Arguments for vegetarianism?

Question

Here's a page on arguments AGAINST vegetarianism...and they're pretty good. I'm a vegetarian and I would like to be able to justify/defend my position more strongly in the face of such arguments...help much appreciated!

Answer 1

There is an item in the news almost every week about an e-coli outbreak somewhere in the country because of contaminated beef. The govenrment has let the meat packing industry basically police itself for health and safety standards and all of that is secondary to them next to profits. The risk of eating sick and diseased meat alone is an argument for vegatarianism. That plus humane and enviromental concerns only add to the argument.

Answer 2

It is unfair for an innocent animal to spend its whole life waiting to be killed. Its as if its purpose in life is death.

Answer 3

''Why vegetarianism? There are as many reasons for becoming vegetarian as there are vegetarians; it's a highly personal and individual decision to make. But in a survey conducted on behalf of The Vegetarian Society the majority of people said that they gave up meat and fish because they did not morally approve of killing animals, or because they objected to the ways in which animals are kept, treated and killed for food.

With the growing awareness of the importance of healthy food, many people are also becoming vegetarian because it matches the kind of low fat, high fibre diet recommended by dieticians and doctors. Concern about the environment is another factor as people become more aware of the effect raising animals for their meat is having on the environment. Or you may be concerned about wasting world food resources by using land to raise animals for meat instead of growing crops that can feed more people directly....Don't get caught up in arguments, just gather all the information about vegetarianism so you can calmly explain your decision. Then try introducing them to some of the delicious meat-free meals you're enjoying and see if you can win them over by setting a good example''.

You should not have to defend your dietary choices to anyone.  What you eat is personal. But going veg means you're cutting down your carbon footprint (better for the environment), reducing animal suffering, and a lot of people swear they feel healthier since making the switch. There are more reasons, but these are what come to mind.

Answer 4

For me it was originally for political purposes but what started me looking into the issue was hearing how poorly employees are treated at slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants and it's only become worse.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/f...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2525...

Now there's lots of reasons.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/e...

ENVIRONMENT -- So much land has to be used just to grow the animal feed (so meat eaters kill many times more plants and animals that live among those plants from chemical applications and harvesting -- not to mention those fields are much more likely to be grown industrially and cruelly for animals, wildlife, insects) so that takes out natural areas (not good for hunters not to mention carbon sequestration -- the Rain Forest is being leveled to grow soy to feed animals in China -- there's a lot more soy that's gone through the animals and then added to processed animal meat than a vegan ever consumes), massive amounts of manure often being held in lagoons that are susceptible to earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornados and more, smell, litter, rendering, creation of hypoxic dead zones from runoff, pollution of ground water, and so much more including how meat production requires oodles more water and growing the feed is leading to soil erosion and ultimately peak water and peak soil.

http://www.allbusiness.com/manufacturing...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/06/busine...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3093...

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/16/news/int...

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/sto...

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/w...

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/a...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_(...

http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/26/the-ri...

A meat diet versus a soy diet?

http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2005/10/...

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Meat production took more land (6 to 17 times as much), water (4.4 to 26 times), fossil fuels (6 to 20 times), and biocides (a lumped-together category of pesticides and chemicals used in processing -- 6 times as much).

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ANIMAL CRUELTY -- This is huge. There seems to be no limit to the depravity that animals endure. Farm animals are often exempt from animal protection laws and poultry is exempted from humane slaughter laws.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/...

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/a...

HUMAN CRUELTY -- Humans who work in the processing plants especially in the United States are among the most abused and mistreated people in the world. Used to be there was a butcher in every store and it was a respected position. Now those careers have been eliminated in favor of packaging meat in dirty and ugly conditions behind closed doors so we don't see how our meat gets to us.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/w...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/opinio...

http://legacy.charlotteobserver.com/poul...

http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2004/1/oma...

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/08/03/u...

RURAL COMMUNITY DESTRUCTION -- The areas outside the urban cores are being decimated by the highly concentrated meat industries and destroyed with massive buildings, manure lagoons, incredible stenches, and more bringing insect infestations and lower property values among other negatives things.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/p...

http://grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/2...

HUNGER ISSUES -- We invest several times the grain into animal feed which means several times the land but meat is not the food of the poor (unless we are talking about dumping such as chicken neck, feet and guts in Haiti throwing off their industries but making it so no one works so no one can afford the cheaper poultry). The United States with hardly any population consumes more than a third of the land animals killed for food.

http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?Story...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?Story...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?Story...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?Story...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?Story...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?Story...

http://www.alternet.org/story/13908/

http://www.prwatch.org/node/7249

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated...

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated...

LACK OF DIVERSITY -- Because a lot of the profit is from standardization many breeds of animals have been lost as the industry focuses on those that do the best under the highly "efficient" mostly mechanized systems and volume. The breeds we are left with are not the most hardy, or even the tastiest and could be completely wiped out with a single epidemic such as bird flu. Because of the standardization, we grow mono-crops too that also could be destroyed by a single pathogen such as what happened with the potato blight in the Irish famine.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/b...

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4709

Which brings us to SECURITY -- Livestock uses about 70% of all antibiotics mostly just as a growth aid which they pee out and then gets into our soil and ground waters making a perfect soup with the animals themselves being petri dishes for antibiotic resistance development, which we are already seeing with MRSA in pork workers.

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/a...

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/6/...

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2007/06/25...

HEALTH -- Live 6 to 10 years longer with less cancers, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, less gout, stroke, diabetes, obesity, as well as less issues with many other health problems so those extra years are more enjoyable too. Also, animals are giving estrogenic hormones which really aren't so good for us along with chickens being given arsenic as a growth promoter. Arsenic, along with mercury and PCBs/Dioxins are persistant (PCBs are decimating the Orca populations) and much more likely to be digested from consumption of animal products. Eating low in the food chain is very good. Also, the standardization of the animals has led to food that's not as nutritious anymore.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/veget...

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/h...

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/whal...

SAFETY -- There are so many food poisoning related issues that come from meat or consuming meat. Some people ask why veg*ns bother with meat alternatives and for me I'm glad my daughter can eat a sausage dog and not only is it better for her with no cholesterol, less calories, but more vitamins and fiber, she's also much less likely to get sick from it nor will she end up with Mad Cow years down the road.

http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/02/04/usd...

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/m...

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/2/...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...

FURTHER -- Meat isn't needed in the human diet

We are evolving and can get by just fine (and often much better) without meat. Meat is socialized and encouraged by the meat industries and those other industries which profit from it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekin...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazi...

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/f...

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/1/...

Personally I just can't get over that a living creature would have to die for me to eat it. I wouldn't eat a dog or cat (what we do eat is socialized mostly to religious reasons we don't even comprehend or realize) nor would I eat a human. There was a point where if I was eating a chicken thigh that I couldn't get it out of my mind that it could be my leg...

There's more and there's a better and much more logical counter to pretty much any argument against. Colleen from Compassionate Cooks does a great podcast that talks about many of them and explains how silly they are and how to respond:

http://www.compassionatecooks.com/podcas...

I can put in links to all these if you're interested (Edited to add links):

http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/search.pl?q...