Hey veggies?

Question

I'm sorry. I don't see your point of view. Why do you not eat meat? It's in our genetics to eat meat, and our ancestors ate meat.

Answer 1

Our ancestors did a lot of things that we don't do. Don't use that as your basis.

1) It is bad for your health. (55% of U.S. livestock are fed antibiotics which pass into the meat & milk.)
2) I do not approve of an animal being slaughtered to satisfy my selfish tastes when there are plenty of other things for me to eat.
3) I love my dogs.
4) It is horrible for the environment. (1,000 species a year go extinct due to destruction of tropical rainforests for meat grazing and other uses.)
5) We will run out of fossil fuels eventually. (33% of all raw materials (base products of farming, forestry and mining, including fossil fuels) consumed by U.S. that is devoted to the production of livestock as compared to only 2% to produce a vegetarian diet.)
6) Other people in the world are starving. (20 million people will die of malnutrition worldwide in a year. 100 million people could be adequately fed using land freed if Americans reduced their intake of meat by just 10%.)
7) My body is not a graveyard.
8) Someone has to take responsibility.
9) Survival. (Tyranosaurus Rex was the largest meat-eater that ever lived. Where is he?)
10) My diet is my choice, my decision, my life. It is none of your concern. You may not see my point of view, but I don't see yours either. Why does what I don't eat bother you so much?

Answer 2

I eat meat, and I agree with you mate.

To Becca D; 1) That's an argument against steroids and antibiotics. They're illegal here in the UK, maybe they should be in the US.
2) It's not good for animals: for a start the meat industry is booming at the moment; secondly if enough people went veggie to actually affect the industry at all, and the demand for meat decreased, it would mean animals which were surplus to requirement. You're kidding yourself if you think that would mean they'd live happily ever after, as they couldn't be sold no one would want to keep them, and they'd still be slaughtered.
Think about it, the second farmers couldn't sell their livestock, the second they couldn't make a profit, they wouldn't keep them any more. Keeping animals isn't cheap, and to keep them, without profit, would be hugely expensive to any farmer. How many do you reckon would be prepared to make that kind of loss?
Now, what'd happen then? Maybe a few wild pigs or goats would stay alive, but for the most part it would be impossible to release them into the wild. The vast majority would have to be slaughtered.
4) The meat of the cattle raised on rainforests cut down for ranches is of a poor quality and doesn't get imported to the US or Europe, so it really isn't associated with meat eaters in your country at all. Although you weren't the only one to make this point. If every meat eater in the US stopped, it wouldn't effect the destruction of the rainforests at all.
6) Not keeping animals wouldn't be able to solve world hunger, even though more food could be grown on that land. The thing is there is already enough food to feed the world several times over, and huge amounts go to waste every day. The reason world hunger exists is that people can't afford it. Also, giving a country free food would destroy their economy. No one would buy the locally grown stuff, if there was free food around, and the food industry and the millions employed by it would all go bankrupt with no one buying their stock.
7) This is the most pointless argument, not least because no food you eat is alive when you digest it. Death is a part of life, I would expect a 4 year old to understand that.
9) The most stupid argument in the world on this subject, ever. Many of the dinosaurs that died were herbivores. What about Brachiosaurus, or Diplodocus, or Triceratops, or Anklosaurus? All huge herbivorous Dinosaurs who are extinct. I don't think evolution takes the possibility of comets from space into account, and it ended up killing some of the most successful animals ever in the world. Basically you ought to be slapped for even thinking that point.
10) Fair enough, but it doesn't mean you can make awful statements as you did.

To MovieGirl, very few groups of humans ever practised cannibalism, but while our ancestors did all these terrible things like rape and murder, unlike meat they aren't in our genetics.
That study did not say veggies have higher IQs, as you well know. All it showed was that higher IQ people are more likely to go veg, and that smoking, thick, drinking rednecks don't become vegetarian. It doesn't show anything significant.

Answer 3

Well first of all, I don't think we should have to explain ourselves to anybody. I don't mean to sound rude, but it's just a decision that people make. I personally became a vegetarian at a very young age because I simply cannot stand the taste of meat. Unlike some vegetarians, I don't care about the animals, I just hate meat altogether. And I'm healthier than most people I know, so vegetarianism doesn't have to be unhealthy either, contrary to popular belief. I suppose it may be in my genes to eat meat, and I know my entire family enjoys a good steak, but I'm not hurting anybody by not eating meat.

Answer 4

Sounds like you have a case of the suppose'ta'bes. The reason why we are human, not animal, is because we defy our genetics and our instincts. Humans (well most) have freedom of thought. This is our 'soul', which can be a very good or destructive thing.

60% of the Earth's carbon-dioxide reducing rainforests have been BURNED (not harvested) to make room for more cattle grounds. Increased methane emissions are one of the main reasons why the hole in our ozone layer grows ever larger.

In less than 50 years from now the North polar ice cap will completely melt from global warming. New Orleans was the first of many major cities which will be destroyed from flooding and increasing storm activity as a result.

I choose to not eat meat because I think we've taken it waaay too far. I just don't need to participate in the destruction of life.

Answer 5

our ancestors eat mea because their consciousness was not on a high level. If humans would not eat meat it would be a perfect balance between al animals. How expencive a piece of meat is?
For an example. A cow eats 10ha of soja beans, and a cow eats only 5 people. For 10ha 30 people can be feed. It will change the world hunger.Not only of that veg. people are helthier. They dont have problems with fatness or something like that. I am a vegetarian all my life. 12 years. I dont eat animals because i hurt them. Its worse that you pay someone to kill it or to do it alone. But bouth thigs are horrible. Imagine how the animal has been kiled. It had the most paintfull death. If you dont belive me concttact ALF-animal libarationj front and see for your self.

Answer 6

Our ancestors did all sorts of things that we should not repeat (see answers above).

I do not eat meat due to the hormones, antibiotics, and torture that is used to produce commercially available meat.

Also, I choose not to support the destruction of the environment that is also a by-product of the meat industry (I do enough driving my car and whatnot).

Maybe you should read some of the previous questions answered here, and maybe you will get an idea of the many many reasons why people choose to abstain from eating animals.

Answer 7

Our ancestors also ate each other, so are you going to practice that too? Not eating meat is evolution. Didn't you read that study yesterday that said that people with higher IQ's grew up to be vegetarians? It's better for you, your colon and your prostate, better for the planet and it's better for the animals. Really I don't see your point about eating meat unless your point is that you are selfish and unfeeling toward other beings, you have no compassion and/or you don't care about the environment.

Answer 8

our ancestors ate meat because they had few other alternatives, that does not make it ok for us to eat meat. you probably don't want to see our point of view but i'll explain my reasons anyway. i became a vegetarian because i find the mindless slaughter of animals cruel and unnecessary and the idea of eating flesh repulses me. it is obviously not in our genetics to eat meat because then we wouldn't have vegetarians. besides, even if it was, drug and alcohol addiction is a genetic trait, but does that make it ok? of course not. i just don't think other living things should have to suffer and die just because we want our quarter pounders or nice big steaks or whatever. those foods are pretty bad for us anyways.

Answer 9

EXcuse u were in the 20th century our ancestors live many centuries ago things have changed since then. and we are not mean't to eat meat if you can show me one place in the bible that says were supposed to eat meat i'd sure love to see it

Answer 10

I don't understand why you eat meat,besides the fact that you were raised doing it.That doesn't make it okay and just because our ancestors did that doesn't justify it either.