I am a Meat Eater; and I'm Proud of It: Dispelling the Myths of Meat

Some would argue that humans are the most evolved creatures on this planet, and therefore we have morally and physically bypassed the need to kill another animal for the sake of eating. I argue that even cauliflower screams when you steam it. It’s important that we are able to see both sides of the story, and be able to agree to disagree. I’d like to present to you today the side of the meat eater.

All animals and plants on this earth are part of a cycle of living and dying. That’s the truth of things; you cannot argue this fact. To take this a step further, I argue that animals raised on a humane farm, where the animals are sheltered and cared for in moderate comfort and safety from the elements with reasonable access to veterinary care, live a better life than animals that live in the wild constantly stressed by the elements and predators.

The next natural stage of life is death. An animal in the wild would probably not die of old age, surrounded by friends and family, who would then have a funeral with daisies, now would it? Unfortunately, most wild animals die a very painful and stressful death, possibly being eaten before their untimely end. That is not to say that the animals humans consume die of old age, because this is certainly not the case. They wouldn’t taste as good. No, these moderately young critters are brought to the slaughterhouse and then – BAM! A relatively quick and painless death compared to what we can expect in the wild. In fact, the less stressed an animal is, the better tasting the meat is, so there is no incentive to cause it undue stress before slaughter.

Moving on... I feel it is also necessary to address the many myths concerning meat-eating that seem to be circulating.

First of all, meat does not cause heart disease. The original hypothesis which supposedly linked heart disease to animal products was called “the lipid hypothesis” in the 1950’s. This hypothesis essentially tried to demonstrate that the cholesterol and saturated fat found in animal products caused the deposit of plaque in the arteries leading to heart disease, but it has never been proved. In fact, when Dr. George Mann studied the Masai cattle herding peoples in Africa whose diet consisted only of animal products; he found absolutely no heart disease. It is true that the amount of heart disease has increased during the past 80 years, as has beef consumption, but let me also point to the fact that vegetable oil consumption has increased 437%, and the consumption of sugar and other sweeteners has almost doubled. You cannot use circumstantial evidence to point to a single culprit in the case of heart disease.

Second, meat products also do not cause cancer. While there are two US studies that claimed beef was connected to colon cancer, these have since been proved wrong by numerous studies and statistics, including one in Argentina, which is a meat-eater rich country with significantly lower rates of colon cancer than us only moderately meat-happy Americans. In fact, a 1975 study by Rowland Philips found that vegetarians have higher rates of gastrointestinal and colon-rectal cancer deaths than meat eaters.

Third, vegetarians do not live longer than meat eaters. In fact, several studies (one by Dr. Russel Smith, the other by Burr and Sweetnam) show that death rates decrease slightly with an increase in consumption of dairy products. There is also no evidence that vegetarians are any healthier than a meat eater who eats a healthy, balanced diet, just as recommended by the - *gasp* - Food Pyramid! In fact, many different cultures around the world whose diet is based on meat products – including the Aborigines, the Russians of the Caucasus Mountains, and the Hunzas, all have long life spans, extremely robust health and are known for their athletic abilities.

Animal husbandry, contrary to popular myth, is a practice which provides food, fertilizer, plants, and other useful byproducts to help society. More than two-thirds of the feed used for animals is unsuitable for human consumption; so they are not competing with us for arable land or any other such nonsense. If all the citizens of industrialized countries suddenly turned vegetarian, it would not change the buying power or the cultivating ability of starving peoples in third-world countries; there is no viable argument for saving the world here. Clearly, it’s not a black and white industry, with simple black and white problems; it has green all over it!

The agricultural industry is the oldest industry known to man. Yes, hard to believe, but agriculture is truly older than prostitution. Before we had organized farms, humans were hunters and gatherers. Nowadays, modern farms range from the small traditional family farm with less than $250,000 in annual sales to corporations with millions of dollars in annual sales. There are some deplorable farms out there; but USDA Audits and consumer choices are great ways to reduce their numbers and eventually eliminate them altogether. You, as a consumer, can speak for the animals, by educating yourself about where your food comes from, and purchasing accordingly.

References (I highly recommend you check these out):
It's The Beef by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD
The Myths of Vegetarianism by Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP