Is It Ethical to Eat Beef

Not too long ago the New York Times asked its readers to write essays in no more than 600 words explaining why information technology'south ethical to eat meat. They wanted to hear how meat-eaters defend themselves against the overwhelming perception that a establish-based diet is best for ourselves and the planet.

This was probably one of the hardest blogs I've e'er had to write equally brevity is non my strong adapt. There were a 1000 other things I wanted to say.  For example, I wasn't able to talk over the health benefits of eating meat.

Only 600 words is 600 words, and so I did the all-time I could inside those guidelines.

Is it ethical to eat meat? Here's my perspective…

Why It's Ethical to Consume Meat

Very few in the modern world grow their ain nutrient anymore.  We've allowed the food industry to oversee food production for us.  For decades this seemed like a skillful bargain.  I don't know virtually you, just I know few people who would trade their modern comforts for the manual labor of farm work.

Merely what nosotros're waking upwardly to in recent decades is that this bargain has a price.  At that place is a growing awareness of the horrors of the industrial model that prioritizes turn a profit over wellness, that takes more from the earth than information technology gives dorsum.  At the top of these horrors are the abuses of animals in factory farms.  Anyone with a pulse can see this model is destructive and unethical.

This kind of meat production lends weight to the argument that information technology is unethical to eat meat.

The other common argument is that the very nature of killing animals for nutrient is wrong and that we tin survive without animal products.

I'd like to address both arguments by request a question.

If the world'due south supply of fossil fuels were to run out tomorrow, what would you eat?

For starters, you wouldn't swallow anything in a supermarket.

Supermarkets are the realm of industrialized food and at the cadre of this system are the fossil fuels that power the machinery to allow us to farm on a large scale and transport food long distances.  We know fossil fuels are not sustainable.

Without fossil fuels, you would therefore eat what your local surroundings provided. For the majority of people on this planet, that would include meat. Institute-based diets are not natural to climates and landscapes that don't support varied institute life. Simply ask the Eskimos.

Furthermore, many animals are efficient converters of scrubby vegetation to a usable form of protein for humans.  This has served endless cultures in areas of the globe without tillable soil.  Sometimes I recollect we forget this in soil-rich America.

And the other indicate is that when you look at the upshot of growing food sustainably, animals are admittedly necessary.  For example, manure is nature'due south fertilizer and promotes soil integrity.  Fossil-fuel-based fertilizers promote soil erosion. They have given us vast fields of corn, soybeans, and wheat, much of which goes into the processed, food-deficient, lifeless food that fills our supermarket shelves.

Joel Salatin says, "There's no system in nature that does not have an animal component every bit a recycling agent. Doesn't exist. Fruits and vegetables do best if there is some creature component with them – chickens or a side shed with rabbits. Manure is magic."

Historically, this is why we don't see whatever traditional cultures that always voluntarily chose veganism.  Animals have evolved with humans. Cows, chickens, sheep, and pigs would non survive long in the wild.  We provide them life and they give life to us.  Information technology's a mutually benign human relationship.

"Meat is murder" is the battle cry of many vegetarians.  But I see more than murder in the plastic-wrapped, genetically-modified, chemic-sprayed tofu burger than I do in my local grass-fed burger. How many animals had to die for that soybean field to exist planted?  I could say the aforementioned about but near every plant-based food in supermarkets which destroys the diversity in ecosystems to grow crops unsustainably.

Nature thrives on diversity and that includes animals.  We need to award the cycles of life and death in our nutrient.  That means choosing foods that promote sustainability.

Eating meat from farms that promote sustainability promotes life in all forms, including ours. This is not only ethical, information technology is also necessary.

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