Because meat production has a dramatic impact on the environment.
Beef production requires 28 times more land, 11 times more water and 6 times more fertilizer then the production of other foods. Not to mention the energy. The production of 1 kcal of oranges requires 3 Kcal, and that’s nothing compared to the18 kcal needed for 1 Kcal of a roasted chicken and the 180 kcal needed for the production of just 1 kcal of veal. And that’s a big problem. According to some sources, there will be 10 billion people alive on Earth within 50 years from now. Many of us will become energy consumers, and that leads to a necessary change of our habits including, primarily, food. Therefore curbing the world’s huge and increasing appetite for meat is essential to avoid devastating climate change.
Because the problem is not the meat itself but how much meat we consume.
The problem is never the thing itself, but how we use it. Having a car is not a problem, instead, it is a big problem if we use it every day – even for few kilometers. The same applies to meat. The problem is not the meat itself, but how much meat we eat. We live in a society where we are used to living each day as if it were Christmas, to immediately meeting every need and every wish we have, so that we can immediately have new unattainable needs. Man is not carnivorous but omnivorous. Eating meat every day, sometimes several times a day, is not a basic need. It is an unnatural and unsustainable habit. Both for the environment and for our health (obesity, heart disease, cancer and so on).
Because animals are all living beings.
It’s amazing how this (apparently simple and objective) concept is actually subjective. Biologically speaking, what it is the difference between a dog and a pig? On one hand we are used to considering some animals like human beings (we share the same house, we eat together, we play together, we spend time together, we have their photos on our phone, we share pictures on Facebook and so on) on the other hand, however, we allow other animals to be brutally slaughtered. The value of life, as well as the physical and psychological suffering, should be a universal value, not a cultural matter. Who are we to decide which animals should be treated as living beings and which just like objects?
Because if a whole chicken costs the same as a packet of salad there is something wrong.
A chicken that is worth 2 Euro can not be considered a chicken. If we assume that the 2 Euro cost of chicken includes the cost of production, distribution, sales and communication, we come to the paradox that the life’s value of a chicken is less than the value of a cigarette. And this is an aberration made possible by the intensive farming where animals are considered just like a bolt or any mechanical components. And unfortunately there are very few farms that do not belong to this category.
Because we are not aware of what we eat.
Where does it come from and how the meat we eat is produced? It is something that concerne all of us, nevertheless we often do not know the answer. We went from a logic in which man was a direct manufacturer of the food we used to eat (and therefore we were aware of its origin), to a logic in which man has become unaware of where and how the food we eat is produced, exponentially increasing the distance between the subject consumed (food) and the consumer subject (man).
Because only after being 93.34% vegetarian I figured out how much meat I used to eat.
Before being 93.34% vegetarian I had no awareness of that. I used to eat meat several times a day without realizing it. Our diet is full of meat. There’s meat everywhere. Sandwiches, quiches, dishes, appetizers, meats. It is really difficult to live without meat. We’ve gone from a society in which meat was something rare in a society where not-eating-meat is the exception. The only way not to eat meat every day is pretending to be vegetarian (100%), otherwise, in one way or another, there is always a piece of meat in my dish.
Because being 93.34% vegetarian seems a lot but it is not.
Being 93.34% vegetarian seems a high number but it’s not. If we assume that people like me who has the privilege of eating two meals (besides breakfast) per day for an average of 30 days a month, being 93.34% vegetarian simply means eating meat once a week. And that’s even too much. I wrote this short article in order not to “brag” that I am vegetarian but in order to apologize to the world and all its living creatures for not being able to quit my last 6.66% of meat.