Vegetarianism is a movement which has been increasing in Western Civilization in the last five years. People, mostly young urban graduates, become more sensitive to animal cruelty and environmental problems. The farming industry tried for many decades to hide their outrageous activities, but more and more people become informed and protest to defend animals’ rights. Still, many are blind by the fake advertising promoting the beautiful life of livestock and are deaf about the harmful consequences of eating meat. This paper proves that a more utopic world can be achieved if there were a majority of vegetarians rather than meat-eating people. In a world where meat would be less consumed, animals would be treated better, humans’ general health would improve, there would be less environmental problem, and humans would become more empathic.
Firstly, because of the excessive demand of meat, animals are treated cruelly and killed in agony. Animals intended for our consumption live in horrible conditions. Their primary needs are not fulfilled. They become neurotic and psychotic (Ricard 139). Indeed, those animals are living in confinement, don’t eat enough nutriments and are bombarded by loud sounds. chickens lives their short life in the darkness imprisoned in cages big as a paper. Babies are removed from their mother, and suffer of anxiety. Cows and pigs have an iron free diet and are drained of blood alive to make their meat white. (Jones 22). Not only those animals have a horrible life, but it is terribly short. For instances, life expectancy for a chicken is 1/60th of a chicken’s normal life. It is as if a human was killed at one and a half year old. (Ricard 90). Futhermore, Zoocide is a term brought by Matthieu Ricard describing this mass killing and comparing it to a genocide. In both cases, suffering (physical and mental), children’s deportation and birth control (Ricard 172) happens. However, people find zoocide less horrible since they consider this “evil” as necessary. Still, animals are sensitive and living beings that never asked for all this suffering. All this pain is unnecessary and could be avoided in a world where vegetarian would be the majority. Indeed, there would be less demand for meat and consequently, fewer animals would stop being raised and killed only for the sake of our appetite.
Secondly, there are many consequences of eating meat on one’s health because of all the medication animals inhale. A majority of farmers overdose their cattle with antibiotics to make them stronger and to make the female produce more milk. According to the researchers of Texas Tech University, the antibiotics found in meat can cause hard-to-treat infections in humans, and kill 23,000 people each year (“The Beef Industry”, par. 7). Moreover, vegetarians have a 12% lower risk of death compared to meat-eating people. Indeed, meat contains lots of saturated fat and cholesterol. Those two things are really bad for the heart and the pancreas. A no-meat diet can prevent type 2 diabetes (a growing illness), heart disease, obesity and clog arteries (Suffering, par. 4). Many may say that humans need meat to survive. This is a false claim. Vegetarians outlive meat-eating by 7 years (Ricard 140). Not only do many studies confirm this, but in history, people who were considered having the longest life expectancy were all vegetarians, such as the Hindus, Essenes and Christians ascetic (Ricard 47).
Thirdly, many environmental impacts are created because of today’s overconsumption of meat. Indeed, it requires considerable amounts of water, land and energy to raise and kill animals. To begin with, to produce one pound of beef, it takes about 2,400 gallons of water. Sixty-six million bovines are killed each year resulting in half of the drinking water being dedicated to meat production. This is a great waste of water since meat is not essential to our survival and vegan products require way less water to be produced (one pound of tofu only need 244 gallons of water) (“Meat and the Environment.”, par. 3). Then, 56 million acres of land in the United States are used to produce food for livestock while only 4 million acres are intended for humans (“Meat and the Environment”, par. 6). If more land would be used to produce food for humans, the price of fruits and vegetables would decrease leading to less world hunger. Finally, the farming industry is responsible for more than 51% of greenhouse-gas emissions. This strongly contribute to the climate change (“Meat and the Environment”, par.2). Thus, in a world where meat would be less consumed, world hunger and pollution would diminish leading to a more utopic world.
Fourthly, humans could become more empathic if they would stop eating meat. James Serpil, professor of animal ethic at the University of Pennsylvania, said “ l’aggression n’a pas une influence aussi omniprésente et importante dans l’évolution qu’on a pu le penser” (Ricard 21). Indeed, at first, hunters would only hunt for what they needed because of the lack of technology, but also because they respected animals. When killing an animal, they would make sure that it doesn’t suffer. Humans began to see animals as inferior only when they began to domesticate them since they were used as slaves (Ricard 23). People had to kill their own sensibility to have the capacity to make them suffer. Today, people refuse to see and admit what treatments animals receive during their life and in slaughterhouse. They show no empathy for the meat in their plate. It is important to mention that some slaughterhouses are even covered by huge posters on which happy animals can be seen (Ricard 24). Companies want society to forget about animal cruelty to make more profit. They want the society to forget that the meat they are eating once was alive and in suffering. The world is full of horror. It is difficult to completely change it, but people can take the decision to stop eating meat to reduce the violence happening in this world and slowly, more and more people would become more empathic. This change of thinking could even affect the way people see other conflicts and lead to some agreements.
In conclusion, the world could be more utopic if a majority of people were vegetarians. Animals would cease to suffer only for our own pleasure, humans would be subject to less infections and illnesses, the environment would be faring (less water would be waste, more land would be free to produce plants intended for humans (thus, less world hunger) and the percentage of gas emissions would diminish), and people would gain back their sensibility and empathy. Society just has to stop focusing on the fake benefits of meat pushed by companies and open its eyes to the reality.