At the age of 22, telling people I’ve never eaten meat and never plan to has a few automated replies:
‘Yeah, but what if you were stranded on a desert island - would you eat meat then?’
‘If you were lying on your deathbed, would you not just have some then?’
‘Yeah, but you’re missing out on so much. How do you get your protein?’
And worst of all,
‘Your parents must hate you!’
Both of my parents eat meat, and so do my older brother and sister, but with an age gap of over a decade, parenting styles change as well as personal morals. Although a tad hypocritical, my parents know of, and are dismayed by the treatment of animals in the farming industry, but 50 year old habits are much harder to break than those of someone who has never known it. Exactly why the raising of vegetarian children is something that must continue. How can you miss what you have never known?
It’s also not like I’ve never been given the option to eat meat and I most definitely wouldn’t be disowned if I decided to start now. As a child, I was given the option when I had developed enough cognitive ability to make a decision, as my parents wanted me to understand what meat was and where it came from. After being informed that it was in fact dead animals that haven’t died of old age, but have been killed for the purpose of consumption, it seemed a no brainer, even at seven years old, to never go near it again. Not to mention the torturous environments some animals are kept in, such as chickens, that are on average only permitted 25 x 25 cm of space (less than a ruler).
People are quick to look down upon those who pierce their children's ears due to their inability to consent, but are fine to force animal carcusses down their throats without the blubber of a first word or a sign of brain cognition, which seems hypocritical to say the least. It’s the age old argument, why have a pet dog if you would eat a cow? Why is one life considered more worthy than another? Yada yada, read an Orwell book - I’m sure you’ll see the simplicity in it straight away. But that’s what makes the debate so frustrating. The fact that it is so simple and that there is so little you can argue against it because it is an undeniable statement. The murder and digestion of animals has been so normalised that the argument for vegetarianism is so easily dismissed for reasons as selfish as practicality and even worse, the glutenous reason of it just ‘tasting nice’. Up until the moment this article was written, at 2:53pm on the 22nd of May, 2,513,048,868 animals have been killed this year alone in the United Kingdom for the purposes of consumption. A lot more suffering than a quick pierce through a lobe.
I don’t mean to be judgemental and I am more than aware of dietary restrictions and health conditions that mean avoiding meat is near impossible, but for those who aren’t affected by this, I do raise the question - how can you not only be so cruel, but so unaware? Research has proven that red meat provides a higher risk of death from heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, and it is also ageing our planet as much as it is your body. The Carbon Footprint of beef is 9.73 kg CO2e per four ounce burger. The main counter argument I hear in aversion to a plant based lifestyle, is that ‘soy and almonds are just as bad!’, when in reality the greenhouse gas emissions of beef are 24.5 times higher than that of soy. If you chose to raise your children as vegetarians, then their children might actually be able to inhabit this planet. I always say that in 1,000 years time, people are going to look back at past civilisations in disbelief over the fact that we ate animals.
I am grateful that I was raised to show compassion and humanity and I hope to encourage others to do the same. I would like to go on record to say that my parents do in fact love me and I’m glad to have never had to consume the product of murder.
