Eating Animals

Recently, I have begun to take an interest in what I eat.

I don’t just mean what I put in my body, in terms how much sugar, how much salt; but also, where my food comes from, how it is created, and what effect it might have on my body and on the environment.

I’ve become interested because, in my lifetime, the grocery store has evolved into something unfathomable and complex. There are so many choices, and so many conflicted interests, that I’m starting to feel confused about what to buy, about what is ethical and what is healthy.

For example, is it worthwhile to buy organic, or should I just buy whatever is cheap? Is it healthier to buy Diet or Low-fat? “Free-range” or “cage-free”? What is the “process” of processed foods? What is a preservative, and what exactly does “natural flavour” mean?

The popular opinion on the topic is that we, as a culture, consume too much sugar, too much fat, and too many empty calories. We all know that North America’s “fast-food” mindset has resulted in a crippling obesity epidemic, ridden with early-onset diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

Delicious, cheap, and highly processed foods (oily, salty, sweet) bathe our brains in pleasure chemicals, but also contain more fat, sugar, and calories than could ever occur naturally. How much do we understand about how these foods are made?

Since processed foods are, by their very nature, jam-packed with more fat and calories than any natural food could be, we consume more calories, even if we don’t actually consume more food. (They don’t make us fuller, just fatter.) Even though we know these foods are bad for us, they are also inexpensive and convenient, not to mention tasty; and, thanks to the think-tanks at the top (and also our animalistic desires), instead of curbing our fast-food habits, we are collectively consuming more processed foods and more calories every day than ever before, at a record low cost.

There are a lot of lecturers out there. We are advised to stay away from carbohydrates, and to eat less saturated fat. But if you look at the nutritional information on products like yogurt, mayonnaise, and peanut butter, you will find that the “low-fat” versions contain more sugar, and therefore more overall calories. On the other hand, while “diet” sodas contain no calories at all, they do contain synthetic sugar replacements which have unknown consequences for human health.

And organic foods – while they are produced without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and are therefore inarguably better for the environment and for our health – can still be genetically modified and chemically processed, and can still burn up astounding amounts of fossil fuels when they’re shipped in refrigerated trucks from Central America to Canada.

I’m starting to get the idea that food technology has reached a monumental (and incomprehensible) level. 

In the interest of feeding the world (and, let’s be realistic, pure profit), the food industry has pushed the bounds of science, engineering our foods to grow faster and more efficiently, and at a fraction of the cost; taking these foods apart molecule by molecule, and then recreating them in different ways so they taste better (and contain more calories); synthetically creating flavours and even entire foods, and then adding supplements and preservatives for an unnaturally long shelf-life. The majority of what we eat today is this kind of food: inexpensive, genetically modified, highly processed, and synthetically flavoured. What is it doing to our bodies?

For example, the same technological advances that provide us with cheap poultry, beef, pork, and fish also create the nightmare of human epidemic diseases. That’s because the vast majority of our meat is factory farmed, where animals live in crowded “cities” beside enormous manure lakes. They’re fed daily antibiotics as a precaution – unfortunately raising the immunity of bacteria, creating “super bugs”. Viruses, too, have evolved: H1N1, Swine Flu, SARS, and Bird Flu have all originated in factory farms in North America.

Besides the fact that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trains, planes, and boats on earth combined, environmentalists (and humane and empathetic people) should be aware of the enormous suffering of the animals that live and die in these conditions.

Thanks to industry standards, it turns out that chickens living in “cage-free” or “free range” environments are not arguably better off than their caged counterparts. They still spend the majority of their short lives in windowless, overcrowded environments where they are fed, among other things, antibiotics, and blood plasma from previously slaughtered chickens. Factory-farmed birds account for 99% of all the chicken we consume, and all of them, regardless of whether they are raised for meat or eggs, have been genetically modified to such an extent that they can no longer reproduce naturally. They have their beaks removed in their first days of life; and, since their Frankenstein genetics force them to grow much faster than their bones possibly can, their legs can no longer hold them upright.  

On the other hand, high-protein crops, such as soybeans, devastate the environment when they are grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides, leaching nutrients out of the earth year after year, polluting ground water and releasing methane into the atmosphere. Soy has also been found to mimic estrogen in the human body, and can cause hormonal imbalances in women. Also, meat replacements, like veggie dogs, for example, contain long lists of unpronounceable synthetic additives, processes, flavours, colours, and preservatives. 

So where does this leave us?

I mean – no wonder we’re confused.

I finally read Michael Pollan’s iconic book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, hoping that he would clarify some important points for me. (The book is an unsurpassed introduction to this topic if you are interested.)

And, while the book was my “gateway drug” into the world of food production, it left me with more questions than answers. My research has accumulated over the past year toward what is, for me, a revolutionary lifestyle change.

Now that I’m fully aware of where meat comes from, how it’s produced, and at what cost, I can no longer eat it. The good taste of meat cannot justify, for me, the participating in, and the contributing to, an industry that I recognize as evil in a multitude of ways. I’m saying that, in the same way that animal desires, like lust, cannot justify the raping and killing of animals, nor can my sense of taste continue to justify killing and eating them.

And, in the same way that I would never torture and kill a dog, I cannot justify the torture and inhumane termination of other sensible animals that can feel pain, horror, panic, and loss.

Inhumane and without conscience, the meat industry – operating factory farms that cause needless and horrendous animal suffering, that devastate the environment, and that cause the rapid decline of human health – the industry can no longer be tolerated by those of us who demand better.

That being said, I intend to embark on a vegetarian journey from here on out.