Should We All Become Vegetarians?

Should all people become vegetarians ?

As we can now observe, vegetarianism has become something fashionable, and the number of people who reject eating meat is constantly increasing. In Britain, for instance, over 5 million people have done it so far. It is obviously connected with the recent animal diseases, but this tendency is likely to spread on the other regions of the world. However, it is not only a fashion or fear of illnesses. I myself became a vegetarian about 2 years ago, and I can see a number of reasons why people should stop eating meat. They are mainly of ethic, economic and health type. Those who think in an ecological way should also be aware of how this meat consumption ruins our environment. I don't have an intention to force anybody to become a vegetarian, but I hope that my argumentation would be strong enough to make some people think about it, at least. In this essay I will try to present this point of view, expressing my personal feelings and showing scientific facts about the problem. Let me begin with the words by George Bernard Shaw: ‘Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends'. This indicates the ethic aspect of meat consumption. In fact, people often don't realize how animals are treated, but they can see commercial spots in their TV showing smiling pigs, cows or chickens, happy and ready to be eaten. My impression is that there can't be anything more cruel and senseless. It is no secret that animals suffer all their life from the lack of living space, unnatural diet and doping. Finally, they are transported to slaughterhouse, where they are stunned by electricity and then brutally slain with a chopper. Life of such animal is full of pain and fear. It is a sad truth that nobody thinks about it while eating pork-chops. People often consider animals as a still matter, not living creatures. It also needs to be pointed out that meat production industry is highly unfriendly to the environment. It has been proved that the results of this mindless actions are extremely harmful to the whole planet: trees are lost in creating farms for animal food, land is taken away from wildlife, additional erosion is caused, topsoil is lost, groundwater is wasted, and pesticide is excessively used. In fact, one chicken farm uses as much water as a little city. Few may know that this industry, compared to others, causes the biggest pollution at all. One cannot omit the fact that there are some global economical problems caused by mass meat consumption, such as starvation. Cattle are fed soybeans, corn, and other grains that could be eaten directly by people. You can feed a cow 16 pounds of food, and only one pound becomes meat that people can eat. The other 15 pounds are waste. It has been proved that decreasing global meat production by 10% would allow us to feed additional 60 million people. I am convinced that it is a strong argument why all people should become vegetarians. On the other hand, some may claim that we are carnivores and that it is natural for us to eat meat. I beg to differ. Human body was not designed to hunt animals but for picking fruits off trees, berries off bushes, and for harvesting roots and grains. We are herbivores, like elephants, giraffes, and oxen. A tiger can eat as much meat as he can for every day of his life, but he will never get hardening of the arteries. In addition he has ten times bigger hydrochloric acid concentration in his stomach than us, and his bowels are two times shorter. A moment's reflection shows that our bodies are not designed for meat, and the depravation of proper nutrition has caused the terrible diseases that we have come to accept as normal. It is a scientific fact that vegetarians have substantially less heart attacks, strokes and cancers. The conclusion seems inescapable that vegetarianism is a reasonable way of feeding. Not only would it help to solve the famine problem, but the whole environment would greatly benefit from that as well. As far as ethics is concerned, Mohandas Gandhi used to say: ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.' However, it is indeed a really sad truth that people don't usually care about that. What's more, they don't even care about their own health. All things considered, if you want to make some moral progress, if you want to improve your health, and if the Earth and starving children mean something to you, you should try to stop eating meat. Yes, it is my strong conviction that all people should become vegetarians.