Why it is unfair to say that eating meat is unethical
May 30, 2018
Since the dawn of time, animals have eaten other animals. The hawk eats the snake which eats the mouse. Meat sustains animals, and humans, as animals, eat meat to sustain them. The food chain is a natural part of life, so to claim that eating meat is unethical is unnatural.
The only reason a person can become a vegetarian and claim that eating meat is unethical is because we live in a day and age where food can be processed to imitate the properties of meat. One hundred years ago, if a person did not eat meat, they most likely would not survive. Eating meat was and for some is still a way of survival.
If everyone in the world stopped eating meat, all of the people that work in the meat industry would lose their jobs. Is it ethical to cause worldwide poverty and rural upheaval? There is only one answer to that question. Much of Earth’s land is proven to be able to sustain only livestock agriculture instead of raising crops. We would be losing a business and its revenue and have no industry to replace it with. There is no alternative solution. We would be backing people into a corner of poverty and giving them no way out.
Vegetarianism, on the other hand, is a choice, and people have the right to choose whether they dine on a hamburger or not. If I eat meat it will not affect the fact that someone else may not, however if someone else forces me to comply with their views then I am losing my right to choose. To me, that is as unethical as it gets. As a matter of fact, only 3.2% of the U.S. population is vegetarian and only 0.5% are vegan. That leaves the other 96.3% of us pretty forgiving when others eat meat.
In the meat producing industry, there are undeniable reports of unethical treatment of animals. This inhumanity should not be tolerated by the carnivores of the world, and the solution to this problem is not to cut out meat altogether. When the branch of a tree is dying, do you cut down the whole tree or do you simply amputate the branch before the disease spreads? Cutting down the tree may solve the problem in a convoluted way, but one diseased area should not result in the demise of an entire system.
If you feel that animals are being treated unfairly, and you want to change this, there is so much that you can do. Advocate for your beliefs, right letters to congress asking for legislation, go to rallies, educate others on the inhumanity of the industry. The meat industry does not need to be killed, it needs to be saved.
Though the negative outcomes of eliminating meat are prevalent, I must admit there are benefits of vegetarianism, for the body, for the environment, and for the economy. However, to deny the world these benefits by choosing to eat meat is not unethical. It is merely a reason for us as humans to come up with alternative solutions to these issues. Eating meat is unavoidable for the entire human population. There is no situation where the governments of the world could collectively force the human population to stop eating meat, so it is not fair to suggest that those who do eat meat are denying the rest of the population the aforementioned environmental and economic benefits. Banning the consumption of meat is not the solution to these problems.
For the American carnivores, we live in a society where majority rules, and the majority has established that they are more than ok with eating meat. I respect vegetarians a lot for doing what they feel is right for them. But what is right for you is most often not what is right for others. It is unethical for a small group of people to force the larger population to comply with their minority opinion.
The non-vegetarian population is the majority, and we have decided that eating meat is ethical. As a proud omnivore, I believe that my right to eat meat is undeniable. Eating meat is a natural part of animal existence, and even though humans have evolved enough to create substitutes and survive without consuming meat, this doesn’t mean that we can’t or we shouldn’t. Meat is a natural part of life, and ethically, to have a nice steak is just keeping the food chain in motion.
Emma • Feb 3, 2021 at 6:06 am
Dear Abby Stern,
I have recently read your article regarding the ethics of meat consumption. I am writing this letter to explain why I completely disagree with the ideas you presented. Although I see where you and others come from with these arguments, they do not persuade me enough to agree with you.
You claim the following: “Since the dawn of time, animals have eaten other animals. The hawk eats the snake which eats the mouse”. So, since several animals eat their own faeces, are you going to do the same? Simply because animals in the wild eat each other does not mean that we should. Additionally, some animals must eat others to survive. Their bodies are simply not adapted to be herbivores. Us, humans, are totally different. Our bodies are not made to consume meat. You may notice this through our teeth, for example. Humans have small “canine” teeth while carnivores all have large canine teeth that are capable of tearing flesh. When you see a dead animal are you tempted to go and snack on it? Do you wish to kill a cow with nothing but yourself, and then eat it raw? I doubt you answered “yes” to these questions. Whether you like it or not, you are a herbivore.
According to the article you have written, you only believe that someone can become vegetarian because, nowadays, food can be processed to imitate the properties of meat. There are uncountable properties of meat that are extremely unhealthy such as the high saturated fat content. No one wants to imitate that. In fact, many people stop eating meat due to how unhealthy it is. Yes, there are plant-based “meats”. However, those were formulated to imitate the taste of the meat, which many enjoy. Also, there are people that lived long ago and didn’t eat meat such as Pythagoras who lived from ca. 570 BC to ca. 495 BC.
You state that if everyone in the world stopped eating meat “all of the people that work in the meat industry would lose their jobs” and that “There is no alternative solution“. Yes, farmers will have to readjust, gradually. However, the demand for plant based material is growing and the demand for animal products is declining. Some industries shrink, some grow and people must adapt. More jobs are actually being created to fulfill the demand of the consumers. Under no circumstances would the entire planet go vegan overnight, so there’s no need to worry about that kind of fall out. It seems to me that people are only interested in using this argument when it comes to animal exploitation. What about when people stop smoking? Should we not be concerned about the people that will lose their jobs in the tobacco industry?
Abby, in your article you affirm that: “It is unethical for a small group of people to force the larger population to comply with their minority opinion”. None of the non-meaters that I have met, actually force people around them to stop eating meat. They try to explain their opinion about eating meat and to educate others about the meat industry. The definition of force is the following: “make (someone) do something against their will.” When someone no longer consumes meat, it is not against their will, it is in favour of it because their opinion on consuming it has changed. They no longer want to be responsible for the negative impacts meat causes. Those who eat meat, cheese, eggs, honey, wear leather, feather and wool force others to actually die for their beliefs. You have to put yourself in the position of the victim. If you were the one who was getting your throat slit in a few seconds you would be the one begging for people like us to speak up and save you. The real question is: “Why are vegans/vegetarians not more forceful with their beliefs?”
Lastly, you conclude your article with the following: “Meat is a natural part of life, and ethically, to have a nice steak is just keeping the food chain in motion”. Since your jusitcation for being responsible for the murder of millions of animals is because it is “natural” then maybe you should do other “natural” things as well. Stop using your laptop and smartphone, squat over a hole in order to go to the toilet instead of using unnatural man-made sewage systems. Nothing about eating meat is natural, nowadays. The following is the definition of natural: “existing in or derived from nature; not made or caused by humankind”. The animals you eat are forcefully bred, domesticated and fed antibiotics, which was entirely done by humans. You state that eating meat is keeping the food chain in motion. You claim that you are part of the food chain. This means that you are totally ok with others killing you, right? If you think you belong to this system, you must comply with it. Furthermore, what humans do to animals could not be further detached from the food chain. It does not mimic anything about how animals sustain themselves in the wild. Also, food chains are important to maintain an adequate population size as well as the ecology of certain environments. Once again, what we do to animals is not related to this at all.
It is fair to say that eating meat is unethical. It is not fair to treat animals the way they are being treated since humans do not need meat to survive. What did you eat for dinner last night? I am sure that you can’t remember. Animals do not have to go through what they do for your 15 minute meal which, within a few hours, you forget about. They are treated like objects, just for your tastebuds. So the next time you have a “nice” steak in front of you, I hope that you think twice about taking a bit of it.
Your sincerely,
Mariana Kölmel