October: Vegetarian Awareness Month!

World Vegetarian Awareness Month

Hello Readers! As you're probably aware, October is Vegetarian Awareness Month, and October 1st was World Vegetarian Day (to be celebrated with Vanilla-Cardamom Cupcakes with Rosewater Icing, obviously).

As for myself, today I would like to engage in a little bit of self-indulgent reflection. First, I'd like to share some specific reasons that I believe the vegetarian lifestyle is a good choice for me. Secondly, I would like to write very candidly on the real challenges that I face on a daily basis. In short, let's talk about veggie motivation and veggie reality.

First things first. The reasons to go vegetarian are almost too numerous to name (but we'll give it a shot).

Physical Benefits: Vegetarian diets are some of the healthiest diets in the world.

• Vegetarians are at lower risk for obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, diverticulosis, renal disease, some cancers (including lung and breast), and gallstones (Source).
• A vegetarian diet decreases exposure to food-borne illnesses and damaging free radicals (Source).
• Vegetarians consume larger quantities of vegetables, legumes, fruits, and grains, thereby increasing their consumption of many essential vitamins and minerals, fiber, and antioxidants (Source).

Environmental and Social Benefits: Vegetarian diets reduce the negative impact of man on the environment, and help funnel resources to those that need them most.

• Farmland used for meat production produces millions of tons more carbon dioxide and methane than does farmland used to produce vegetable foodstuffs (Source).
• Each animal slaughtered for food consumes 16 pounds of edible vegetable food stuffs (corn, grain, soybeans, etc.) for every pound of edible flesh. This grain would be put to better use feeding human beings (Source).
• Here is a great article from Green Living Ideas that sums up many studies of energy consumption for food production, particularly as it relates to livestock. It includes many links to relevant, peer-reviewed research studies.

Morality: This is perhaps the trickiest motivation of them all, and perhaps the most compelling. However, if you just don't care about the suffering of animals....then you don't care. But if you do care, this argument is pretty compelling. (Warning: This Video Contains Graphic Material)

When taken together, I think that the combination of these facts is so compelling that it would be difficult to defend an omnivorous diet. In fact, it might be difficult to defend anything but a vegan diet under these terms. (Visit PETA for a comprehensive if somewhat impassioned explanation of all of the above phenomenon.)

So........... why is it so hard then?

For me, the desire to consume meat (or the lack there of) has never been much of a factor in determining whether or not I will maintain a veggie lifestyle, or whether I will backslide into meat consumption. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed well-prepared meat in the past, but I don't crave it regularly (probably due to the fact that I've either been, or nearly been, a vegetarian since I was 14 years old).

The Context of Food
The real issue is, and always has been, social pressure. Personally, I believe that the resistance from friends and family comes out of three fundamental social contexts:

(1) Meat Eating and the Herding Culture

Meat eating is the keystone of herding culture (of which the Abrahamic cultures are descendant). This sentiment is particularly explicit in the creation myth of Adam and Eve, wherein God grants the infamous progenitors lordship over all the creatures of the Earth. Therefore, in the Christian (and Judaic and Islamic) tradition, man is not only destined by divine right, but obligated by the creator, to dominate animals. In this context, man has the right and privilege to use animals as he sees fit, without any obligation to the animal.

(2) Concept of "Man as Hunter"

One of the most frequent nonsectarian arguments against vegetarianism comes from the idea that man has been hunting and consuming meat since time immemorial, and thus meat consumption is biologically and evolutionarily predestined. In the world of Anthropology, this is a hotly contested issue. However, after having read many books on the subject (see the bottom of the post for a list), I think that there is ample evidence to challenge this age-old assumption. Some of the most compelling arguments questioning the identity of "Man as Hunter" include: fossil and biological evidence that links the human digestive system more closely to that of fruit eating apes than that of wolves or tigers; the relatively late appearance of the tools man uses to hunt in the archaeological record; and archaeological evidence that indicates a high predation rate among early humans (i.e. people were being eaten by animals more frequently than they were eating animals). All that aside, the "Man as Hunter" argument resembles (or perhaps follows from) the first in that it considers the use of animal bodies for consumption as the natural right of man as an omnivore.

(3) Habits are Hard to Change

Contexts (1) and (2) are really important, but they operate mostly in the background of people's everyday lives. If they're invoked at all, it's usually only to defend the continuance of habitual action. Consider this: if you've spent your whole life communing and taking pleasure at a dinner table that features meat and animal products, it's not only difficult, but perhaps even painful to move away from the habits and nostalgia of meat eating. If you come from a family where food is important, this can be a very big deal. For example, when I went Vegan for a couple of months, both my Dad and my boyfriend were very upset with me, for different reasons. My Dad felt that by rejecting meat, I was rejecting his personal food tradition, ruining all of our future holidays, and trying to push my strange morality onto everyone else. My boyfriend was frustrated because he didn't know what to make for dinner on a daily basis, and felt that my choice made it difficult for him to eat the things that he liked to eat (read: bacon).

That's why it's hard to be a vegetarian. It's hard to act against society's deeply rooted ideas, assumptions, and habits, especially when they manifest in the feelings of the people that you love. It's hard to face your parent's anger and frustration when they don't understand why you are being "difficult" and "picky." It's hard to say no to the pot roast that your grandmother lovingly prepared for you. It's hard to make one dish for you, and one for your spouse, every night of the week. It's much easier to take the path of least resistance and do what they ask of you.




Making it Happen
But no one said it would be easy. So, a couple of pieces of advice for World Vegetarian Awareness Month, from a very human vegetarian:

• No one's perfect. I know that I've had my share of back sliding over the years (mostly in the form of prosciutto and fresh mozzarella). If you fall off the wagon, watch that PETA video, take a deep breath, and get back on. One slip up doesn't mean that everything is lost.
• Sometimes people in your life will be supportive of your choice, sometimes they will not be supportive of your choice. Remain calm, try not to argue about it, skip the turkey, and bring sweet potato casserole to Thanksgiving.
• Try to be as compassionate to people as you are toward animals. Be patient and respectful of people who do not understand or accept your lifestyle, and demand that they respect and be patient with you as well. Lead with your fork by making delicious vegetarian food.
• Have fun! Vegetarianism isn't all doom and gloom! It's a celebration of life! Think about all of the delicious food that you can eat! Check out the Recipes tab for some of the food that Carrie and I make on a regular basis, and explore the web! There are a zillion delicious vegetarian options out there, so don't be afraid!

Additional Reading:

• The World Peace Diet
• Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution
• The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
• Eating Animals
• Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry
• The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
• Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
• The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-vegetarian Critical Theory
• Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals
• The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
• The Meat You Eat: How Corporate Farming Has Endangered America's Food Supply

In Conclusion: Happy October! Happy Harvest! Happy Vegetarian Month!