Philosophy of Vegetarianism Part 2 (#6)

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     Hi, all. As I said in my first post, linked above, in this post I will be covering the 'moral high ground' of vegetarians and vegans, some other vegetarian philosophers and their reasons, as well as debunking some myths on why people think humans should  eat meat.

First I will be talking about this sort of 'moral high ground', and where vegetarians and vegans draw the line. I first learned the term moral high ground a while ago when I was doing some research and came across this website, which I will be referencing a bit in this section. Basically, some people think that vegetarians and vegans adopt this moral high ground basically saying "I don't eat animals so I'm a better person" kinda thing. As I'm sure plenty of you know, many vegetarians or vegans tend to become a bit evangelical once we adopt this lifestyle. I've definitely been guilty of it but I try to keep my preaching to a minimum. I'm sure many of us have met or at least seen a meme about the vegan who just has to tell everyone about their veganism and how people shouldn't eat meat and just push it in people's face all the time. I definitely can understand where those people are coming from; once you get passionate about it you just want to share it. But, alas, this is what gives us a bad name- it makes us look like we've adopted a high ground and see ourselves as better than others. This is sort of the basis for the question that I came across quite a lot when doing research not only for this paper but just for my vegetarian journey as well, which is "Where do you draw the line?"  The website I linked above mentioned this, as have many people I've personally met and told about my vegetarianism. Many people ask it, and it tends to be seen as a question that says "I really stumped 'em now, there's no point to what they're doing after all!". People think that since you don't eat meat/animal products you automatically are never allowed to accidentally kill a bug ever again. I literally read a something once that talked about how when you drive a car you inevitably kill bugs that hit your windshield, so if vegetarians really are so serious about saving animals, they should't drive anymore. I also saw something that said when you walk outside you inevitably kill ants and other small bugs on the ground by stepping on them so vegetarians shouldn't walk outside. Some people will really say anything to make vegetarianism seem ridiculous. And, of course, people often make the point that some plants 'feel' pain, or at least make the point that animals eat plants so by being vegetarian we are just eating all the food the animals need. I mean, does any of this seem ridiculous to you, because it really does to me. I've recently been reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation, which I briefly mentioned in my last post. In the book he discusses this topic a bit. What I got from it was that the whole point is trying to minimize the suffering of animals, obviously especially the human-induced and unnecessary suffering. Ants get stepped on and animals die in the wild every day, and there really isn't much we can do about that. But we can stop eating meat and start being aware of the consequences of our actions that cause millions of animals to die for what, human enjoyment? As humans we can never be perfect and obviously we will never be able to totally end animal death and suffering, but we can make a difference where it needs to be made.

     Okay, onto some less preachy stuff (my bad).  Anyways, now I am going to discuss some philosophers that were vegetarian or vegan and some of their reasons. Pythagoras was seen as the first important vegetarian. He apparently required members of his philosophical following to not eat meat. Before the word 'vegetarian' was commonly used, people who didn't eat meat were called 'Pythagoreans'. Plato was also a vegetarian, because abstaining from eating meat was seen as more wholesome. Zeno, the father of Stoicism, also observed a vegetarian diet but said that not all vegetarians did it for the animals sake, but that it was just a more wholesome way of living. Down the line a but is Plutarch, who is seen as one of the earliest advocated of animal issues. He was a vegetarian who, like others, were influenced by Pythagoras, but unlike many others, said that animals were rational, sentient beings. He also argued that humans physical features as well as our digestive make up is not made for eating animals. Leonardo da Vinci was also a vegetarian, as well as Voltaire and Arthur Schopenhaur. Some philosophers that were more widely known for their vegetarianism include Peter Singer, John Stuart Mills, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, and David Pearce.

    For the last part of this report I'm gonna be refuting, or debunking some myths that a lot of meat-eaters tend to use as reasons that humans should not live on a vegetarian diet. I don't have links to all of these sources because I did this research several months ago (to use against my friends who liked to tell me that humans need to eat meat) but I will do the best I can. I'm gonna divide these up into separate paragraphs so they're a little easier to read.

     A lot of people say that humans have physical/internal features that shows that we are designed to eat meat. This NPR article is where I got most of my information about this from. So, many people

think that since humans have canine teeth then that means we are meant to eat meat. However, plenty of vegetarian animals ranging from gorillas to water deer have larger, sharper canines than humans do. In fact, humans lack sharp carnassial teeth that many carnivorous animals, such as lions, tigers, raccoons, even house cats, have in the back of their mouths that break down meat. Let me say this: about 2.6 million years ago, when humans were still developing, humans began eating meat, and since that was so much easier to chew than the root foods they had been eating up to that point, they developed smaller teeth, a smaller and less muscular jaw, and some other differences in our necks and heads. While human meat consumption may be part of the reason for how we developed, a time.com article I read said "none of that, of course, means that increased meat consumption is necessary for proto-humans 21st century descendants".

     On to some more health related facts. One of the first things people say when I tell them I'm vegetarian is "but where do you get your protein?". Plenty of vegetables, such as leafy greens, beans, legumes, etc., as well as things like tofu, have plenty of protein to sustain someone on a vegan diet, and of course there are always vitamins and protein supplements. In most cases, when people switch from a diet that contains meat to a plant-based one, their intake of most other vitamins and nutrients improves. There is actually some overwhelming evidence as to why meat is unhealthy for humans. For example, animals products are the only source of cholesterol and animal fat, clog arteries and lead to stroke heart, attack, diabetes, etc. The consumption of animal products has been linked to cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, and arthritis. In the case of most cancers, the rate is higher in places where meat consumption is highest and lower in places where meat consumption is less common. In 2015, scientist from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer evaluated over 800 medical studies which led them to conclude that consumption of processed meat is carcinogenic to humans. Other conclusions based on overwhelming evidence for positive associations between processed meat consumption and colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer. In addition, eating plant foods instead of animal products can lead to other health benefits such as reductions in the incidence of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attack, stoke, and cancer.

    The last bit I want to touch on is the topic of grass fed animals. Grass fed meat is healthier for you- it is leaner, higher in key nutrients and pack more omega-3 fatty acids. However, the amounts aren't really enough to make a difference. In addition, grass fed doesn't have an official definition. In theory, true grass fed animals have only been fed their mothers milk and grass for their whole lives. But, because there is no standard, meat labeled as grass fed could be from animals that spent very little time outside eating grass. Also, grass fed does not mean organic. For organic meat, the animal has to have access to the outdoors and an organic, vegetarian feed. Overall, grass fed meat is healthier for you, but not much 'healthier' than normal processed meat. And while it may come from animals that were treated better than other meat animals, it probably wasn't.

    I know this was a really long report, I just wanted to share as much as I could. I would honestly write more about this if I could. If you read this, I hope that even if it has no effect on your diet, it at least gets you thinking about the problems with eating meat, both ethically and health-wise.

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