Ethics of eating meat Essay

contrive you ever wondered wherefore bulk dumbfound vegetarians? People who atomic engage sense 18 vegetarians look at to perish so for a wide variety of reasons. Being a vegetarian has render a popular and trendy during the past few decades. However, harmonise to Alan Beardsworth and Alan Bryman authors of M feast Consumption and M eliminate Avoidance Among Young People An 11-year longitudinal Study, advance hold started to eat much heart rather than perplex off it.Whether vegetarianism is on the rise or non, it is fire to discover what drives a soulfulness to contain a vegetarian lifestyle. John Lawrence hummock, professor of law at St. doubting Thomas University, schooldays of Law, and author of The Case for Vegetarianism, holds that active nine million Ameri advises atomic number 18 vegetarians, which is ab bulge out iv percentage of the entire race of the United States.Reasons for why pack of this group become vegetarians include health, non likin g the smack of inwardness, compassion for animals, and religious reasons. fit to K atomic number 18n Iacobbo, professor at Johnson and Wales University, and Michael Iacobbo, a diarist for the Associated Press and the Providence Pheonix, who argon both the authors of Vegetarians and Vegans in the States Today, plenty counterbalance become vegetarians in tack together to end world hunger. When stack find to become vegetarians, they atomic number 18 usu aloney motivated by a single reason. Iacobbo goes on to say that the person who regulated to become a vegetarian usu aloney adds other reasons why they became one (Iacobbo).Read Also beta Essay Topics for College StudentsI think this is true, because one thing might ultimately convince someone to become a vegetarian, but as they hold much about vegetarianism and meet other vegetarians, their reason for fair a vegetarian pull up s exacts become more reasons. In their book, Karen and Michael Iacobbo include a position taken by the Vegetarian Times in 1992 that stated that the majority of deal become vegetarians for health reasons, fol humiliateded by ethical, religious, environmental, and other reasons (74). Conversely, cumulation points out that 67 percent of bulk who become vegetarians did so because of animal scummy concerns, followed by 38 percent who were concerned with health. Either modal value, health and animal low-down are the two largest concerns for pot who decide to become vegetarians.Only four percent of the entire United States is vegetarian? This actually is not much of the population at all. If vegetarianism was so much better for you than existence an omnivore, shouldnt the number be much greater? If it is so easy to become a vegetarian, wouldnt there be more people converting? The answer should be yes, but why is this not the case?Those against the idea of becoming vegetarians beget the answers. They claim that vegetarianism is not as healthy as it claims to be. People choose not to become vegetarians so that they give the axe get all the vitamins that are essential for healthy life, because they are pregnant, or so that they can clutches a healthy bone density. All these reasons are to promote health. It is inte stoping to learn that most(prenominal) people become vegetarians for health reasons, while most people say they preserve omnivores for health reasons to a fault. Additionally, people are nerve centre-eaters because it is inconvenient to be a vegetarian.It can be very unmanageable for people who are accustomed to consume meat their whole life to scram the switch to vegetarianism. Another reason people do not compliments to be vegetarians is so they do not have to deal with brotherly situations that may arise because they are vegetarians. In this exploratory investigate piece of music I aim to learn the reasons why people choose or choose not to be vegetarians and to explain both sides of the vegetarian/anti-vegetarian argume nt.Health reasons are a major factor that makes people want to become vegetarians. Iacobbo claims that studies attest that a vegetarian diet can facilitate prevent or turnabout arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Prevention or permutation of diseases and cancer are great, reasonable, and amentiferous reasons to become a vegetarian. Suzanne Havala Hobbs, D.Ph., RD, clinical assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tells us sticking to a vegetarian diet can be challenging peculiarly if your motivation for going vegetarian is health (qtd. in Iacobbo 74). Becoming a vegetarian is difficult enough, and if someone doesnt scent like they are making a difference or feel like they have a unfluctuating enough motivation, he or she is likely to fail.An interesting quote that I found in my research is the fat you eat is the fat you wear, as stated by John McDougall, MD, (qtd. in Iacobbo 75). In other words, eatin g meat is apparently an insanitary diet and makes you fat. So, in order to not get fat, people become vegetarians because that diet is lower in fat. fit to Iacobbos book, Neal Bernard and his Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have gaine studies that wrangle that a vegan diet can result in a reversal of disease. His study is very significant because a diet without meat that can reverse disease is remarkable. More people should want to become vegetarians tho because of studies like this.Some people choose to be vegetarians because they dislike the gustation of meat. According to Hill, twelve percent of vegetarians are so because they do not like the preference of meat. This argument for becoming a vegetarian is quite unprejudiced because if a person does not like meat, they will not eat it. bosom-eaters cannot argue with the dislike of meat because it is just personal preference. I do not really understand why people dislike meat though. Possibly they have neer h ad meat cooked correctly so that it tastes delicious. by chance they have grown up most of their life without eating meat, and after they taste it, its just different from what they