In the Mind of a Vegetarian

 *I will refer to ‘animal production’ in this post as a way to categorize all animals that are bred to be consumed.*

What it means to be a vegetarian is different between EVERY. SINGLE. vegetarian. There are SO many reasons to do and so many reasons not to do. Here are a few of mine:

FOR THE ANIMALS

I get it. I get it. We were born to eat meat. We are the top of the food chain. We have canines for a reason. If humans didn’t eat animals, they would take over the world.

All of those excuses are VERY valid and I don’t disagree with most of them. HOWEVER, I don’t believe in the mass production of animals for the benefit of the human kind. They are forced to live in cages that are smaller than most human’s closet. Pooping, eating, living, in a cube. What kind of life is that?

You cannot tell me that cows and chickens don’t have feelings. Have you ever sat in a pasture watching their interactions? It’s almost human-like. I do not for a second believe cows or chickens could be a species that lives the same type of lives humans do, but I do believe they are valuable and deserve a chance!

FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

There are studies that show just how bad animal production is on the environment.

“The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world. When forests are destroyed to produce industrial meat, billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.”

Global warming is real. Whether you see it on a daily basis, or not. There are so many things that point to our world being at risk. Deforestation in general is a real issue (especially in the US). We are cutting down trees to put ‘animal factories’ for humans to consume.

The U.S. consumption of beef amounted to 27.3 billion pounds in 2019. Process that for a second. Take a second and actually process that.

It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of beef.

To eat ONE pound of beef. That means 682.5 TRILLION gallons of water per year are used on the production of beef.

You’re probably thinking ‘well, vegetables need a great deal of water to survive as well!’ and you would be correct, but by no means is WATER the the biggest problem we are facing. The natural resources it takes to produce beef is also ASTOUNDING.

I could go on and on about the environmental effects of eating meat, but there are other reasons why I have chosen to become a vegetarian to talk about.

HEALTH BENEFITS

I’m just going to touch on one of the health benefits of eating a plant based diet.

Hormones: YES vegetables have also been industrialized into being something they shouldn’t. If you look at images from 12 year olds in the early 2000s and you compare them to now, you will se a DRAMATIC difference. Farmers are able to produce chickens faster than ever because they inject them with hormones and feed them steroids to become the biggest and most dense creatures they can the fastest they can. Where do those go once the animal is killed? Right into our digestive tracts. It is most noticeable in children as they are still developing. 12-year-olds are developing breasts getting their periods. When my generation and those before me were growing up, farmers weren’t as advanced as they are now. They are just trying to keep up with all of the other farmers or their businesses will be demolished. They won’t sell as many as fast. This is SAD. That the money is more important than the health of the human race.

These are my own personal opinions and may not reflect the way you feel.