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I've tried to be nice to people who fall into these groups for a while now, but every time they jump down my throat for ordering a turkey sandwich or an Arby-Q, those attempts just seem more and more futile.
A little while ago, however, I had a little bit of a personal revelation about why their call for all of us turning vegetarian should be laughed at. So, I'd like to share with you a few reasons why omnivorism isn't so bad:
Growing up in Iowa for a few years, I know a bit more about the farming community than these people seem to. Livestock provides way too large a chunk of many farmers' incomes. If we stopped eating meat, that chunk of their income would go POOF. After that, many of them wouldn't be have the income to raise enough crops to cover the losses, or to buy the land to plant those new crops on (which would take a LOT considering how much larger the plant/grain production would have to be to keep everyone fed.).
The result? Countles farms would have to be closed, our food supplies would PLUMMET, and a whole shitload of us would end up starving to death.
Those years in Iowa also taught me about another side of life: Hunting. It's true...some people can't afford to go buy groceries, so they have to get their food the old fashioned way. Others prefer to test their abilities. In any case, though, they provide an important part of nature - population control. True, it was always kinda sad during those autumn months to watch the deer population back home get shaved down, but it was necessary. If they were all allowed to live into the winter, there wouldn't be enough food for all of them, and an even greater number wouldn't have survived.
Finally, there's the point I raised in an entry a few months ago: Vegetarianism =/= Death-free living. Plants are just as alive as animals are. We've all seen it with our own eyes. Plant seeds are fertilized and planted in the earth just like a woman's egg is fertilized and planted in her womb. The seed sprouts just as an embryo grows and is born, the plant grows up and blossoms the same as a young girl grows into a woman, it pollenates and drops new seeds in the same way the young woman concieves, and in the end, both die. The only difference between plants and animals/humans is that plants have no facial expressions or vocal capabilities to tell us that they're suffering when we're harvesting for a salad.
As such, as I mentioned the aforementioned months-old entry, vegetarians are actually far more guilty of murder than meat-eaters are. As I'd pointed out back then, it takes a single cow to keep a family of 5 fed for 3 straight days. With the average content of 5 plants in a salad, however, it would take 225 plants (5 plants per plate x 5 plates per meal x 3 meals per day x 3 days) to keep that same family fed if they switched to a strictly-plant diet.
225 lives put to an end just to feed a family..."death-free", huh?
...That's it.
A little while ago, however, I had a little bit of a personal revelation about why their call for all of us turning vegetarian should be laughed at. So, I'd like to share with you a few reasons why omnivorism isn't so bad:
Growing up in Iowa for a few years, I know a bit more about the farming community than these people seem to. Livestock provides way too large a chunk of many farmers' incomes. If we stopped eating meat, that chunk of their income would go POOF. After that, many of them wouldn't be have the income to raise enough crops to cover the losses, or to buy the land to plant those new crops on (which would take a LOT considering how much larger the plant/grain production would have to be to keep everyone fed.).
The result? Countles farms would have to be closed, our food supplies would PLUMMET, and a whole shitload of us would end up starving to death.
Those years in Iowa also taught me about another side of life: Hunting. It's true...some people can't afford to go buy groceries, so they have to get their food the old fashioned way. Others prefer to test their abilities. In any case, though, they provide an important part of nature - population control. True, it was always kinda sad during those autumn months to watch the deer population back home get shaved down, but it was necessary. If they were all allowed to live into the winter, there wouldn't be enough food for all of them, and an even greater number wouldn't have survived.
Finally, there's the point I raised in an entry a few months ago: Vegetarianism =/= Death-free living. Plants are just as alive as animals are. We've all seen it with our own eyes. Plant seeds are fertilized and planted in the earth just like a woman's egg is fertilized and planted in her womb. The seed sprouts just as an embryo grows and is born, the plant grows up and blossoms the same as a young girl grows into a woman, it pollenates and drops new seeds in the same way the young woman concieves, and in the end, both die. The only difference between plants and animals/humans is that plants have no facial expressions or vocal capabilities to tell us that they're suffering when we're harvesting for a salad.
As such, as I mentioned the aforementioned months-old entry, vegetarians are actually far more guilty of murder than meat-eaters are. As I'd pointed out back then, it takes a single cow to keep a family of 5 fed for 3 straight days. With the average content of 5 plants in a salad, however, it would take 225 plants (5 plants per plate x 5 plates per meal x 3 meals per day x 3 days) to keep that same family fed if they switched to a strictly-plant diet.
225 lives put to an end just to feed a family..."death-free", huh?
...That's it.