The Great Debate: Vegetarian Vs Non-vegetarian food

The great debate. Is it ethical to consume non-vegetarian food?

Human beings are undoubtedly a privileged species. Of all the abilities that we possess – speech, manual dexterity using hand-arm-fingers, and other cognitive and psychomotor abilities – the one that truly stands apart from other creatures on the planet, is the ability to exercise one’s choice and an awareness - or ability to understand - that the choices we make today can have far reaching consequences for the future generations.

Aside from the ethics or the moral question of eating non-vegetarian food, it is this ability to choose being a vegetarian or a non-vegetarian that makes us different, especially when the alternative (meat eating) choices could lead to inordinate increase in utilization of material resources causing ecological imbalance.

There exist strong arguments for reducing meat consumption in order to save the planet. A broad consensus is present in the scientific world, of the direct correlation between meat eating and climate change. Things will only get worse as the human population increases and more people opt for meat-based diet. However, we will restrict ourselves to the ethics or moral question of consuming animal meat.

Rights of animals

Questions that arise here relate to the rights of animals and birds bred for human consumption on an industrial scale and the choices they have with their lives. They are fed a diet focused on rapid growth and increase in weight. It is clear that they (the animals) do not have the choice of eating their natural diets nor do they have a choice in leading a healthy and pain-free life.

As eighteenth-century English philosopher Jeremy Benthan rightly stated about animal rights, “the question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?”

The conditions in which animals are bred for consumption are atrocious and would be considered criminal by any normal person.

Consider poultry farming for breeding and raring chickens for consumption. In terms of number of birds killed, chickens outnumber all other animals and birds put together. According to PETA, they are “the most abused animals on the planet”. Millions of birds are killed everyday for food. This is only because people don’t want to give up on their craving for non-vegetarian food.

The birds would not face a cruel existence if people made an effort to give-up meat and shift to plant-based alternatives. They are bred and transported wire-mesh cages, in extremely small spaces, lacking space to move around or flap their wings. As they grow larger, the small cages force them to crouch, leading to constant pain and body deformities; movement on the wire mesh floor causes severe injuries on their feet; infighting leads them to pluck at each other’s feathers. Due to the space saving design of compartments, birds on lower level are covered in excreta of the ones above them; very often dead birds are left in their midst for long periods of time. During monsoons, they are miserably drenched and shivering without enough protection. According to a study conducted by Mail Today, it was found that four to six hens are crammed into a single cage with an approximate size of 623.7 sq cm, as against the Bureau of Indian Standards' recommended space of 450 sq cm per bird (600x375mm: IS7518:1974).

Considering that people who consume meat are widely aware of these facts, they are complicit in acquiescing to a grave injustice being committed only to please their palates; unless there is a medical reason for following a protein-rich meat diet. In the battle between need and craving, the majority of the meat-eaters are unable to overcome their craving to eat meat.

Use of animals in food industry vs scientific research

Meat eating or use of animals in food industry is often justified by meat consumers with the argument that animals and birds are also sacrificed in the conduct of scientific research.  Another reason put forth is lack of protein in vegetarian diets.

Let us try to understand key differences between use of animals in food industry and scientific research.

The first and major difference is in terms of numbers. The meat industry / business involves millions of animals and birds being raised for food. Countless other animals and birds are illegally poached, traded and killed to satisfy human desire for meat. Although banned in US and EU, chicken feed used in India includes supplements containing organoarsenic compounds, Roxarsone and Nitrasone. (Ref: Eating chicken means eating arsenic – Maneka Gandhi, Nov 12, 2018). Note: these compounds are used to control intestinal parasites in chicken, increase weight gain and improve feed efficiency.

Some studies indicate that organoarsenic is not absorbed and is excreted without change. On the other hand, it is present in the excreta and when excreta of such chicken is used as fertilizer on agricultural land, it causes breakdown of organic arsenic into inorganic arsenic. This, as is well known, leaches into ground water leading to contamination. Not to mention the tons of feathers and bones from the meat processing industry being dumped to already overloaded municipal waste disposal sites. Adding to that is the huge waste generated from household meat consumption.

It is for certain that animals are used in scientific research. However, the numbers are miniscule in comparison to the figure in food business. Additionally, such scientific experiments and animal research is largely justified and is helpful in contributing to our knowledge of medicines and in improving overall human well-being. Also, use of animals has presently no alternatives in the evaluation of new pharmaceutical treatments and medicines for carcinogenicity, genotoxicity and effectiveness, before being used in humans.

Another crucial difference is that even this scientific evaluation is supervised by government agencies. In India, it is the CPCSEA which formulates the rules and regulations which govern use of animals for experimentation. (CPCSEA: Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals). The rules include procedures to oversee breeding and experiments on animals and guidelines to ensure proper care and management of dogs and equines in preparation of biologicals.

Although BSI specifies certain conditions for breeding and living environment (adequate space and a ban on wire-mesh cages), the pathetic conditions of poultry farms and living conditions of chickens only shows that none of the requirements are enforced.

So, if you must eat meat and cannot control your cravings, you may consider organic, free-range meat (birds and animals which have access to outdoor spaces to graze or forage for food and are provided organic feed).

But, if you continue consuming meat produced on an industrial scale, meat of animals subject to extreme cruelty, you are tacitly supporting the meat industry and condoning the practices they are perpetuating in the pursuit of monetary benefits.

Religious practices

Most meat-eaters follow some religious practices which forbid consumption of meat on certain weekdays or during certain periods of the month or year. These practices are complicated and depending on the religion concerned could involve avoiding beef, lamb, chicken, or pork. This is done since they fear divine retribution and wish to evade the good lord’s wrath, were they to consume meat forbidden on such days. If only such religious practices were applicable all through the year.

Reflect on this, if one really can abstain from meat eating and enjoy vegetarian food for certain periods of the week or year, is it so tough to continue the practice and not revert to meat-eating?

Should you turn vegetarian or should you continue to eat meat?

If you eat meat for pleasure, you must ask yourself an important question to arrive at the answer: do I really want to eat something which is killed for the meat?
Your answer to this question will govern your choices.
For all moral / ethical reasons, the answer is obviously “No”.

Other reasons for avoiding meat could be animal welfare, reducing your carbon foot-print, saving the environment, fighting climate change and so on.

The decision you make today could have an important bearing on what will be your answer when your children / grand-children ask you about climate change – why? just why did people of your generation not turn vegetarian?

Remember, you have a choice.
The animal and birds don’t.

Go green; turn vegetarian