Resurrecting Reason In The Debate Over Meat-Eating And Global Warming

My husband often says, "You can't be perfect yesterday, but you can be better tomorrow" when he is discussing the challenges we all face in improving our relationship with the planet. Whether you drive a hybrid, are vegetarian, consistently recycle, conserve electricity, use solar power, etc. today does not mean you can't make improvements tomorrow. Yet, even when we consciously choose to act in ways to improve the world by how we think, feel, and act each day, we will all be less than perfect. To think otherwise is to not think wisely.

Over the last year, I've seen PETA ridicule Vice President Al Gore because he is not a vegetarian. As a friend of Mr. Gore and a vegetarian myself, I have had discussions with him about the values of being vegan or vegetarian, for our own health, the environment, and humanity. He is always respectful of my preference although he has not adopted that lifestyle for himself. And the important point here is, we all need to make our own choices. Mr. Gore works hard to help people understand the climate crisis and the steps we can take to reduce our carbon footprints, and he does a lot of them (solar panels, hybrid cars, thermal heat, etc. etc.). Vegetarianism is not just one of the steps he takes, along with many Americans and people around the world. Does that make him a hypocrite? I think not. He is not professing that you stop eating meat and then eating it (that would be hypocritical). He says, do what you can to reduce your carbon footprint - you do not need to be perfect, just be conscious of what you do and how it impacts the planet, and do what you can to help. His work raises awareness of the issue, inspires people to change, and rightly won him a Nobel Prize for it.

What bothers me more than whether or not Mr. Gore eats meat are the tactics organizations, like PETA, use to raise awareness about their issues. I don't think 'the end justifies the means.' David Roberts on HuffPost wrote about 'extreme tactics' in the aftermath of PETA's campaign targeting Al Gore's non-vegetarian lifestyle. He said in justification of such a campaign, "A sober, fair-minded, carefully argued campaign would not achieve (the) goal. It would sink without a ripple." Unfortunately, as we see in the media, the more we insult, attack, or ridicule others to make a point, the less sensitive we as a society seem to be toward such attacks and therefore more accepting of an escalation of such behavior. If we ignore non-civil behavior in favor of civility, attending first and foremost to our own thoughts, feelings, and actions, we are likely to create a civil society.

I had dinner with a woman the other night who had lived as a teenager in Iran after the fall of the Shah, under the regime of Khomeini. We discussed Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and many of the similarities of her experiences with the main character in the book. As dessert came, she shared how the one part of her life during that time remains vivid in her mind. She described the extreme pleasure she would have in the smallest, most ordinary things to us (like an ice cream) because they were so rare at the time. In the reverse fashion, using intimidation, humiliation, or negative comments has merely the effect of making us dull to that sort of behavior and soon increased levels must arise to have a comparable effect.

Although I would love the world to practice a vegetarian lifestyle, I think civility and reason in fostering awareness is much more important than what you choose to eat.

I believe we would all likely choose to stop large-scale farming of fish, meat, and poultry if the evidence surrounding these practices were in our public consciousness through the use of reason and individual attention (i.e. extensive antibiotics, horrendous living conditions, and additives to create 'healthy looking' foods are detrimental to human health, a burden on the planet, and a force of animal cruelty). It may take longer than many of us desire, but I believe that the means by which we create awareness is as important as the awareness itself.

Threats, attacks, and name-calling tactics targeting each other or our world's social leaders, does a great disservice to humanity by failing to recognize that we - like the animals we hope to protect - deserve the same respect, kindness and support to make the world a better place. For meat-eaters among us, perhaps a reasonable action to take might be the simple act of reducing meat consumption 1 day a week ('Meatless Monday') in lieu of a lifetime of veganism. Respecting each other's choices and valuing change in whatever way those changes are made is key to their duration and in enriching our humanity in the process.

Comments

[BruceGFriedrich]

Hi Susan, here's my full reply:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/why-peta-is-publicly-rebu_b_103324.html

Cheers,

Bruce

[BruceGFriedrich]

I will submit a reply to this post tomorrow or Tuesday. Susan, if you give me your email address, I'll let you know when I've posted it. Thank you for your comments.

Bruce
VP, PETA
[e-mail]

[vmonter]

I guess we should just hang out while the ignorant masses may or may not come around to sensible reality, and hope that the planet is not destroyed before that happens.

I believe Mr. Gore's Inconvenient Truth was espousing a "climate crisis" - not so much waiting around while people learn about reality and hope they make an informed decision to remedy the wrongs of the status quo.

Yawn.

[Checquoline]

If people don't want to stop eating meat, if they would only stop eating beef it would make such a difference. Eat fish, chicken. lamb chops and pork if you must. But leave the beef alone and see what a difference it would make.

