I love the taste of meat. From Kobe beef to lamb curry, from a culinary standpoint, food cannot get much better. Yet ironically, despite my adoration, I refuse to eat it. It’s an odd but true paradox; while my parents happily chow down on their steaks at dinner, I eat tofu. I am a pescetarian. Read: I will eat fish. While I wish I could cut eating it, I can’t live without my sushi.

Originally, I was a pescetarian for health reasons. Yet today, my motive has shifted and gone another direction: ethics. With the mushrooming of factory farming, previous husbandry has been exchanged for the mass production of meat (Davis). This conversion harms not only the animals living, but our own welfare. (Freston) For the farmed animals, the living conditions are “crates just barely larger than their own bodies”, with the animals bodies so condensed “stress-induced cannibalism” (“Humane Farming Association”) is stimulated. Cattle Slaughterhouses, the common and popular example of the misuse of “animal rights”, depict unreplicable hostility and cruelty towards their product. Sickening planted video tapes within IBP, the world’s largest cattle company, illustrated conscious cows being skinned alive, their legs severed as they struggled for freedom. This level of treatment has reached epic proportions. Arguments siting the consumption of meat as a natural, biological evolutionary product fail to consider the differences in methodologies. While our outcome may appear the same, in the end of the day meat ends up devoured at our tables, our current procedures resemble nothing of our previous ancestors. Ethically, can we justify our means to an end? Aristotle stated “Nature does nothing in vain”, eating meat is considered natural, but is our procedure? While the animals’ existence may have been miserable, seek further research on the matter if my claim is doubted, technically their existences results in our own gain. Knowing this was their life in vain?

It can be argued that our own ethics are damaged as well with the consumption of meat. For example, in America, 70% of the pigs brought to slaughter carry pneumonia (“The PigSite Pig Health”); the unsanitary meat produced silently affects the consumers’ health. After all, our current panic of Swine flu originated in factory farming (Philpot). Yet, not only is the meat produced detrimental to our health but the environment suffers as well. In 2006, the United Nations released the statement “the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”. In 2009, the World Bank estimated the meat industry contributed to a minimum of 51% of all greenhouse gasses, a figure more than all transportation combined (“Press”). As our world undergoes rapid shifts towards Global warming, it seems we fail to place blame on our actions. Positing the finger at other industries, such as auto, may perhaps be a safer position. But we must ask ourselves, are we comfortable with the Global results on both the environment and our personal health, or should we adapt?

When my friends question my motives and ideals on refusing meat, typically they site “evolution” as why my claims are falsified. True, eating meat may be evolution, and as the top of the food chain we have the privilege of power over what we consume. But evolution also suggests that chickens optimally function, and therefore produce optimal meat in flock sizes of around 30. Yet in today’s average farm, there are around 300,000 chickens in one building. (“Mercy For Animals”) It may be called evolution, but it can equally be called forced and inorganic. Furthering the argument, while many argue that it’s a natural process to consume eggs, can we say it is natural for a chicken to be deliberately starved and dehydrated? The shock of the experience produces eggs, the eggs we most likely have consumed during some part of our life. It’s natural to consume turkeys. Our ancestors did. But do you find it natural to consume a turkey which steroids have propelled such a rapid growth that the animal has grown too large to reproduce? All 300 million turkeys born annually in the United States are the result of artificial insemination. (Troung)

Globally, the majority of religions highlight the idea of compassion and kindness. In Buddhism, to achieve the four Noble Truths and consequently Nirvana, one must understand “the proper understanding of Suffering, Cause of Suffering, relief of Suffering and the way to end suffering” (“Big View”). Eating meat would be a violation of a moral code, and a sin. Similar emphasis on the not eating meat resonates in Hinduism, Jainism, and certain sectors of Sikhism and Judaism.

For every “pro-animals” claim, there are “pro-meat” claims of equal caliber and weight. Poultry producer, Robert “Butch” Johnson assures “Today’s farmers treat their livestock with the same caring concern as ordinary people treat their pets.” It’s impossible to find the truth in the ethics of eating animals because there is no truth, nothing is concrete. It’s all a personal interpretation on the situation. It is shaped by our own emotions and biases. Is “slaughtering” animals “murder”? Or, is it a delicious advantage of our location on the food chain? There is no “right” answer, which is why my position becomes difficult. I am sensitive, perhaps overly so. After all, the thought of the animal’s eyes before they are being slaughtered makes me get teary, and thinking of the process the creature endures would make me find the most perfect beef wellington look vile. The information I have stated clearly illustrates my stance and my blatantly obvious bias. The majority of sources and articles were not from neutral, or pro-meat-eating websites, but from the opposite spectrum.

In the end, I will not eat meat. I could easily give up dairy and live off vegan substitutes, I already partially do. The lack of choice at restaurants would not matter to me, as long as I knew I wasn’t hurting animals. Yet there is the tricky situation of sushi. As marine biologist, Dr. Sylvia Earl, has stated fish feel fear, they have personalities, and they as well live in unsanitary conditions. I am a hypocrite. I feel disgusted with myself when I consume the creatures, but I cannot quit. In this sense, I understand and sympathize both sides of the argument, the love that humans have for their meat, and their yearning to consume it. Until there is a vegan substitute for fish I will remain in a similar position.

- Chrissy

Works Cited:  ((formatting on the blog got messed up, but I am too lazy to fix it. heh.))

Davis, Mike. “The swine flu crisis lays bare the meat industry’s monstrous power.” Guardian.co.uk.Web. 14 Nov 2009.      http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/27/swine-flu-mexico-health.

“Enzootic Pneumonia (EP) or Mycoplasma Hyopneumoniae Infection.” The PigSite Pig Health. The PigSite, Web. 14 Nov 2009. <http://www.thepigsite.com/pighealth/article/323/enzootic-pneumonia-ep-or-mycoplasma-hyopneumoniae-infection>.

Fauteux, Carolyn . “The Pescetarian Diet for Total Health.” Healthy Girl. 9 10 2009. Healthy Girl, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.healthygirl.ca/optimal_health/nutrition/the-pescetarian-diet-for-total-health.

Freston, Kathy. “13 Reasons Eating Meat Hurts our Environment.” Guerrilla News Network. 22 4 2009. Gurrilla News Network, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://stopstripmining.gnn.tv/blogs/31852/13_Reasons_Eating_Meat_Hurts_our_Environment.

“Livestock’s Long Shadow – Environmental Issues and Options.” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2006. FAO, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm.

Philpot, Tom. “Swine-flu Outbreak could be Linked to Smithfield Factory Farms.” Grist. 04 25 2009. Grist, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/.

Press . “Livestock Emissions: Still Grossly Underestimated?.” WorldWatch Institute. 20 Oct. 2009. WorldWatch Institute, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6297.

“The Four Noble Truths.” The Big View. The Big View, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/fourtruths.html.

“The Truth about Fish.” www.unleashed.org.au/animals/fish.php. Animals Australia, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.unleashed.org.au/animals/fish.php.

Troung, Lynn. “The Cost of Meat.” Wise Bead. May 21 2007. Wise Bread, Web. 14 Nov 2009. http://www.wisebread.com/the-cost-of-meat-the-cruelty-argument.

“Undercover Investigations: Exposing Animal Abuse.” Mercy For Animals. Mercy For Animals, Web. 14 Nov 2009. <http://www.mercyforanimals.org/investigations.aspx>.