What do you think of vegetarianism?
palavora asked you:Oh man, vegetarianism. This is a tough one. I think “Opining About Vegetarianism” is Chapter 7 of “How To Lose Friends and Alienate People”.
First, let’s assume you’re not baiting me. Then, I’m only going to approach this from the evolutionary and biological point of view as much as possible, with a little dollop of environmentalism and deliciousness on top.
Vegetarianism is fine. So is veganism. It’s more than fine. It clearly can provide a Homo sapiens with a complete and sufficient diet (sometimes with the addition of vitamin supplements) in our modern age. Inuit people even went completely the other direction and lived on a meat-only diet for ages. Among the reasons that people usually choose to go vegetarian or vegan, in my experience, is because of ethics or because of environmentalism. If that doesn’t apply to your decision to do so, and you are mad at me for pigeonholing you, I apologize. I’m drinking.
We know that in addition to our traditional tastebuds, we have receptors in the tongue for glutamate (the source of umami, or savory flavor). Glutamate exists in vegetables in small amounts, but is primarily in meats and fish. It’s hard to argue that we didn’t evolve to eat meat. But so what? We clearly don’t have to, so why keep doing it?
With 7 billion people on Earth, and the economics of meat protein production, the environmental impact of feeding everyone meat and fish is just absurd. That’s a perfectly acceptable reason to go veggie or vegan. You are lowering your environmental impact, and that’s commendable.
But it’s also important for people to know that you don’t have to completely eliminate animal protein from your life to reduce your impact. Environmental stewardship is not an all-or-nothing game, to this humble blogger. You can make smarter choices, choose locally and naturally raised meats and animal products, and stay away from factory-farmed crap like Tyson and Smithfield. It tastes like shit anyway.
Then you’re really left with the ethics. Something has to die for you to eat meat. I have reconciled this fact in my life, and I make food choices that reward humane farming and reduce meat intake when possible. But I’m also okay with the fact that some animals are conceived, bred and raised for food purposes. I’m a pretty damn good chef, and I like to cook and eat meat.
For me, it’s about increasing responsibility and minimizing impact. This is also my view on animal research, pretty much. You’ll all have to decide how you deal with this in your life.
If you want to commence vegan hate or be otherwise unruly, knock yourself out. I’ll be over here doing something else.
Finally, some words from Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield: Bacon tastes goood
I’m just reblogging this man’s excellent answers.
(Source: jtotheizzoe)
