I long ago got used to the funny looks and cheesy jokes that almost inevitably come when I tell someone that I am a vegetarian. Explaining why I eat no meat very little eggs and dairy and nearly all raw foods to someone with a slight smirk has come to seem routine. And it has almost become easy to laugh off the good-natured jeers of friends and their taunting with supposedly tempting-looking meat concoctions.
Except to me the implications of dietary choices are no laughing matter. The ethical environmental economic and health consequences of America’s diet heavy on meat processed and packaged foods and calories are too enormous to simply shrug off. Next time you sit down to a nice juicy burger consider where it came from and the effect such a decision has on you your fellow creatures and the world.
That slab of ground meat sitting in front of you most likely came from a cow raised on a factory farm where it was confined in a space too small for it to comfortably move around and packed in with numerous other cows all wallowing in their own collective feces. In order to guard against infection in such an unsanitary environment it was pumped with antibiotics typically consuming eight times more by volume than the average human degrading the quality of the meat and promoting the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains. When accounting for the less-than-careful disposal of its feces its consumption of many acres of grain and corn feed and the runoff of fertilizer used to grow all of this feed the detriment to the environment is great using far more resources and poisoning far more life than the energy in its meat could ever compensate for.
When the cow was sent off to the slaughterhouse things got even worse. There it could have become One of the 5 percent of cattle that are skinned alive due to less-than-thorough slaughtering procedures. It then was most likely skinned and processed in the fastest way possible often not taking any care to avoid contamination of the meat by either contact with feces from the hide of the animal or with sensitive tissues which can carry diseases such as the spinal cord. The cuts making up the majority of the hamburger now sitting before you were the ones most susceptible to this contamination mostly consisting of trimmings the fatty excess of meat discarded during the carving process. And because the FDA regulations regarding our meat products are lax if they are enforced at all you have no way of knowing what is in this meat where it came from and if it is safe.
After being butchered and packaged the cow that became your hamburger was shipped off to a fast food joint or a supermarket shelf where it along with the highly processed and packaged foods that make up the majority of America’s food purchases would feed the rising problem that is our country’s increasingly unhealthy diet. Over two-thirds of Americans battle obesity with excessive meat processed packaged foods and exorbitant calorie intakes the main culprits. This contributes to all manner of health problems including diabetes heart attacks and cancer increasing the annual expenditure on health care by as much as $147 billion.
And meat is only the beginning. I have not even begun to go into what is lurking in that milk and cereal you had for breakfast this morning or that bag of chips you are going to reach for during your break from class. The environmental impact of these items is enormous when accounting for factors such as energy to process the food materials to package them and fuels used to transport them. All of the preservatives unnatural ingredients and fats in these and other packaged items contribute to obesity and any number of health problems. These products are slowly ruining our health and our world.
However this unsustainable system cannot last forever. Already people are making the move to more health – and environmentally conscious dietary choices that are not limited to “extremes” such as veganism vegetarianism or a raw diet. Even scaling back the amount of meat you eat in a week by a few servings; increasing your intake of fresh local produce; buying free-range organically-raised meat and unpackaged foods; and decreasing your caloric intake can greatly decrease the impact on your health your fellow creatures and your world.
Don’t let the jeers and the smirks fool you. Americans don’t eat the way they do because it is healthy or right but because it is a cultural phenomenon. Luckily it is one that can be changed if enough people are willing to stand up and find healthy alternative options to our current unsustainable system. So much must change if we wish to continue to happily and healthily enjoy our world and all of its creatures.