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Vegetarian 101
FAQs
- “Vegetarianism is a personal choice—why should it be forced on everyone else?”
- “Animals kill other animals for food, so why shouldn’t we?”
- "Don't farmers have to treat their animals well so that they'll produce more milk and lay more eggs?"
- “What will we do with all those chickens, cows, and pigs if everyone becomes a vegetarian?”
- “But God made animals for us to eat—don’t we have ‘dominion’ over them?”
- “If everyone switches to a vegan diet, will there be enough to eat?”
- “Don’t vegetarians have difficulty getting enough protein?”
- “Don’t humans need to eat meat to stay healthy?”
- “Don’t plants feel pain?”
- “Eating meat is natural—it’s been going on for thousands of years. Our bodies are designed that way, aren’t
they?”
- “What’s wrong with drinking milk? Don’t ‘dairy cows’ need to be milked?”
- “Do vegetarian athletes need any special nutrients?”
- “I didn’t kill the animal—it was already dead. So, I’m not responsible for the death, am I?”
- “If you were starving on a boat at sea, and there were an animal on the boat, would you eat the animal?”
- “It’s OK to eat eggs because chickens lay them naturally. The eggs we buy in the supermarket are sterile—they aren’t unborn fetuses, are they?”
- “What’s wrong with eating ‘free range’ eggs and ‘organic’ meat? Aren’t the animals who are used for these
treated better than the animals who are used for ‘regular’ eggs and ‘regular’ meat?”
- “Native Americans have been hunting and eating meat forever. Are you saying that indigenous groups need to
give up their traditions?”
- “Do you care more about animals than you do about humans?”
- “Didn’t Hitler claim to be a vegetarian?”
“Vegetarianism is a personal choice—why should it be forced on everyone else?”
Few people would argue that beating your dog or lighting a cat’s tail on fire are personal choices, yet what
happens to animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses is every bit as gruesome and every bit as cruel.
Eating meat supports these abuses. Saying that abusing animals and killing them for their flesh are private
matters is the same as saying that beating our children is a personal choice. Just as child abuse involves
victims who have no choice, eating meat, dairy products, and eggs also involves victims who have no choice.
Just as you can choose to beat your child, you can choose to eat meat. If you do, you’re hurting someone
who is powerless to stop you. This should not be your “personal choice.” No one has the right to hurt others
under the auspices of “personal freedom.”
“Animals kill other animals for food, so why shouldn’t we?”
Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory is certainly an accurate description of “nature’s law.” But the
animals who kill other animals for food do so because they have no choice in the matter. They would starve
to death otherwise. However, we hold ourselves to a higher standard in our interactions with each other and
with the animals we love and protect—animals like dogs and cats. Animal rights advocates believe that we
should show this compassion to all animals. Please examine the sad lives and gruesome deaths of animals on
factory farms and in slaughterhouses—there is no way to argue that what happens to these animals is morally
right.
"Don't farmers have to treat their animals well so that they'll produce more milk and lay more eggs?"
This is simply not true—today, factory farms use massive amounts of drugs to keep animals alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them. Mother pigs confined to gestation crates are never able to turn around or take a step in any direction and even have to live amid their own excrement, but they will still produce piglets—all the while developing sores, going insane, and suffering worse than any of us can imagine. Animals in factory farms do not gain weight, do not lay eggs, and do not produce milk as a result of being comfortable, content, or well cared for; rather, they do these things because they have been manipulated through genetics, medications, hormones, and management techniques. The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they make more money by cramming animals into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals get sick and some die. Industry journal National Hog Farmer explains, "Crowding Pigs Pays," and egg-industry expert Bernard Rollins writes that "chickens are cheap; cages are expensive." As Dr. Michael Greger explains, "Farmed animals today are sick—these are sick and diseased chickens, pigs, fish, and cows, producing diseased and bacteria-laden flesh and pus-filled milk that even industry standards call 'unhealthful.'" Read more about factory farming.
“What will we do with all those chickens, cows, and pigs if everyone becomes a vegetarian?”
It is simple economics that as fewer people eat meat and dairy products, prices will go down. All the meat, dairy products, and eggs that now exist will be sold, but they will be sold for less money. As more and more people adopt a vegan diet, fewer of these products will be produced because prices will fall. Eventually, we’ll stop raising animals for food altogether. Many people who work in low-level positions in these industries are already being treated very poorly; for example, most slaughterhouse workers aren’t given health insurance, and many line workers suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. The jobs that replace these positions will certainly be better than the jobs that are lost as this industry goes the way of the slave trade.
“But God made animals for us to eat—don’t we have ‘dominion’ over them?”
“Dominion” doesn’t mean “domination and exploitation.” All the world’s prominent religions teach the
importance of both compassion and mercy. The choice to eat meat, dairy products, and eggs is a violent
one—it supports abuse. Even if religious beliefs allow people to eat these products, they certainly don’t
require them to do so. Aside from the environmental and human consequences of eating animals, which are
reason enough for faith-based people to adopt a vegan diet, God created animals with needs, desires, and
species-specific behaviors, and all these things are denied the animals who are turned into food by the
farmed-animal industries. God also created animals with a well-developed capacity for pain, which causes
extreme suffering in a factory-farm setting. Learn more at JesusVeg.com. This
link provides additional Web sites that address animal issues from non-Christian perspectives.
