Vegetarianism has become more and more popular around
the world for many different reasons. One of those reasons, most commonly used
by environmentalists, is the environmental impact that meat production has.
In all stages of meat production, there is some form of pollution. This pollution
comes from all kinds of things, ranging from animal waste to the exhaust at
the production plants. Many claim that this pollution that is a result of humans
consuming meat would not be an issue if the world was completely vegetarian.
The environmental impact of growing soy beans instead of cattle
would be much less.
Often times, pollution caused
by meat production is
covered up. For instance, while major oil spills are broadcast on the news,
animal waste spills are never heard of.
Maybe its because hearing about 25 million gallons of pig waste being spilled
into rivers tends to gross out the general public, but none the less, it still
is an issue.
Ethical issues also are
a major reason why some don’t eat meat. In their short lives, the animals
are confined to tiny living spaces that are often not large enough to survive
in. This means that the animals often die or get extremely ill before they are
sent to the slaughter house. For those animals that are
still living but don’t have the strength to walk on their own power, they
are dragged by their feet to be killed. The lives of these animals are difficult
and they often suffer from
malnutrition and other terrible diseases as a result of their poor living conditions.
Another problem associated
with meat consumption is world hunger. It takes so much food to nourish cattle
that 45 to 50 hungry people could have a meal with the grain consumed by a cow
to produce one 8 ounce steak. What this basically means is that with all of
the food that goes into feeding live stock, we
could solve the issue of world hunger.
On top of all of the evidence
that says that meat production is bad for the world, some say that humans shouldn’t
eat meat for health reasons. There is some proof that human bodies are simply
not equipped to be eating meat. And even if it were originally healthy for humans
to eat meat, the way that we
consume it now is hazardous to our health. Large amounts of fatty meats are
consumed by humans from fast food. This has
proven to cause many health risks including heart disease. There
is also always the risk of contracting one of the many meat-spread diseases
such as e-coli and mad cow disease.
The basic point that the
environmentalists here are trying to prove is that eating meat is a bad idea
on so many levels. It pollutes, contributes to world hunger, is harmful to the
animals,and is unhealthy for humans. If humans continue to consume the amount
of meat that we do now, eventually the world will be a terrible place to live.
Doing something as easy as cutting back on meat could help out the environment.
It's an easy concept that people are finally starting to catch on
to.
The case that this article
makes is a very compelling one. There are so many reasons why eating meat is
a bad idea, yet there are so few reasons why it is a good idea. For most people
meat tastes good, but is that really enough of a reason to defend eating it?
As a vegetarian, I am already making the statement that humans should not eat
meat. Although I would never try to enforce my ways on anyone else, it would
be nice for the
world to see eating meat in the way that was described
in this article.
Works Cited
http://www.emagazine.com/januaryfebruary_2002/0102feat1.html