are apply to. In any situation, you cant really change someones mind to not be a vegetarian if they just dont like the taste of meat.Although some dont like the taste of eating meat, some are completely against it for the animals sakes. Animal cruelty and manufactory farming are two of the most popular reasons for becoming a vegetarian. Factory farming is a system of large-scale industrialized and intensive agriculture that is focused on profit with animals kept indoors and limit in mobility (Dictionary.com). Hill claims that factory farms do not care about the animals living conditions all factory farms care about is the profit they make off the animals they sell. Because there are places like factory farms, choosing meat can pose a puzzle for everyday omnivores. An interesting quote I came upon du ring my explorations was a quote about choosing to eat meat if you eat meat today, your typical choice is between animals raisedwith either more (chicken, turkey, fish, and pork) or less (beef) cruelty (Foer 243).I thought this quote was valuable because it explicitly states that there is no good way to choose meat. Any eccentric person of meat you could choose is bad because the animals were treated terribly. Foer similarly mentions that contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways is a great influence to potential vegetarians (243). Foer puts it quite plainly that the meat we eat every day comes from animals who were treated in cruel ways. People sometimes choose not to eat meat because they care about the way animals are treated before and at the time of death.People dont just become vegetarians for feeling sorry for animals. Some people have to be vegetarians because of their religion. Iacobbo states that for thousands of years, vegetarianism has been practiced for much(prenominal) religions as Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism, Seventh twenty-four hours Adventism, Mormonism, and Paganism. According to Hill, vegetarianism is also customary in Hinayana Buddhism. Hill goes on to state that Hinduism is known for its strict adherence to vegetarianism (32). So, vegetarian is extraordinarily popular throughout some(prenominal) religions all over the world. Although some people like to be vegetarians for variant other reasons, these religious people are required or suggested to be because of their religions. It is perfectly understandable for people to believe that they should be vegetarians because their religion requires them to be. astonishingly to some, people sometimes choose to become vegetarians in order to help end world hunger. This reason for becoming vegetarian was surprising to me because I had never heard of this reason before engaging in my research. Hill states that the problem is that a third of the worlds grain harvest is used to feed livestock, but about a billion people in the world are malnourished.He then proposes that the solution to this problem is to redo the system to better use the re showtimes to help eradicate world hunger. An anon. writer in Hills book calls this misuse of the resources inequitable distribution and states that if everyone became a vegetarian, it would be possible to give four lashings of edible grain to every starving person (qtd. in Hill 128). So, the less meat people eat, the more grains there are for the rest of the world to eat. If the cows, pigs, and chickens dont eat those grains, it gives more to the people who really pack it. Essentially, if the world were comprised of vegetarians, people would not suffer from starvation.Meat eating has been practiced for thousands and thousands of years. This alone for some is reason enough for being omnivorous. in that location are also other reasons to be a meat-eater though. Some of them are being pregnant, being a tike or toddler, getting all the vitamins and minerals necessary for a healthy life, inconvenience of being a vegetarian, and to lift complaisant situations and dealing with ones vegetarianism.A large sight of todays vegetarians is women. Women who are vegetarians or women who might want to become vegetarians might decide to not be vegetarians for their pregnancy. According to Nina Planck, author of existent Food What to Eat and Why, a woman who was expecting stated that before she became pregnant, she think that a vegan pregnancy was irresponsible. You cannot create and nourish a robust baby merely on foods from plants. Planck goes on to state that vegetarians who have babies that they would like to be vegetarians sometimes allow the babies to eat a non-vegan diet.She also argues that breast milk is the best provender for babies. She adds that sometimes vegans try to use soymilk as a replacement for breast milk, but that soy milk stunts growth and also decreases the absorption of protein and minerals. I agree that breast milk is the best source of nutrients for babies. Women were designed to make the milk for the babies to drink, so it should be the ideal nourishment for the babies.In addition, Planks claims that a vegan diet is equally dangerous for weaned babies and toddlers, who need plenty of protein and calcium. From her arguments we can deduce that for babies to have a vegetarian diet is unhealthy because they will not get enough protein, and will end up unhealthy. In summation, babies need to be omnivorous or at to the lowest degree be able to eat dairy products in order to have the healthiest lifestyle.Babies are not the only ones that need all their nutrients. Many people choose to be omnivores in order to get all the vitamins and nutrients they need. According to the article To Meat or Not to Eat, rude(a) out meat does not necessarily mean being healthy. Kids also could be cutting out key n utrients, especially if they go vegan. A vegetarian diet could be detrimental by itself, and I certainly agree that it could be even worse for young adults to be vegan. Winston J. Craig of the Department of Nutrition and Wellness at Andrews University declares that diets without eggs, fish, or seaweed do not have n-3 fatty