Meat-Eaters Vs. Vegetarians: Round 1, Kangaroos
It has to be one of the biggest contradictions of my life. I love animals (well, most anyway–spiders can make their way off this earth, thank you very much), and would never knowingly cause them harm. Although, as evidenced by the fact that I am a meat-eater, I obviously don’t have much problem with other people harming them for me.
Could you really eat me?
Photo: Carlo Alcos
Recently, I have cut back a bit. In my younger days, I didn’t consider a meal a meal unless there was meat in it. Nowadays, meat features in my dinners only three or four times per week.
Also, I now try (try!) to restrict my meat to organic, just so I know the animal lived as happy a life as it could before being sent to the slaughter house (hold your applause).
But still, I try to justify it: humans have always eaten meat. We are meat-eaters, right? We’re not running around trying to convince lions and tigers to lay off the gazelles, are we?
My wife always talks about going vegetarian, but she still eats meat. I think she could do it if she had my backing. But I’m not prepared to give it to her. Not yet.
Why am I still questioning vegetarianism?
It’s not that I haven’t thought about it before, but a recent article in The Age titled Roo Meat Ban Gets Us Jumping left me a bit concerned. Here’s the gist:
1. Russia, who imports 70% of Australia’s kangaroo meat exports, has blacklisted Australia due to quarantine concerns. *As a side note, I doubt Russia has ever tried to enter Australia with soiled hiking shoes — talk about strict quarantine measures!
2. 50 workers — 1/10th the full-time workforce in this $270 million industry — have already been laid off.
3. Barring an overturn of Russia’s decision, Australia will have to look to other ways to supplement this loss. The biggest hope is an increase in domestic consumption. Other ideas? Get Asia hooked on kangaroo jerky and salami.
So what?
Alright, getting to my point. Maybe it’s because kangaroos are just so darned cute–the curious way they always pop their heads up from the brush to look at you, and the way they hop around all boingy boingy boingy, and maybe because they are also Australia’s national symbol–that thinking of them as a commodity like this rubs me the wrong way.
Photo: paper or plastic?
And yes, I do know that cows and chickens and pigs have been commodified for eons, but we’re talking about kangaroos here. Kangaroos! As a Canadian, I think I’d feel the same way if we started turning beavers into leathery strips of dried meat.
So back to the main point. How can I continue to eat meat, knowing that a living being has to die for me to do it? Right now I have no answer to that. But I do know that coming to a dinner table near me is a plate of meat. And I will enjoy eating it.
Oh yeah, one more question: If I was to go vegetarian, would that mean I would have to stop eating McDonald’s and Burger King hamburgers? Because surely, there’s no meat in those?
About the Author
Carlo Alcos is a freelance writer and an editor at Matador. He is currently on the road. Check in with him at Vagabonderz.com and follow him at Twitter.
Great post!! So true. That dichotomy we meat eaters face.
I’m actually working on an article about this very subject (already in the revision stage so in case you see it, I didn’t steal your idea
Lola – a meat eater (whose actually eaten kangaroo once!)
Hey, Carlo. I was veggie for almost 10 years and then one day I had a steak. From then on, I’ve been eating meat.
It’s terrible for the environment. That’s one thing. I don’t eat it every day, but when I do, I’ll pig out on it.
Even those of us that have no problem with the unfair death aspect of it should try to eat less just for the earth, if not for ourselves.
Great thoughts, Carlo!
I have to agree with Kate. My veggie tendencies are 75% environmentally driven. (To complete the picture, there’s also 5% health concerns and 20% the fact that veggie food done right is DAMN tasty).
When I eat out, there’s usually meat on the table. But I’m pretty sure that I’ve never cooked a meal with meat in my own home. I like to think it makes me kitchen cleaner. And to me it’s just easier.
If you’re ever in Chicago, hit up the Chicago Diner (I believe the entire menu is vegan). You might never go back.
After 5 years of being vegan, with two extra years of vegetarianism before that, I can speak to the health side of this lifestyle. It’s not easy on the body, let’s just put it that way. And I actually LOVE vegan food.
But I got progressively sicker and sicker, not understanding why, with all of the (very loud) vegetarian-promoting groups out there saying it was the healthiest for my body AND the planet. It took two nutrition classes beating me over the head to realize the reason I was sick was because I was NOT eating meat. And no, dairy didn’t cut it–I was allergic, as a very high percentage of folks are (they just don’t know it–or admit it to themselves). And I was finally learning how bad soy can be for you, especially women, as it acts as a thyroid inhibitor. No wonder I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning, with my three-meals a day that included soy.
