Vegetarianism: Behind the Crunchiness
Jill Stockwell
9/18/02

Vegetarians have been given a bad reputation. Smelly, skinny people sporting Birkenstocks, George Bernard Shaw-quoting pins, and economy-sized bags of granola come to mind. They are aggressive, stubborn, and accusing. Perhaps they have earned this reputation by aggressively pushing ideals concentrated on the "many evils of chicken nuggets." It is essential, however, that we reserve judgement until we actually understand the reasoning behind these "veggies," who take fierce pride in holding up the line at Burger King while the new guy at the register enters the early stages of an epileptic seizure trying to find exactly which button to push for a Whopper without the meat. Behind the reputation, there is overwhelming reasoning. This reasoning, ironically, may drastically change the course of your future. Vegetarianism is the easiest, most feasible way to end world hunger, improve the environment, live longer, and heighten the moral threshold of the human race.
In many African countries where millions of people are starving to death, innumerable tons of grain are exported every year to feed animals in American meat factories. "If we eat the plants we grow instead of feeding them to animals, the world's food shortage will disappear virtually overnight." (Giveusahome.co.uk). One hundred acres of land can produce enough beef to feed twenty people. The same acreage can produce enough wheat to feed two-hundred and forty people. (Giveusahome.co.uk). It takes seventy-eight times the amount of fossil fuel to produce one calorie beef protein as one calorie soy protein. (britishmeat.com). If America alone became a vegetarian society, countless people would be saved from going hungry.

"A reduction in beef and other meat consumption is the most potent single act you can do to reduce the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources. Our choices do matter. What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest for the life support system of our precious, but wounded planet." (John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America) Water, forests, and soil can all be conserved using a vegetarian diet. Production of animal protein requires three to fifteen times as much water as plant protein. As for forests, one of the main reasons for tropical rainforest destruction in Brazil and other tropical regions is to create land for livestock. This destruction can not be reversed. Finally, our topsoil can only be made richer and more efficient by using it for growing legumes and grains. (britishmeat.com). More efficient soil means less land feeding more people. The correlation between an improved environment and a vegetarian diet is apparent.

Health is the most obvious reason to become a vegetarian. Degenerative diseases such as osteoporosis, kidney- and gallstones, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Arthritis, gum disease, acne, intestinal toxemia, and obesity have all been linked to eating meat. It is an epidemiological fact that eating meat greatly increases the risk of heart disease, America's number one killer. The average American gets four times the needed amount of RDA for protein, causing excess nitrogen in the blood, in turn causing innumerable health risks. Vegetarians are some of the few people who get the correct amount of protein, eating foods like seeds, beans, and select legumes. There is no vitamin contained in meat that is not contained in a vegetable. Even the human body -- hands, feet, teeth, body chemistry, and intestinal track -- are those of an herbivore (britishmeat.com). On average, vegetarians live seven years longer than people that eat meat, (Vegetarian Times). It is an indisputable fact that vegetarianism is one of the most important aspects of a healthy lifestyle.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer summed his life's teachings up in that "We must never permit the voice of humanity within us to be silenced. It is man's sympathy with all creatures that fist makes him truly a man." By these standards, are we men? Animals feel pain, fear, gladness, and even longing. How then, can the voice of humanity be present as day old chicks are routinely de-beaked to keep them from pecking each other to death as they slowly become insane with the conditions they will soon endure? How can support companies that take calves away from their mothers as soon as they are born? How can we shield our eyes as they cram them into crates where they will live their whole lives without ever turning around, let alone nuzzling up to their mother's belly or glimpsing the light of day? How can we eat the meat of pigs who have sat in their own manure and urine for so long that their hoofs rot and fall apart, so that they stand on raw bone and tissue? Again, I implore you, are we men?

"The greatness of a nation, and its moral progress, may be judged by how it treats its animals." (Mahatmas Ghandi). The strength of a person's character can be measured by how he treats the weak. The development of a nation can be measured by the way in which it treats the humblest and meekest of all its creatures: its animals. Mankind is ever in this stage of developing. Change is the action of development. Thoreau said, "I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race in its gradual development to leave off the eating of animals as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came into contact with the more civilized." It is our responsibility as human beings to direct our development away from the savage, towards the civilized. It is our moral duty to ensure the safety of the weak.

Looking at the world's situation, a person can easily despair and think that no action that she could commit would change it enough to make a difference. As individuals, no vegetarian is foolhardy enough to believe that her abstinence from meat alone will solve any world issue. The vegetarian philosophy is that, by setting an example with their discipline and self-motivation, they can inspire others to do the same. "Nothing is more powerful than an individual acting out of his conscious, thus helping to bring the collective conscious to life." (Norman Cousins). Perhaps it is these leafy, nut-eating, stinky vegetarians who are bringing a collective conscious to life by leading with example. It is this example which will end world hunger, and improve the environment, our health, and the moral capability of the human race. For these reasons, I am willing - and fiercely proud -- to take on the reputation of a vegetariap.