“If everyone switches to a vegan diet, will there be enough to eat?”
There will be a great deal more to eat. Farmed animals must eat, just as we do, but only a fraction of what
is fed to them is turned into meat—most of the grain and soybeans are used by the animals for energy or
turned into inedible blood, bone, feathers, and skin. In the U.S., animals raised for food are fed more than
70 percent of the corn, wheat, and other grains that we grow. The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of
food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth. If we
stop feeding all our land’s output to farmed animals, there will be more food for humans to eat. Learn more about meat and world hunger.
"Don't vegetarians have difficulty getting enough protein?"
Protein is found in abundance in plant foods, and scientific studies consistently show that vegetarians get plenty of protein. Great vegetarian sources of protein include legumes and foods made from them (e.g., beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, peanut butter, tofu, tempeh, soy milk, and soy-based mock meats), nuts, seeds, nutritional yeast, and whole grains. It was once thought that various plant foods had to be eaten together in order to get their full protein value, but research has shown that this is not the case; a varied diet of nutritious plant foods provides all the protein that you need, plus lots of health-boosting vitamins and minerals. Unlike animal protein, plant-based protein sources usually also contain healthy fiber and complex carbohydrates. Animal products are often high in artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated fat, and consumption of animal protein has been linked to some types of cancer. According to the American Heart Association and the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians have lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and some types of cancer. Plus, it's suspected that the high sulfur content of animal protein weakens people's bones. For example, a study by researchers at the University of California found significantly less bone formation in meat-eating women than in vegan women. Read more about the major health benefits of a vegetarian diet.
“Don’t humans need to eat meat to stay healthy?”
The American Dietetic Association and the World Health Organization, among other groups, point out that
vegan diets provide everything we need and that, in fact, they cut out a lot of the stuff that’s horrible
for us. Thus, vegans are usually healthier than people who consume foods derived from animals. Research has
shown that the risk of developing heart disease among meat-eaters is 50 percent higher than is the risk for
vegetarians. Also, vegetarians have only 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters. The consumption of
meat and dairy products has been conclusively linked with diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, clogged
arteries, obesity, asthma, and impotence. Scientists have also found that vegetarians have stronger immune
systems than their meat-eating friends, so they are less susceptible to everyday illnesses like the flu.
Read more about the health concerns associated with eating foods derived from animals.
“Don’t plants feel pain?”
Plants are alive and do respond to light and water, but they don’t feel pain. The ability to feel pain
requires a brain, a central nervous system, and pain receptors. All animals have these things. Plants do
not. We all understand that there is a fundamental difference between cutting your lawn and cutting off a
cat’s tail and between breaking up a head of lettuce and bashing in a dog’s head. Animals are made of flesh,
bones, blood, and fat, just as we are. They feel pain, just as we do.
“Eating meat is natural—it’s been going on for thousands of years. Our bodies are designed that way,
aren’t they?”
Dr. Milton Mills, in his essay on human physiology, “A Comparative Anatomy of Eating,” explains that animals
who eat meat have approximately 19 physical characteristics that humans do not have. Humans have to kill the
bacteria in meat by cooking it before they can consume it—this means that humans are the only species that
has to cook meat so eating it won’t be fatal. Eating even cooked meat is hazardous to our health in the long
term, though, because our bodies aren’t designed to digest it. The consumption of cooked meat contributes to
heart disease, cancer, and many other health problems. Read more about the fact that humans are not designed
to eat meat.
“What’s wrong with drinking milk? Don’t ‘dairy cows’ need to be milked?”
Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do—to feed their babies. “Dairy cows” are impregnated
every year in order to keep up a steady supply of milk, and their babies are taken away from them within a
day of birth. The cows and their calves are treated horribly, with male calves crammed into the notoriously
cruel veal crate. If you’re consuming dairy products, you’re supporting the veal industry. Read more about
milk production and “dairy cows.”
Furthermore, milk is not a “health food.” While dairy products are implicated in the development of heart
disease and cancer, researchers at Harvard Medical School have found that they are also linked to
osteoporosis, the very disease that the dairy products industry claims it can help prevent. Read more about
the scientific research on the link between dairy products and osteoporosis.
“Do vegetarian athletes need any special nutrients?”
It’s no coincidence that some of the world’s top athletes are also vegetarian. Since vegetarians have more
energy, need less sleep, and are less likely to be overweight and to suffer from ailments like cancer and
heart disease, sports champions are dropping the meat and loading up on grains, beans, fruits, and
vegetables to increase their strength and stamina. Without all the animal fat and cholesterol weighing them
down, athletes like fitness guru Jack LaLanne, “Olympian of the Century,” Carl Lewis, and tennis champion
Martina Navratilova have been at the top of their games since they adopted vegetarian diets. Learn more about how a vegetarian diet can help us stay fit.
