Letters to the Editor
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Don't generalize.
Some vegetarians are sexy... and then you look at Michael Jackson who's also a vegetarian.
If I knew for certain that Alicia Silverstone would talk to me because I was a vegetarian I might think really hard about it. But on the other hand you have the Jack in the Box commercial with the two girls in NYC and one of them says something to the effect of "Sometimes a woman needs a little meat!" There was no mistaking her giggle afterwards in her thinking that she didn't mean beef, but she meant the opposite sex.
The commercial is outstanding, Alicia just lights up the screen, and a web video just can't do her justice. It made me think about it, but only for a few seconds.
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Fascinating life-forms on this planet, Captain
Mmmm. What is the message? I'll agree with it -- can I see the commercial again now?
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A case for eating less meat
Meat production is very resource intensive. The same resources put towards producing non-meat foods would result in more food.
But forget about the larger issues and just think about pain and suffering. I don't think anyone can deny that factory farming produces a lot of pain and suffering. What folks can deny, and often do, is any sympathy. That's the really vexing thing about debating vegetarianism with people is that they bring it up (I never do anymore) then get all emotional and declare that they don't care whether they're right or not. Somehow I become the jerk for saying things that they already know and agree with, even though they asked me. Like Mr. Leonard, lots of people prefer not to think about it. That doesn't make them less wrong.
Personally I've never eaten meat because that's how I was raised. So I don't have much credibility saying that someone else should go completely against how they were raised, since I never had to do it myself. Still, any decision you make against eating a piece of meat is good in a lot of ways. Simply reducing meat consumption would reduce the pain and suffering, and I think the world could do with less pain and suffering.
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The Means Is The Message
Does Alicia Silverstone give Americans any information about the damage done by the scale of our meat economy? Or has PETA stooped to adolescent peer pressure tactics, exploiting sexuality to shame people who eat animals?
It is no surprise, for PETA has often demonstrated that they think little of their audience, and do not value human life or dignity as highly as extending civil liberties to cows. (For instance, their repeated failure to denounce acts of violence by more militant groups.)
There are good reasons to try a vegetarian regimen, or to reduce dependence on meat, that have to do with self-respect, not winning the affections of a pinup girl.
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Well, they're right...
Growing food and eating it is inherently more efficient (by a factor of something like 10) than growing food, feeding it to an animal, then eating the animal. Given the pace of human population growth, we're going to need that efficiency very soon. Given the pace of global warming, I think we need it 10 years ago.
Eating SOME meat as a protien supplement, from chickens that live on your farm or whatever, is quite a different thing than eating LOTS of meat from an animal raised in a miserable unhealthy factory farm. Track down the Harper's article on pig farming and you'll never eat pork again.
I can understand the temptation to compare factory farming at its worst to the holocaust, because the animals are basically tortured horribly every minute of their lives. But the holocaust was something we humans did to members of our own species out of pure hate, whereas factory farming is something we do to species we've always thought of as food. The problem is that we have no consideration for the fact that they're God's creatures too, the entire process is driven by greed, gluttony, stupidity and ignorance. So the holocaust was far worse because it was pure hate, right? I'd agree. So why do I have this feeling that the "greed, gluttony, stupidity and ignorance" factor is going to be what actually kills us off?
I've heard that vegetarians taste and smell better, that sounds sexy to me. On the other hand, I recall story about Australian soldiers in Vietnam having to change their diet to one with much less mutton because the VC could smell them coming.....
PETA are extremists, so of course they should be ignored...... right?
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What do we do with the cows?
Ever since I heard the new PETA message that cows contribute to global warming I've been wondering: what does PETA think we should do with the cows? Whether we eat them or not, they will continue to pass gas and eat vegetation. I assume, since its PETA, they don't want us to go out and kill all the cows on earth tomorrow, or force them to starve to death, but how does not eating cows stop the cows from polluting? I think PETA needs to answer this question right away.
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Play Beethoven
I don't care if you play Beethoven to the animals while you kill them, you're still killing them. I don't care if you hand feed them organic chow, the effects of energy intensive agriculture are higher for animals than for vegetables and grains.
Of course there is a sliding scale, where beef is the SUV of foods and chickens are more like Toyota Priuses. Of course it is better to eat organic, local, free range animals than factory animals. Of course you can reduce the amount of meat you use. But as the author of the "Ominivore's Dilemma" pointed out, not all 'free range' animals really are. Here in Minnesota, corporate 'organic' Archer Farms, backed by the Target Corporation, have been found to not use organic or free range methods, but advertise their products as such.
Such are the minefields. I am a 'fish' vegetarian, and I know full well species are overfished or are otherwise destroying environments, like Chilean salmon or some Indian shrimp. Another minefield.
After all that, the qualitative environmental line still remains between meat on one side, and grains / fruits / vegetables on the other. I can't put it any clearer. Those who think we can feed a massive world population with 'free range' meat are deluding themselves.
This was the message of "Diet for a Small Planet' back in the early 70s and it still is true, nearly 40 years later.