On The Sustainability of Eating Animal Products
Please note: the following is not directed at all vegans or anyone else attempting to be mindful of their food choices. These words are directed at Miss Freston’s statements alone.
There is a line in my son’s book that I often hear him repeat at random times through out the day: "Bust my buffers!" That is exactly what popped into my head last week when I read this article by Kathy Freston, author of Veganist.
(I’m feeling a rant coming on here, so hold on to your britches.)
I skimmed through the article the other day and came across this paragraph:
"And then you start reaping the benefits: …the pride of knowing that you are radically reducing your carbon footprint, money saved, and the sense that you are evolving as a conscious and compassionate human being."
This doesn’t offend me, but I do find it to be an obscene notion that could only exist in a privileged, unsustainable, oil-dependent society.
Now what we eat and why we eat it is a very personal thing for people and I completely agree with and respect those who choose not to eat factory-farmed animal products. (She says as she scarfs down local bacon from happy pigs and local eggs from chickens who live a fully-chickeny life).
But anyone who can read can see that Miss Freston is implying that those who eat animal products are less "conscious or compassionate human beings".
It seems to me that it’s another case of factory farming is bad therefore all animal product consumption is bad therefore anyone who eats animal products is bad.
Big Words and Contradictions
So I did a little digging to find out if she has ever mentioned grass-fed meat in her articles. I found this in Hamptons Magazine where she says: "Grass-fed beef is the least cruel meat you can eat."
Then I found this article in which she thanks Dr. Andrew Weil for pointing out that "There is something called arachidonic acid, or AA, in animal flesh which causes inflammation. It doesn’t matter if the chicken is free range or the beef is grass-fed because the fatty acid is natural and inherent in the meat.
But then if you head to Dr. Weil’s own website he implies that arachidonic acid is a good thing found in breast milk in this article: "DHA and another fatty acid, AA (arachidonic acid) are found naturally in breast milk, but if mothers can’t nurse, their babies are deprived of these nutrients because infants, especially those born prematurely, can’t manufacture enough in their own bodies for optimal brain development."
Furthermore, you can visit a fairly popular vegan blog to learn that excess insulin, generally considered to be caused by excess carbohydrate consumption, actually creates arachidonic acid in our bodies. (source)
Then again if we really looked at the function of this essential fatty acid we would see that it can either encourage or inhibit inflammation in the body, depending on the circumstances. And I am guessing that since our brains are made up of 11% arachidonic acid then perhaps it’s not the toxin it is made out to be.
Reminds me of another saying often heard around here: "Just the facts, ma’am."
Perhaps We Will Never Agree
I do not agree with Freston or James McWilliams who says in this article that we do not need to kill animals for sustenance. So perhaps it does come down to a question of "Do our bodies need animal products to function properly?"
Clearly I believe we do and clearly Miss Freston does not. But I don’t see how appearing on Oprah to promote an ideology is more conscious than getting ones hands dirty to feed your family as our ancestors did for most of history.
I believe that making a conscious decision to produce rather than consume is the most important part of being a good steward of our resources. I believe that conscious food choices are made by the work of your hands, not an appearance on Oprah. I believe that a truly sustainable food system is one in which animals are kept for milk, eggs, and meat by you or someone in your community rather than depending on "organic" beans and grains grown in depleted soil using massive quantities of foreign oil to produce and transport them.
I imagine that Miss Freston would not agree with me on this, along with a plethora of other things, but who would expect her to. I am, after all, not evolving as a conscious and compassionate human being as she is.
What do you think?
Note: You can read more about the nutritional and spiritual reasons our family eats animal products.
It’s incredibly arrogant to suggest that those who live a vegan lifestyle have somehow achieved a higher plane of spiritual consciousness and have become more compassionate as a result. The vegan idea of compassion is not in line with reality. Like it or not, the human body needs animals and what they provide. Let them do what they want with their bodies–that’s perfectly fine. The problem begins when they start to impose their ideals on others.
I’m growing real tired of this argument.
I’d much prefer to focus on the devastating effects that the Standard American Diet (SAD) causes, to people, animals, and the Earth. We should rather join hands and fight to end the pollution of our soils, the true abuse of animals on conventional farms, and fight to bring awareness to how devastating SAD can be.
The thing is… do vegans see the difference between a traditional diet and SAD? My impression is, not really. I think they just see “meat eater”, and lump us all together.
Marisa
I think that statistically Freston is an evolutionist & that her worldview is certainly showing. Her statements would seem to back that up. Since nothing separates her from a cow but some random chance mutations, what gives her the right to eat the “unlucky” cow? She simply is groping for a scientific reason to back up her decision. I have compassion on CAFO animals and that’s why I raise my own meat for our family and try to do that as humanely as possible bearing always in mind the way that the Creator intended the animals to live base upon their design. And if I wasn’t doing that I would find a farmer who does, their is a growing handful of them out there that do. After all, the Bible says that I can eat meat. But that would be my worldview showing 😀
I don’t think that’s the direction you wanted this to go, but I just couldn’t resist joining you in your rant ;D
Quinn – I believe you are right. I probably should have linked to a couple of articles I did last year on why our family eats animal products – both the physical and spiritual sides.
