Is veganism just a luxury? Or is it cruelty to eat ears, hooves and hearts?
The topic of vegetarianism came up at dinner with a group of meat-eating friends. One asked, with a snort, "Are there any vegans in poor countries?" and then answered her own question with a vehement, "No! Only rich people get to be so picky about their food!"Since this friend is a slow food aficionado and veteran of the Incanto "Head to Tail" dinner, she's clearly biased in favor of meat. But it got the group debating the question, if you were very poor, or even medium poor, would you turn away meat, even though it equals protein and energy? Or would you just be happy to have anything to eat?
It gets down to the question, is a vegetarian diet a luxury of the developed world, where we get to eat whatever we want and have warehouses full of food choices? Or an ethical choice that crosses socio-economic borders?
Vegan and vegetarian diets are often championed by environmentalists who believe eating meat has a negative impact on their carbon footprints -- which, in a lot of ways, makes sense. But then I watched this video of Cris Cosentino, the chef at Incanto, talk to to the foodie website Chowhound about using the entire animal -- yes, including the offal. He's pretty awesome, and even has some fighting words for PETA."
Chris's approach is way at the other end of the spectrum from veganism, but in many ways just as green and environmentally conscious. He argues that eating meat is not equal to animal cruelty. In fact, when you're concerned about the whole animal you actually take a much more ethical approach to the way it's raised and slaughtered, and you feel like an asshole for not using all of the parts of an animal you killed. "No waste" is a very "sustainable-living" approach.
In the end, I put it out to you, our Green Daily readers. Is it greener to eat the whole animal, or to be a vegan?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-14-2008 @ 10:16AM
Kamal said...
The vegan diet is only for the rich is ridiculous. It takes more energy to grow meat than grains. It behooves poorer people to eat lower on the food chain.
The true cost of meat in western world is absorbed government subsidies in addition to the cost of environmental destruction (deforestation for cattle grazing).
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7-14-2008 @ 2:04PM
Baron said...
You should make a trip out to some of the biggest beef producing areas in our country. I know where I'm from in TX, the last time we had a forest (if there was one) would have been a million years ago (give or take a bit). Most of the places in cattle country that I have been are the same way, they have been grass lands long before anyone came to settle there. Now, I can't speak for other countries, so this is just in regards to us here.
As for growing grain... Well, that again is debatable. The farm I worked on required a lot of work in either from driving the tractors, combines, etc. to watering, fertilizing, and planting for grain. Were as the cattle, well, you put them in the pasture and all we had to provide was a source of water. That was only in one pasture, most of the others had natural sources of water for them.
But, of course, there are two sides to every story. I think, what it comes down to, is that there are hundreds of millions of people in the world that are just happy to have something to eat.
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7-14-2008 @ 5:01PM
amelko said...
When you look at other countries they eat the whole animal and then use what ever cannot be eaten for other things. To me this is the most green way to eat an animal. Many "poorer" villages in other countries do eat a mostly plant based diet with using meat for special ceremonies and such.
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