[Quaoar]

Large scale farming of fish, meat, and poultry, grain, and vegetables is made necessary by the ever-increasing homo sapiens population on this planet. Environmental problems due to large scale farming are really symptoms of human overpopulation. That's the real problem we have to deal with.

[RadioResearch]

Personally, I belong to PETPV, people for the ethical treatment of plants and vegetables.

Plants and veggies are sentient beings just as animals and we even share DNA with cabbages. Most vegan-azis I meet seem to be on some kind of religious moralistic fascist bandwagon. There is nothing about eating meat that is immoral which is what many vegan's seem to think. likewise, their CO2 emissions data is mostly propaganda. Concrete production creates more CO2 per year than animal production as does lawn mowing.

While industrial scale meat raising may be deplorable, this is because of agribusiness and economic incentives. Get rid of farm subsidies and you make it uneconomical for large scale industrial farming and thus will get rid of the animal raising abuses.

As a person who is allergic to many plants, I know that they are not passive in their defenses against being eaten. I am not allergic to meat of any kind and without meat those damned veggies would kill me so I have great respect for their lives and leave them alone like they want to be - in that sense they are no different than animals.

Why is it that vegans don't have any respect for anything other than animal life - do not plants and vegetables have the same rights as animals? Are they not living beings" Do they not experience "pain." Do they not bleed when you cut them down? Do cabbages, tomatoes, corn, etc, naturally grow in gardens in confinement situations?

[misanthropist]

"Personally, I belong to PETPV, people for the ethical treatment of plants and vegetables. "

Haha, you must be kidding. You do realize animals are concious beings and plants are not? Great comment, you must really be educated. :)

[thundermummy]

Wow misanthropist, you are thick.

[recless]

RadioResearch said: "Plants and veggies are sentient beings just as animals and we even share DNA with cabbages."

This is another reason why people don't take vegetarians seriously. Plants (of which veggies are part of) CANNOT be sentient. There are perhaps 3 sentient species on this planet; humans (most likely), whales (also very likely), and dolphins. As of yet there IS NO PROOF OF SENTIENCE as it is a concept that cannot yet be proven. Sentience is assumed in humans, not proven.

[downstream]

Maybe you didn't read his comment in full, but RadioResearch is advocating a meat eating diet, so I can't see how his comments reflect on vegetarians. Should they indicate that we shouldn't take meat eaters seriously then? Or that type of logic only works one way?

[downstream]

RadioResearch, if you have food allergies, I wouldn't criticize you for eating meat. But I must respond to your argument that plants are no different than animals. I guess it depends on the basis for a person's ethics. If the basis for your ethics are vague, semi-religious definitions of "life", and "values", then that might make sense. But a more rational approach to ethics takes concepts like "consciousness , and "pain and suffering" into consideration. Most people with a basic understanding of biology are aware that plants don't have brains, and are therefore unable to experience consciousness or pain. We also know that animals are able to experience emotions such as fear, depression, and happiness.

Even we accepted the argument that plants and animals lives are equal, the meat eater is still less ethical. As you may know, animals eat plants. It takes approximately 16 pounds of plant life to produce 1 pound of animal meat. The ethical choice - if we accept your argument - would be to destroy as few plant lives as possible, wouldn't it?

You're right that "agribusiness" is to blame for the way animals are treated. But they are successful because of the demand for cheap meat on a daily basis. The best way to protest this is to refuse to purchase their product. Its possible to find meat from companies who treat their animals more ethically, so those who can't live without it can still make efforts to prevent unneccessary pain and suffering to

[JScott]

I guess its ok at least to make people conscious about where there food comes from. But lets not get too imperialistic and remember that folks in far northern climes or other parts of the world don't have much choice, they hunt animals for their meat as the plant alternatives are pretty much nil and don't get that right wing attitude 'well just move to more temperate climes or be dependent on the food industry to bring you veggies' that's at least as bad as that incessant commercials for fast food that's mostly promoting consumption of meat and dairy.

[Sumocat]

"He says, do what you can to reduce your carbon footprint - you do not need to be perfect, just be conscious of what you do and how it impacts the planet, and do what you can to help." -- It saddens me that this must be repeated again and again. Al Gore consistently promotes a forward-moving approach to the problem, not an all-or-nothing stance, yet the extremists paint him as, well, an extremist. Advancement is not extremism.

[IamaGApeach]

I think PETA's tactics turn more people off to their cause than help elevate awareness. Sadly, because they are so extreme, it's hard to take them seriously even though they are right. Let us all try to eat less meat.

[OttoMann]

I agree with the sentiment: eat less meat. I haven't eaten any meat in 15 years, but I can't realistically expect others to follow suit. However, it's quite reasonable, and do-able, to ask people to merely eat less of it.