speaking up day XI: meat

Ok, April's speaking up day concerns an area where you can have a lot of impact without waiting for the various procedures and roadblocks that accompany policy change. You can vote with your dollars, in other words. It's meat consumption, and if you know me, you know I'm pretty low-key and non-intrusive about my personal decision to be vegetarian, but today I'm going to lay it all on the line and give you a thousand good reasons why you should try to curb your meat consumption.

Before we get started, I'm not advocating becoming vegan by dinner tonight. I personally started slow: no red meat, then no factory farm meat, then no cooking with meat, then just fish, then no meat at all. The process took about 8 months. If I had thought during that time, "What difference does this make?" I probably wouldn't have continued into vegetarianism, where I am today (happily). What I did focus on was how wrong our industrial food system is, and that gave me the motivation to (slowly) change my habits. So here come a flood of different reasons:

Environmental:

If you're concerned about climate change (you know, melting of the ice caps, disruption of centuries-old weather patterns, famines, floods, polar bears and puffins and shit dying, etc.) you can buy a hybrid car and marginally lessen your carbon footprint, or you can stop contributing to a bigger greenhouse gas producing industry: livestock. Land animals have a bigger global warming impact than transport. The methane that they produce is 20 times more effective at trapping heat than the carbon dioxide from cars. According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week, the greenhouse gas savings would be equivalent to taking 500,000 cars off the roads.

If you're not concerned about climate change, there is still the huge impact of livestock production on an increasingly-strained water supply. It takes 100,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of beef. Agriculture accounts for 87% of all US fresh water consumption. If you want to reduce your water impact, you can stop taking showers altogether, or you can cut meat out of your diet. Additionally, there is the issue of concentrated waste from factory farms seeping into and contaminating water supplies.

Maybe you're concerned about land use. In 1900, about 10% of grain produced worldwide was fed to animals. Today, it's 60%. The raising of livestock (21 billion land animals slaughtered each year) takes up more than 2/3 of agricultural land and 1/3 of land total. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef. While it is true that some livestock forage on plants like grass that aren't edible to humans, factory farming relies on grains that could go towards feeding humans, essentially throwing calories down the tubes.

Ethical:

The above concerns bleed into issues of world hunger. A Cornell scientist estimates that the U.S. could feed 800 million people with the grain that we feed to livestock. Naturally, there are plenty more concerns than simple grain production in solving world hunger, but a shift towards a plant-based diet would certainly not hurt. Besides, if the rate at which the world consumes meat and feeds meat with grains edible to humans continues to increase, it will eventually become quite literally a choice between eating meat and allowing others to live.

Spiritual:

"Flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;

And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine" (D&C 89:12-13 aka Word of Wisdom, emphasis added).

"Wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need" (D&C 49:21).

"Blood shall not be shed, only for meat, to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands" (JST Gen. 9:11).

"I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of any kind during our journey unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves from hunger" (Joseph Smith).

"Kindness to the whole animal creation and especially to all domestic animals is not only a virtue that should be developed, but is the absolute duty of mankind ... It as an unrighteous thing to treat any animal cruelly" (Joseph F. Smith).

"So we see that the Lord intends to save, not only the earth and the heavens, not only man who dwells upon the earth, but all things which he has created" (Joseph Fielding Smith).

"I would like to add some of my feelings concerning the unnecessary shedding of blood and destruction of life ... And not less with reference to the killing of innocent birds is the wildlife of our country that live upon the vermin that are indeed enemies to the farmer and to mankind. It is not only wicked to destroy them, it is a shame, in my opinion. I think that this principle should extend not only to the bird life but to the life of all animals" (Spencer W. Kimball).

Factory farming is a clearly cruel practice. As meat-eaters, we perpetuate the cruel treatment of God's creations*. According to scripture, we will be held accountable for the blood we shed or cause to be shed that isn't necessary for our survival. Eating meat simply because we like it makes wanton use of creation. Plus, the rampant waste in our industrial food system makes ungrateful use of what the Lord has given us, breaking the Word of Wisdom.

Health:

For most people, eating meat is unnecessary. It's an individual determination. Consistent with the warning in the Doctrine & Covenants, I am not forbidding the eating of meat. Humans (you and your health) are more important than animals. But for the vast majority of people, meat is not only unnecessary, but not as healthy as a vegetable diet. As the above scriptures don't treat this directly, there is also the story of Daniel, where he and his friends who refuse meat and eat only grain are judged to be healthier than the control group who ate meat.

If you want modern day science demonstrating the same conclusion, there is no lack. Most notable is the comprehensive China Study, which demonstrated that a diet that relies more on vegetable proteins than animal proteins reduces the risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Additionally, there is the additive component in factory farm meat. When you eat that shit you're also eating the growth hormones and loads of antibiotics that they feed those animals because they raise them in such cramped, unhealthy, unsterile conditions. You have to cook ground beef and not steak because when they grind beef they get some of the rind and consequently feces in the meat. That's just plain dirty.

Conclusion:

These are the reasons why I'm happier not eating meat. Also, since I stopped eating meat, I've actually felt stronger. When I ate meat, I would feel shaky and faint fairly regularly. I rarely feel that way since I went vegetarian. I get plenty of protein, and I've had no problem exercising, lifting weights, running long distances, etc.

If you're still wondering how your decision to cut back on meat (or whatever personal decision this post may have prompted you to consider) would make a difference, consider this: if you're reading this post, you're probably one of my friends, and (nearly) all of my friends are educated, intelligent, sophisticated people who are or will be leaders in some sphere or another. At some point, our consumption of the world's resources will have to undergo a change by necessity. You will be a part of that, undoubtedly. Your decision to address issues like this today instead of ten years from now can have a significant impact, not only in terms of your own personal consumption but in the people you influence and the global conversation of which you are a prominent part. To paraphrase Elder Zosima from the Brothers Karamazov, the whole world is an ocean, and every action we make has repercussions across the globe. Love, Bob.

*As a non-vegan, I realize I'm susceptible to this same criticism. Let this underscore the point that I'm not trying to be on some high horse condemning omnivores. It's a process, and I'm at a point in that process where I'm not ready for a completely vegetarian (vegan) diet.