Our hormones, even more so in a way for women, are very intricately balanced thanks to many things in our diet, probably nothing quite as important as amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Many people have heard as a veggie, you need to eat beans and rice together to make a complete protein. Honestly, that doesn’t cut it, esp. if you battle depression, lethargy, foggy-headedness, blood sugar ups and downs. I love the veggies that say they are so healthy, and yet need several cups of coffee and tons of sugar to get through the day. Now that’s a nice little set up for diabetes.
There is also a lot of incorrect info out there on the environmental impacts of eating meat. They are looking at conventional mass production of meat when they talk about how much damage it does–the amount of corn and wheat that is produced just to feed these animals certainly has a horrible impact (plus the antibiotics fed to cows to keep their guts from leaking since they aren’t supposed to be eating grains). But if you are talking local, completely grass-fed, free to roam animals, they can actually have LESS of an ecological footprint (if you count the transportation costs of even the fuel to grow grains all the way to getting them where they need to go), as their manure feeds the earth that feeds them–it’s cyclical, as the process was before the industrialized meat complex was born.
Unfortunately, many veggies eat a lot of wheat, soy, and corn, of which a high percentage is genetically modified, uses vast amounts of pesticides and are grown as a monoculture crop, doing further damage.
I’m not saying eat a lot of meat–I still believe a veggie-based diet is the best way (with a focus on greens and other dark veggies), but small amounts of clean meat can be a very healthy–and sustainable–part of one’s diet.
Ok, stepping off my soap box!
Carlo,
Love this article! I was vegan for a little while, but now (in Korea- land of pork) I’m back to eating meat. I do limit it, compared to how I used to be…I think consuming too much or too little can both be detrimental environmentally.
And I agree with Hal- some veggie meals are AMAZING when prepared well.
-Michelle
Wow, Christine. I feel a LOT better about eating meat now. Thanks. I needed that!
Interesting post, Carlo! I come at this from a sort of strange perspective, as a life-long veggie (my parents were veggie when I was born) who’s slowly been easing up over the last few years. I added chicken late in high school, fish and seafood in university, and am now contemplating the final jump: beef, pork, lamb and beyond. (Though like Hal, apart from canned tuna I don’t cook any of this stuff at home, mostly because I don’t know how.) It’s never been a moral issue for me, it was just the way I was raised – though more recently I’ve come to sympathize with the environmental arguments. I wouldn’t feel too guilty, Carlo. Killing animals for food is totally natural. I think if we do what we can to support responsible sources of meat, and eat it in moderation, that’s all anyone can ask.
@Christine – re: your points about soy, etc. I do agree that veganism probably isn’t healthy in the long run. (I also think that avoiding leather and other animal products in clothing is simply a luxury that people in most climates can’t afford.) But I disagree about vegetarianism being unhealthy. I think a big part of the problem is the commodification of veggie/vegan products as this has become such a popular “lifestyle” – with soy cheese, soy ice cream, soy turkey slices, and all that sort of stuff for sale at crazy prices. Yes, particularly for women you’ll get into trouble with all that soy. But none of that stuff existed when I was growing up veggie in Saskatchewan in the ’80s (tofutti? ha!) and my family ate the way peasants who can’t afford meat have eaten for millennia around the world. We ate a lot of pulses and complex grains, along with plenty of veggies and some dairy. I can assure you I always had plenty of energy. I was an extraordinarily healthy kid, and still am a very healthy adult, despite never having had a bite of beef or pork in my life.
Sorry, Eva, I should stated it the way I usually do–vegetarianism doesn’t work for everyone. For some people, it certainly does, though I don’t think it does for those who suffer from the things I mentioned above–depression, hormonal imbalances, candida overgrowth, or extreme blood sugar fluctuations–especially if they became vegetarians as teenagers or adults.
I gave up soy when I found out I was allergic to it, and so ate mostly brown rice, quinoa, nuts, some beans, and tons and tons of veggies. The thing that I didn’t learn until I got into my nutrition program was how hard it is to actually digest grains and beans. They have a protective coating called phytates that is nature’s way of making sure they survive animal’s (and our) digestive acids, come out the other end, to be replanted in the earth (and causing gas along the way–naturally, the are found in highest amounts in beans). Hence soaking and sprouting, which removes the phytates and lets us get at the nutrients inside.
Up until the advent of the modern food system, grains were always soaked before they were baked into bread. Some people actually think that is why celiac has become such an epidemic in the past few years–wheat is actually poisonous to our bodies if it hasn’t gone through the chemical shift of being soaked or sprouted. A good book on the old ways of cooking grains and beans properly is Nourishing Traditions.
Soy, along with being an estrogen mimicker, is also extremely high in phytates. Phytates also act as a chelating agent (great if you have cancer, not good if you are healthy because it takes vitamins and minerals out of your body). Therefore, if a person’s diet is high in foods that are high in phytates, they have a hard time both getting to the nutrients inside, and keeping the ones they already have, unless they go through the soaking and sprouting process.
