Start your yoga career now: Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher Training in London Begins September


Eating meat
Bridget Walsh on 09 September, 2011 |

Meat. In our Western culture you will find it literally everywhere. Burgers, pizzas, pies… lollies! No longer is meat the prized novely that a family worked for and could look forward to. It has become a staple, an expectation, the item that fills up most of our plate. There are restaurant chains built entirely around meat, and if there is one thing London has a saturation of, it’s fried chicken.

Meat used to be earned, worked for, chased, hunted. It was farmed, but took labour, resources and craftsmanship to be produced, making it was easier to come by, but it’s price reflected it’s cost. The term ‘Sunday Roast’ came about because people would look forward to their meat on a Sunday. It was a novelty, a symbol of affluence, or a treat for the hardworking.

“Rates of meat consumption have risen exponentially since the advent of the factory farm in the 1950s, which made regular meat consumption accessible to all. In the Netherlands, for example, in 1950, 36kg of meat was being consumed, per year, per capita, and, by 2006, this figure had risen to 90kg.” (Andrew Pasley, 2010).

The argument of meat-eating is complex, multi-faceted, and guaranteed to get the haunches up of many a defensive omnivore. Our taste buds have become accustomed to the flavour of meat. Our fancies have become accustomed to the satisfaction of meat. Unfortunately, our planet has NOT become accustomed to the destruction of industrial agriculture. Our wallets refuse to become accustomed to the added expense of sustainable farming. Our bodies will likely never become accustomed to the diseases of affluence that our meat-eating habits drown us in. And I’m pretty sure, given the choice, not many animals would elect to become accustomed to a battery cage, sow crate or slaughter-line.

“Globalization and economies of scale has made meat more accessible and affordable, fostering the consumption of meat as a cultural practice. Heart disease is the number one cause of death and cancer following closely behind. Type II diabetes has tripled between 1999 and 2009 and it is predicted that 1 in 3 American children born in the year 2000 will develop Type I diabetes at some point in their life. The culture of gluttonous consumption; maintaining and increasing the excess that already exists, are consistent across Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other Western nations.”

In addition to these diseases of affluence from our excessive animal-product consumption, there are other physiological components to consider. Although I’m don’t claim to be an expert on this angle (there are enough other reasons for me to not eat animal products for this one to simply be a bonus), there is scientific argument out there that suggests our bodies simply aren’t made to consume much meat at all. We seem to be missing the large canines, jaws that can tear food, intestines of the correct, shorter length, and an instinct and physical capacity to catch prey.

“Humans, like herbivores, have negligible canines and a set of teeth mainly comprised of molars, jaws that move predominantly in a grinding motion; intestines that are seven to eleven times the length of our torso; enzymes in our mouths to digest carbohydrates, a relatively slow pace, compared to most carnivores or omnivores, and no in-built killer instinct.”

Meat production, at the scale it is today, is far from natural. People know this. People like to ignore it. But we know it’s true. As the famous saying goes, “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian!” The majority of the industry is breeding, rearing and killing these animals in circumstances that are unnatural, inhumane, unhygienic and unsustainable. It is easier for us to pretend this isn’t happening. It is easier for us to consider our ‘meat’ to simply be what comes skinned, boned, and packaged in plastic on the shelf ready for us to ‘enjoy’. Or even better, pre-cooked and presented in pretty packaging, to cater to our lazy-tendencies as well. Living, breathing creatures are no longer considered to have basic rights to fresh air, natural light or nutritious food. They are simply commodities. Units to be mass produced and processed at minimal cost, with the shortest turnaround for the largest margin of profit.

It takes approximately 10kg grain to make 1kg of meat. Put into a different context, let’s say that 1 square metre of arable land could potentially provide 1kg of grain. This ratio means that 1 square metre of land would grow 1kg of grain (rice, soy, corn) to feed 1 person for a week. But it would take 10 square metres of land to grow enough grain to feed and fatten up a cow, in order to slaughter that cow and provide 1 kg of beef for that same person. Add in the waste these poor creatures create in their short and miserable lives, the water it takes to hydrate them, the electricity and labour it requires to house, process and slaughter them, and slowly the pieces of the environmental costs puzzle start to fall into place.

There is a whole PILE of information available to people who truly believe in their non-violent approach to living and want to progress those values into the way they eat. Put very plainly, eating meat is not good for our bodies, it’s not good for the environment, it’s not good for the world’s resources and it’s certainly no good for the lives we are creating, just to destroy. When you begin to open you eyes to the endless list of reasons why you SHOULDN’T be eating meat, all of a sudden, your selfish, violent and destructive craving for a bacon sarnie doesn’t quite measure up.