acids that help with the cardiovascular system. Vegans do not eat eggs or fish, so they are likely to have more problems with their heart since these foods are not in their diet.Craig states that vegetarians and especially vegans have lower blood concentrations of n-3 fatty acids compared to meat eaters. Craigs article includes an EPIC-Oxford study, in which it was observed that vegans have a quarter of the cadence of vitamin D that non-vegetarians have. Penney explains that Vitamin D enables our bodies to use calcium. Without sufficient vitamin D, people will not be able to usurp and use the calcium they may or may not intake. Penney later adds that calcium is important for people to absorb for bone mass. Craig claims vegans tend to have lower concentrations of vitamin B-12, therefore creating vitamin B-12 deficiencies. So vegans will tend to have more vitamin B-12 deficiencies than non-vegans or non-vegetarians.Craig also argues that vegetarians have low intakes of calcium because of their diets. As Craig explains, a vitamin B-12 deficiency creates neurological and psychiatric complications. He adds that vegetarians consume less zinc than non-vegetarians, but evidence for this being a problem is lacking. However, some people are likely to not become vegetarians anyway so that if a lower intake of zinc turns out to be a problem, they will not have to worry. So, people are likely not to choose a vegetarian diet in order to gain all the n-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, vitamin B-12, and zinc their bodies require.According to Hill, the inconvenience of being a vegetarian is the most important reason, as a practical matter, that more people do no t become vegetarians (154). Hill states that twenty-seven percent of vegetarians found not eating meat very hard to do. Hill understands why vegetarianism can be difficult to adopt, stating that eating meat is easier, more enjoyable, and more convenient than eating a vegetarian diet. He calls kickoff a vegetarian diet downright burdensome. So even according to a vegetarian, starting vegetarianism can be a difficult task to undertake.Non-vegetarians may decide to stay vegetarians for hearty reasons. A common belief among meat-eaters is, according to Hill, if they become a vegetarian, they will become a hermit, a recluse, or social outcast (155). Facing situations where people have to admit to being a vegetarian can stop people from becoming vegetarians altogether. Hill adds that it is especially a popular decision to stay omnivorous if the person has to go to many outings at restaurants with clients or business partners. They may feel ashamed or shy to admit that they are vegetaria ns, so they will just stay meat eaters instead.An interesting bit of information that I found during my research was a list of notable people who were vegetarians. Hill lists them they are people such as king of beastsnardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Edison, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Schweitzer, and Mahatma Gandhi (xiv). Also mentioned by Hill as vegetarians were ancient philosophers and writers such as Socrates, the father of ancient rationalism and humanism Plato and Ovid (xiv). When I determine these names, it made me feel like I should become a vegetarian too because these people are such amazing people in history, and becoming a vegetarian would make me feel like I am more notable like them. If some of the biggest names in history were vegetarians, shouldnt we take note and become vegetarians as well? Possibly. But I dont think that I could ever give up my meat for good.Being a vegetarian means to give up all meat, and to not eat it consistently. Vegetarians may choose to be so because of health reasons or for concerns for the treatment of animals. They may decide to take up vegetarianism to help end world hunger or for their religion. More simply, some people become vegetarians because they just dont like the taste of meat. However, non-vegetarians decide against vegetarianism for health reasons as well. It may be safer and healthier for pregnant mothers to be omnivores and for their babies or toddlers to be omnivores as well.Many people choose to stay omnivores because they would like to obtain all the vitamins a diet with meat brings. Others may be meat-eaters because it is inconvenient to be a vegetarian or to avoid social situations they dont wish to face. After my research, I have concerns if vegetarians take vitamin supplements to supply all the vitamins they would get if they ate meat, if they are as powerful as the meat. I also wonder if vegetarianism became more successful, h ow would a far-flung participation in vegetarianism affect the economy of the United States? And finally, how do vegetarians feel about the genetic manipulation of crops?Works CitedAnti-Vegetarian T-Shirt 156790. N.d. JPEG. Eshirts.com. 7 Oct. 2011. Web. Beardsworth, Alan, and Alan Bryman. Meat Consumption and Meat Avoidance Among Young People An 11-year Longitudinal Study. British Food diary 106.4 (2004). 14 Oct. 2011. Web. Criag, Winston J. Health Effects of Vegan Diets. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 89.5 (May 2009). 14 Oct. 2011. Web. Factory Farming.Dictionary.coms 21st vitamin C Lexicon. Dictionary.com, LLC. 09 Nov. 2011. Web. Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. New York Little, Brown, and Company, 2009. Print. Hill, John Lawrence. The Case for Vegetarianism. Maryland Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1996. Print. Iacobbo Karen, and Michael Iacobbo. Vegetarians and Vegans in America Today. Connecticut Praeger, 2006. Print. Penney, Debra S. Nutritional Cou nseling for Vegetarians During Pregnancy and Lactation. SciVerse Science Direct 53.1 (Jan. Feb. 2008) 31 Oct. 2011. Web. Planck, Nina. Death by Veganism. New York Times 21 May 2007. 31 October 2011. Web. Protein? N.d. JPEG. Vegetarian Fighters. 7 Oct. 2011. Web.To Meat or Not to Meat. Current Events 108.16 (2009) 7. Academic take care Premier. EBSCO. 14 Oct. 2011. Web.