Those of you who know me know that my favourite news source is the BBC. They provide, in my opinion, the most balanced view of current events of all the other popular news sources out there.
This morning I stumbled upon one more reason to love the BBC – there is apparently a BBC Ethical Man (how this escaped my attention is beyond me, or an indication of the fact that I am not the world’s most observant person)! The focus of this year’s ethical dilemma is, no surprise, climate change.
As part of the ethical challenge, him and his family spent a year trying to cut their carbon emissions and in today’s article he writes about how cutting out meat from our diets is something many of us believe that we should do but never get around to actually doing. See link to his article below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ethicalman/2009/12/think_before_you_carve.html
He points out several important issues in support of becoming vegetarian (or at the minimum substantially cutting down on the amount of meat in your diet), not least of which is the global food crisis. I’m not sure whether the average person is aware, but the global food crisis stems not from an inability on the earth’s part to grow enough food to feed the global population, but rather from the fact that so much of the food that is produced is not actually consumed by humans but are used to fatten up the animals that we feed on.
As a recent vegetarian convert (but one who has debated the issue for years), I myself wonder why something that should be relatively simple (as long as we are still eating something we won’t starve) is something that so many people have a moral/ethical dilemma with?
Of course, I understand that meat can be delicious, but really so are vegetables and fruits. And plain laziness is just not a good excuse. So what else is stopping us?
On my own part, I guess I thought that switching from an omnivore to a herbivore was against human nature, but really when I think about it, humans, just like every other animal are constantly evolving so just because our ancestors survived on one strategy doesn’t mean that that is the currently most fit strategy. In fact, if remaining omnivorous leads to climate change and the ultimate demise of the planet, then this is actually an evolutionary dead-end!
For others, it might be a cultural thing. But again, cultural shifts are both natural and expected. Furthermore, if all of us reduced our meat intake, then we could still retain those special holidays for feasting on special meat fare.
It’s funny because I’ve found that many people seem concerned for my health when I tell them that I have recently gone vegetarian. Frankly, as long as you are conscious of what foods you need to replace the protein and other nutrients normally found in meat its perfectly fine. In fact, I really haven’t found it to be so difficult at all!
