Why I Am A Vegetarian

DISCLAIMER: This article is solely to express our viewpoint, not to demean meat-eaters or to discourage people from eating meat. People have been repeatedly asking me this question, so I thought that I would write an article expressing my thoughts about this topic.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a vegetarian. Many of my friends and teachers approach me and ask, “Being a vegetarian, don’t you miss out on eating lots of non-vegetarian delicacies? How can you live a life not being able to eat my favorite food?” But my answer is, “No, I’m happy being a vegetarian”. I don’t feel deprived of not being able to eat the foods that some of my friends eat; my perspective on vegetarianism is completely different because I’ve been practicing this lifestyle my whole life.

I was born a vegetarian. My ancestors led strict lifestyles as vegetarians. Lots of people like me are vegetarians, mainly because of family’s lifestyle or personal preferences. Just like how we have a right to live, I think that animals deserve this same right. Due to an increasing demand for animal meat, their lives are always sacrificed for our benefit. I’m not saying that all non-vegetarians should logically hate animals. However, I get confused when people tell me that they are “animal-people,” especially when I see them eating other meat types for lunch. When I ask them to clarify, they usually say, “Well, I don’t eat cats or dogs, which are pets. So I am an animal person. I eat fish and chicken because they are lower species compared to domesticated pets. And yes, you can have a fish as a pet, but they don’t show emotion like cats and dogs do.” Here is the moral flaw in that. Humans have no right to interfere in the system of animals, and neither do we have the right to categorize one type of animal as more superior than others. At the end of the day, every animal faces pain when they are dying, whether it is for a second, or for minutes, or for their entire lifetime as they are prepped up for the slaughterhouse.

People who consume beef don’t feel sorrow because they don’t have a relationship with the animal because cows are not domesticated. I am sure that if all of humanity had the love for pigs, cows, chicken, and other animals, just like they have a love for dogs, we would all be vegetarians. We just think that it’s okay to consume animals that we don’t interact with, just because we don’t have a connection with them, or are not aware of their emotions.

However, at the same time, a lot of people ask us, “Why do you eat plants then? Don’t they also have feelings? Aren’t you killing the plants?” And my answer to that would be that we are not depriving the life of a plant. In fact, plants offer us fruits for animals and humans. Rather than taking the entire plant’s life, we pluck the fruit off the plant. In fact, if we didn’t, plants would have no purpose in their lives, and the fruit would just rot and die. Therefore, it is important for us to know what the plants produce.

Additionally, scientific evidence shows that plants don’t undergo pain while they are being eaten, unlike animals that would suffer so much when they are killed in the slaughterhouse, which is one thing we will get to in this article.

Health Benefits And Health Risks

People say that meat gives protein, but that’s not ALL meat. According to The Heart Organization, “Red meats have more saturated (bad) fats. Trans fats can raise your blood cholesterol and make heart disease worse”. High cholesterol in red meat provides a lot of health risks, leading to heart attack, diabetes, etc. An average American eats 4 ½ servings of red meat weekly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A lot of red meat, such as pork, beef, and lamb are slaughtered for human consumption, even though they are not even healthy! In other lives, we are sparing other creatures for our consumption, even though they aren’t going to help us in our long term health.

The Heart Organization also states that “unsaturated fats in fish, like salmon have health benefits”. They provide omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins such as D and B2 (riboflavin). Even though they benefit us, we shouldn’t overfish, and make it extinct. There are also alternatives to fish, such as vegetable oil, which also produces omega 3. Since there are lots of alternatives, we don’t have to rely primarily on one species. Too much human intervention can threaten the species’ extinction and also deeply negatively impact the food webs. For instance, animals that prey solely on fishes would decrease in number, if we continue overfish. Therefore, looking at varieties will also help the animal population.

Environmental and Health Impacts

Believe it or not, the meat industry as a whole has an impact on the planet. “Livestock as a whole is responsible for nearly 18% of the greenhouse gas emissions”. Manure processing has another impact on the environment. As manure decomposes, it emits methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide, which contributes to a climate change too.

1.4 billion people in the world could be sufficiently fed if we give them the grains that we give to livestock to fatten them up and ready them for slaughter.

Ethical Reasons- What Animals Face In Farms

According to the AnimalMatters.org, “ More than nine billion farm animals were slaughtered in the United States last year (2018). Approximately 25 million farm animals are slaughtered every day in the United States”. Animals that we eat face a lot of cruelty and are placed in environments under harsh conditions, which is one thing that we will look at in this section. Earthling Ed is a popular youtuber and advocate for animal’s rights. In one video, he shows the audience the conditions of one of the largest cow farms in Israel.

This is what Ed sees in the farm:

Pictures brutally shows horses tied in stable with ropes.

1. Animals are left to spend their days physically tied in stables.

They are also left in the stables surrounded with uncleaned and unpicked animal waste left to rot. For example, for beef, cows are impregnated REPEATEDLY to ensure maximum amounts of beef to sell off the farm. No innocent living entity deserves to die against its will.

2. Separation from mother and child, MINUTES after the child is born.

Bouncing off one of my previous points, animals DO have feelings, whether they are cows or chickens or fish. They feel pain, unlike plants. By consuming meat, you will be putting blood, sweat, and tears of these animals in your system. The death of an animal for our pleasure cannot be morally justified.

Mother cow chases the farmer who is trying to steal it's baby calf.

In the video I just mentioned, the farmer LITERALLY takes the baby cow, locks it up in a cart, and takes it away from its mother, who is bending down to reach for it. Next, when the farmer takes the cart with the baby cow to another pen, the heartbroken mother follows the cart. But then the farmer rudely points to her and tells her to go away. It’s disturbing to see such unfairness and atrocities to innocent animals living around the world, and just because they are animals doesn’t mean that they don’t have emotions! In fact, all over the world, as soon as a mother cow gives birth, she is separated from her baby.

The next step I would like to take is to become a vegan. Veganism is a practice in which one doesn’t consume products that come from animals, including milk and eggs. Many people do not know that cows in the U.S. are heavily mistreated even in dairy farms. We can start by cutting back on milk and other dairy products that come off of multi-million dollar companies that mistreat the cow.

Although this happens in the farms, humans in the cities are a contributing factor to this because we are the ones in demand for meat. Many people who became vegetarians realized the only way to end this is to lessen their consumption of meat, and even better, stop eating meat. One reason I feel that it’s hard to find equality in the world is because we can’t even respect our own creatures. Our species is so self-centered that we fail to recognize the silent voices of many animals.

This very fact is one main reason many people became vegetarians. The point of this article is not to put down meat eaters, but it’s just to share our perspectives by giving people an insight into how vegetarians like me see animals, our world, and why we follow this path. Ultimately, it’s your choice whether you want to follow this path or eat meat. Both paths have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, it is important to be aware of what you are eating.

Edited By : The Eureka Journal