that animals being slaughtered for meat and you see how they yelp and screech as they feel this pain. They have a want, a will to live just as we do and who can say if they should live just for our consumption. If people had to watch where the animal came from and what it went through to get to the supermarket do you feel that they should still buy the meat? Furthermore, with the different cultures that kill animals for their religion should not be condoned either. There are religions that have scared animals such as the cow and do not kill these animals for consumption. Do you feel that these religions

Can it be morally permissible to eat meat when plant-based foods are available? In this paper my aim is it to explain why this is morally wrong to do. One problem with eating meat is humans are putting animals in unnecessary pain. Another problem is that the majority of our environmental destruction on our planet is due to agriculture. Philosophers Peter Singer and Tom Regan, both back up this view with their own arguments.

     One cannot omit the fact that there are some global economical problems caused by mass meat consumption, such as starvation. Cattle are fed soybeans, corn, and other grains that could be eaten directly by people. You can feed a cow 16 pounds of food, and only one pound becomes meat that people can eat. The other 15 pounds are waste. It has been proved that decreasing global meat production by 10% would allow us to feed additional 60 million people. I am convinced that it is a strong argument why all people should become vegetarians.

As different crazes and fads are appearing each day, we have come to expect them to simply fade away as the hype passes. However, veganism has stood the test of time in our fad society and is still increasing in popularity. Originally only thought to be a religious lifestyle, many people from different walks of life are becoming vegans. However, this poses many questions and sparks heated debates, mainly from omnivorous people who believe that veganism is against life’s natural order. Vegans, then, argue against an omnivorous lifestyle by bringing up facts about humans’ biological makeup and how humans are, contrary to popular belief, herbivorous by nature, not omnivorous. While both sides present good arguments to some, the veganism lifestyle contains more benefits and less harmful cons than an omnivorous lifestyle.

Consumption of meat by humans creates several problems. First and foremost, raising animals for food compromises the environment. For example, it takes a large amount of natural resources to sustain the meat industry. The use of water, land, and food to raise animals for human consumption is not an efficient use of our limited resources. In contrast, it is more efficient to feed humans directly than to use land, food, and water to feed animals to be used as food. There are shortages of fertile land, clean water, and food in several third world countries. Many of these countries’ resources are allocated to produce feed for animals in developed countries around the world. As a result, the citizens of these countries are stricken with water and food shortages, while their crops are feeding cattle from across the globe. However, this problem can be solved by adopting a vegan diet. The vegan diet will allow a more efficient use of resources that in turn can be used to feed starving men, women, and children throughout the world. Consequently, more people in the world could be fed if the land used to grow feed for animals was used to grow food for humans.