“I didn’t kill the animal—it was already dead. So, I’m not responsible for the death, am I?”
Maybe you didn’t personally kill the animal, but that’s arguably worse because you’re distancing yourself
from the suffering for which you’re responsible. Whenever you purchase meat, you pay to have the abuse and
the killing done for you.
“If you were starving on a boat at sea, and there were an animal on the boat, would you eat the
animal?”
Many people would eat human flesh if that were the only option. For example, the movie Alive documents the
story of rugby players who ate human flesh in order to survive after their plane crashed in the Andes
Mountains. Humans will go to extremes to save their own lives, even if it means hurting someone innocent.
However, since there is an array of meat-free foods to choose from in every grocery store, these examples
aren’t relevant to our daily choices.
“It’s OK to eat eggs because chickens lay them naturally. The eggs we buy in the supermarket are
sterile—they aren’t unborn fetuses, are they?”
This is true, but the real cruelty of egg production lies in the treatment of the “laying hens,” who are
perhaps the most abused of all factory-farmed animals. The 450 million chickens used by the egg industry
endure a nightmare that begins with painful mutilations right after birth. A large portion of each hen’s
sensitive beak is sliced off with a burning-hot blade; the hens are not given any pain relief, and many
die of dehydration and weakened immune systems because the pain makes them unable to eat. Chickens’ claws
and toes often become stuck in the wire cages, so they are also cut off.
Each egg from today’s factory farms represents 27 hours of misery for a hen who is packed inside a cage the
size of a filing-cabinet drawer with up to 10 other birds. Cages are stacked many tiers high, and feces from
cages above fall onto the animals below. Hens become lame and develop osteoporosis from forced immobility
and from losing calcium when producing so many egg shells. Some birds die from dehydration when they become
trapped in the cage wire or in the conveyor belts and are unable to reach water. At just 2 years old, hens
are “spent” and are sent to the slaughterhouse. Egg hatcheries don’t have any use for male chicks; each
year, millions of these chicks are killed by suffocation, by decapitation, by being crushed, or by being
ground up while still alive. Read more about “laying hens.”
“What’s wrong with eating ‘free range’ eggs and ‘organic’ meat? Aren’t the animals who are used for
these treated better than the animals who are used for ‘regular’ eggs and ‘regular’ meat?”
Whether you’re talking about “free range” or “conventional” meat, dairy products, and eggs, the health and
environmental consequences of using animals for food are the same. Also, animals on “free range” and
“organic” farms still suffer the same abuse and neglect that all animals used for food must endure. Labels
like “free range” and “free roaming” are not regulated by the government, so any product can wear these
labels no matter how badly the animals have been treated. Animals on these farms still suffer mutilations
shortly after birth—their sensitive beaks and tails are cut off, their horns are ripped from their heads,
and they are castrated—all without painkillers.
Since the “free range” label is unregulated, many animals on these farms are crammed by the thousands into
sheds and never set foot outside. Even if they were given access to the outdoors, farmed animals are still
bred to grow so large that many of them can no longer walk. Like all animals used for food, animals on “free
range” and “organic” farms are killed when they’re only a few months old, and their deaths are just as gruesome
as those of animals on conventional farms. Their throats are cut, often while they are still completely
conscious and struggling to escape, and many of them are still alive when their bodies are hacked apart. In
short, there are no “free range” slaughterhouses. Learn more about the truth behind “free range” and “organic”
animal products.
“Native Americans have been hunting and eating meat forever. Are you saying that indigenous groups need to
give up their traditions?”
Like tribal people all over the world, Native Americans traditionally ate mainly plant-based diets.
Archeological evidence shows that our ancestors across the globe only turned to eating the flesh of animals in
times of scarcity. Eating meat today is unnecessary and unhealthy, and many Native Americans are returning to
their traditional plant-based diets.
Learn more about
vegetarianism and Native Americans.
“Do you care more about animals than you do about humans?”
The people who ask this question invariably have not dedicated their lives to alleviating the suffering of
either humans or animals. Surely, all suffering should be addressed. Princeton bioethicist Dr. Peter Singer
says, “When nonvegetarians say that ‘human problems come first,’ I cannot help wondering what exactly it is
that they are doing for human beings that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless
exploitation of farmed animals.” A vegan diet is the healthiest, most environmentally responsible way of
eating, and it makes the most economic sense when you consider both the plight of U.S. farm workers and the
problems faced by poverty-stricken people around the world. One great thing about veganism is that it allows
you to take a stand against suffering without doing anything that requires any real time or effort. You
simply stop supporting cruelty, environmental degradation, and the exploitation of human workers.
Learn more about adopting a vegetarian diet.
“Didn’t Hitler claim to be a vegetarian?”
At times, Hitler claimed that he didn’t eat meat because he wanted to be seen as an ascetic who was focused
only on the needs of the German people. However, Hitler was actually a devoted carnivore, and his
consumption of fish, pigeons, and sausages is extensively documented.
Learn more about this topic.
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