Your Choice of diet - Meat or Vege?

When Shiau Wen announced and created a new chapter in her life by denouncing meat during our meeting today,she stared at me hoping for more answers.

Really I have none at that very moment but just to console her to take it easy, perhaps by trying it twice a month,namely on the first and the fifteen day of the Chinese lunar calendar month.

Many of us do so in Penang but for me,I did the nine days vegetarian feast on the Nine Emperors Gods' festival and also when I was at BABA's Asram in Puttaparthi in India.

Have I said good-bye to my favourite meat?Let's explore what Colin Boyd Shafer has to say to quote:

"I have not eaten red or white meat for almost a year.Recently, I even said goodbye to seafood.I have completely given up eating animals.

Three main reasons have influenced my decision to stop eating animals in the 21st century: one, consuming meat is extremely harmful to the environment; two, purchasing meat is not worth the suffering it inflicts on the animals; and three, producing meat for mass consumption is simply not healthy.
For me, eating meat is simply unjustifiable.

I just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s provocative new book “Eating Animals” (2009).Preparing for the book, he spent three years trying to decide, through detailed investigation, whether he wanted to raise his newborn son as a meat eater or a vegetarian. He decided on the latter.

His conclusions were my catalyst for change.

The book is full of mind-blowing revelations. For example: Animal agriculture makes a 40 per cent greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change.

Eating meat has other environmental implications as well. Rainforests are being cut down to make way for these farms — destroying biodiversity.

More fields are used to grow feed for these animals than to grow food for us!

Seafood is delicious, but large scale fishing is entirely unsustainable. As reported on BBC News, if trends continue, all major global fisheries will be depleted by 2050 (Black, 2006).

Eating meat is just not green.

An average American consumes 21,000 whole animals over a lifetime. The majority of these animals are factory farmed.

It’s important to remember that all meat comes from sentient beings. In the movie “Earthlings” (2007), one gets to see the harsh reality of where our meat comes from. Chickens crammed together in cages no bigger than a shoebox, cows skinned alive as they dangle by their legs from hooks, pigs poked, prodded and underfed, and dolphins being clubbed en masse.

Safran Foer spends a lot of time explaining how fish are no different, and just as deserving of our compassion.

However, most of us are disconnected from all of this. What we see is small cubes of meat ready for our consumption.
The whole “pain-filled” process is hidden. Why is it that the pleasure we derive from eating meat is enough to justify the act?
In the words of Safran Foer, “Compassion is a muscle that gets stronger with use, and the regular exercise of choosing kindness over cruelty would change us.”
Our meat consumption even creates disease. Zoonotic pathogens (animal-human or human-animal) result from our close contact with animals.

Safran Foer explains how the 1918 Spanish flu (a form of avian influenza) killed up to 100 million people worldwide in the course of a year and we may be leading ourselves down a similar road. Keep in mind that H1N1 derived from pig farming.
Farmed chickens are no better — with 95 per cent infected with E.Coli, 90 per cent Capylobacter, and 8 per cent Salmonella.
Due to their weak immune systems from altered genetics and harsh living conditions, they are very susceptible to diseases. We are setting up the conditions for the creation of a new super-pathogen.

Films like the Academy-award nominated Food Inc. (2009) demonstrate how dangerous our factory farmed meat can be. One woman in the movie discussed the death of her little boy from a contaminated hamburger. What makes the story even sadder is she is not alone. There are many people who have suffered from eating what appeared to be an innocent meal.

Many Malaysians like meat. It is an important component of the local diet.
About 25 per cent of total protein intake is from meats (Mohamed & Abdullah, 1987). In fact, a 2000 USDA report listed Malaysia as the number one consumer of seafood per capita, with the average person eating a whopping 374 pounds!

According to Maria Divina Sinalubong-Paraguas from Universiti Sains Malaysia (2006) “with rapid population growth and improved per capita income as well as lifestyle changes resulting from urbanisation, it is predicted that there will be further increases in demand for meat products in the country.”

As development in Malaysia continues so will the increase of factory-farmed meat and seafood consumption.

While researching this article, I found statistics — but no mention of how Malaysians feel about the treatment of animals bred for consumption on factory farms or fished from the sea.

Furthermore, there is apparently little concern over environmental impact. A notable exception is a recently published letter in the Sun from the president of the Consumer Association of Penang, S.M. Mohamed Idris.He asked for the closure of all shrimp farming operations. This industry is devastating the local mangrove ecosystem with far-reaching consequences.

Meat consumption is not a necessity for human survival. The vegetarian diet can be healthier than an omnivorous one as you can get protein from sources such as beans and soya.

As reported in the Huffington Post on July 13, 2008, impressive data arises from a study of 1904 vegetarians over 21 years by the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsche Krebsforschungszentrum). The study’s shocking results: vegetarian men reduced their risk of early death by 50 per cent! Women vegetarians benefit from a 30 per cent reduction in mortality! On a personal note, all of my friends who are vegetarian seem to be doing well.

I am afraid of where we are heading. Do we care about the perpetuating effects of global warming? Do we care about our health? Do we care about the treatment of these animals? Do you care?
If you are just eating meat for pleasure, is that just? What would it take for you to live life without your favourite meat dish? I challenge you to reflect on your choice of diet.

Not only should you think about your health, but your role as a global citizen. In the words of Jonathan Safran Foer, “when we lift our forks [chopsticks, hands — whatever you use to eat] we hang our hats somewhere.”unquote.

Good luck Shiau Wen, you have joined the Chronic Self-Righteousness Syndrome group as at today but as for me perhaps I should call my experiences as an Omnivore's Dilemma.Don't you think so???