In healthy individuals with strong stomachs, high in hydrochloric acid, it usually isn’t a problem, at least not for a while. Anyone with any sort of a compromised immune system (this even includes allergies, which most people don’t recognize), it’s not a good idea.
I actually believe it is a good idea for some people to go vegetarian–and even vegan–for periods of time. Too much testosterone? Go veggie for a while. You’ll chill out. Fast food junkie? Go veggie. I also think it’s perfectly healthy to go your entire life without eating beef (just watch b12 and iron levels).
But I think it is hard, for women in particular, living in a society where we have plastics that mimic estrogen, we have stress levels that constantly upset our digestive system, dairy is one of the top allergies, and we all undoubtedly consume foods that are immune system killers and feed the yeast in our bodies we don’t want fed–sugar, caffeine, alcohol–that it is hard to be completely vegetarian (no fish or eggs) throughout one’s life and not feel some repercussions. I’ve seen too many women clients and colleagues go through it to not feel this way.
I am so happy to see this conversation happening. As someone who has struggled with this issue quite a bit (avid animal rights supporter and simultaneous meat eater) and not found an easy solution, it’s great to hear others’ perspectives. I find that often people land hard on one side or the other of this issue. Many animal rights activitists really can’t see the need for some people to be meat eaters, regardless of health issues (“You can get all your B vitamins from veggies and beans!”) and the pro-meat-eating health folks are all about making sure that you get what you need, sometimes without consideration for the life that was sacrified to bring it to you.
I think this issue really speaks to the need to prioritize what is going on in one’s life at the time. I do struggle with some of the health issues that Christine refers to above and, for now, I have resigned myself to the fact that a vegetarian diet just doesn’t make sense for me to follow if I want to get my health on track (which I do!). While this decision feels emotionally hard for the part of me that loves animals and doesn’t want to harm them in anyway, at this time, it has to be more important for my overall well-being. I hope in the future to be able to make a different decision when my health is in a different place. These issues are complex multi-factorial and the only way I have found to make sense of them is to realize what my greatest priority is at the time and go in that direction.
Thanks so much for the article Carlo!
Yay! I’m so happy to have stumbled upon this debate. If you’re curious about whether vegetarianism is right for you, you can actually test your body with Metabolic Typing. Because we’re all different, foods affect us differently. What makes one person’s pH acidic can make another’s alkaline! I am a metabolic type that actually needs more animal fat and protein to alkalize my blood pH. Yes, that’s right, contrary to popular belief, I did just say that animal protein is alkalizing for me! If you’re curious and want to get typed, check out http://www.bloodph.com, give me a call and mention holistic with humor for a 25% discount.
Wow. Interesting Sylvie! I’ll go check that site out.
Thanks for the continued comments all!
It’s about cruelty- plain and simple… factory farming is so amazingly horrible- not even the most dedicated meat eater could watch meet your meat on u tube without flinching… I just have to take comfort in knowing that you guys are slowly removing yourselves from the gene pool with cancer and heart disease- unfortunately not fast enough to alleviate the suffering of billions of animals this year….. Also- organic does not mean cruelty free- they are slaughtered the same way as non organic animals. The only way to feel better about the meat you consume would be to buy local from a farmer who raises his own, on a small farm, and does his own killing……
I recently decided to become a vegetarian..and my reasons for being one are endless – anti-cruelty/violence, environmental reasons, health reasons, practicing non-detachment and showing unconditional compassion for all living things, and the list goes on. Another reason that I hold strongly is that by being a vegetarian, I don’t add to the negative energy that killing creates. I don’t believe killing animals and killing people are different. For me it’s the same, we are taking life out of something alive. Why are we even surprised that there are so much killing around us when we ourselves have no compassion to other things that have life, and we ourselves kill (innocent and helpless creatures, at that)? I’ll end this rant by sharing one of my recent realizations: How much we want to live is also how much any living thing wants to live. How much we suffer when being hurt or killed is also how much animals suffer. How much we want to survive is also how much they want to survive. How could we separate ourselves from them?
Heya. Nice post, and I promise not to mention the growing “kangatarianism” movement (those that don’t eat any meat other than kangaroo” due to the fact that the kangs are free range.
Anyhoo, my point.
Humans are part of nature, therefore, by definition, whatever we do is natural and will be compensated for in the long run.
Secondly, we are omnivores. If we were carnivores, would we be having this bleeding heart row over the eating of the omnivores?
Tbh, whatever floats your boat. Eat rice cakes all you want, in fact, I will happily fight for your right to eat veggie.
Just acknowledge the fact you are denying your system essential nutrients, and that you have to take supplements to balance out that lack.
Cheers
C
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