I can understand the knee-jerk offense that occurs from commentary like Freston’s, but let’s take a step back here and consider the good in what she’s saying.
Vegans care a great deal about what they eat. By and large they want to be healthy, and they know that the best way to go about that is to change what they eat. They have entirely boycotted the factory farming system. They can see beyond human arrogance and consider “lesser” living beings in their circle of compassion. They are trying very hard to be consistent with their ethics or morals, and that is admirable. We might quibble about the particular method, but veganism and traditional diets are on the same spectrum, and not all that far apart. The impulses are the same, the consciousness is the same, it just manifests differently.
I DID become a more conscious, compassionate person as a vegan. I saw the threads that brought all of our most oppressive systems together. There were times when I was not particularly compassionate toward meat-eating, and for a long time I didn’t know there were solid alternatives to CAFOs — but consider this. When I developed sickness from the vegan diet, I was already in such a head-space that returning to the SAD was not even remotely an option. I could never buy factory-farmed animals. I could never eat junk food. So when I discovered the WAPF and sought to include animal foods in my diet, I went straight to the farmers in my community, and now I’m rabid in my support of small-scale, sustainable farms. And you will find that many many MANY vegans go through the same process.
When the diet runs its course, which is inevitable for almost all vegans, they’re already working from a place that is intentionally conscious and compassionate, and they’ll be looking for alternatives to the SAD and factory farms. And if we can be conscious and compassionate ourselves, we can be there with that information. We can guide them toward a lifestyle of awareness and kindness that is also in line with these principles of good health.
But if we’ve spent a lot of time creaming vegans for how stupid, blind, arrogant, annoying, sickly, spiritually bereft, evolutionarily incorrect, and judgmental they are, we’re setting ourselves up for a missed opportunity. After all, vegans could and do ascribe every one of these adjectives to people like us! and they miss a valuable dialogue in the process. So let’s be better than that. There’s no use in patting ourselves on the back for how awesomely righteous we are — is that not what we blame vegans for doing? Let’s stop with the retaliatory sarcasm, which only reinforces the vegan concept of an aggressive meat-eater, and simply continue to promote, positively, the good results of our choices.
Chandelle – Thank you for your insight. I think you are absolutely right in many regards. My response to Freston’s words was not coming from offense, but rather a desire to be intellectually honest (her and me). I have a lot of respect for vegans and vegetarians for simply being mindful and actually considering what they are eating and its long-term effects on others.
All of my above words are directed only at Freston, for what I see as an ideology (her words in that article, not veganism) that could only exist in our unsustainable food system and society. They are not meant to be a blanket statement about the way vegans think or a debate on who is right and who is wrong.
So I don’t believe that I am being aggressive towards all those who choose not to eat animal products since my words are only directed towards Freston, and not necessarily at her desire to not eat animal products but at her self-righteous assumptions and (what I see to be) inconsistent worldview.
Thanks for responding, Shannon. I appreciate that you want to stay on-topic to Kathy Freston’s comments specifically. I responded from frustration that so much energy is directed against vegans on traditional food blogs. Vegans represent such a tiny minority compared to the vast numbers who are most directly and thoughtlessly contributing to this destructive culture. To my way of thinking, that majority deserves the most attention. But I understand your response to Freston’s comments — I find them short-sighted as well.
Chandelle – Yes, and after re-reading the post again I decided to put a disclaimer explaining that these thoughts are only directed at her and not anyone else. Thanks for making some great points, as always.
I agree with your opinion on this topic.
The vegan lifestyle is not for me, and I do not believe that God intended us to live that way. Any kind of meat has many important things in it, including protein, that are essential.
Grass-fed beef tastes wonderful! And I believe that God intended animals to eat the fruits of His labor, not be stuck in a barn, and injected with harmful hormones and such.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
diddos shannon!
I just love you. You made brilliant points. I must admit, too, that pointing out contradictions in their “theology” makes me really happy. I was a vegetarian for 6 years. It is difficult to to do it WELL. Getting a sufficient amount of COMPLETE protein in one’s diet takes careful planning, and I grew tired of the idea that I must be a person of great conscience because I did not eat meat. That was not it at all. In my search for health, I stumbled upon vegan literature (The only health-food store in town was owned by Seventh Day Adventists) and committed myself to giving the vegetarian life-style a go. I was fatter and more emotional than ever! I felt like food was the enemy. We are all much healthier now that we are “back on” the animal protein. Thanks for stepping out and following the research.
Robin – Haha, thanks. And I am grateful that you and your family have found health through real foods.
Sometimes when things tick you off you just need to speak up. There seems to be this pervasive influence (not just vegan) that animal products are “bad”. People feel guilty when they eat a steak, or think that margarine or “tofu eggs” are somehow healthier or better than the butter and eggs they replace.
I’d agree that CAFOs are generally bad, but animal husbandry has been a part of human culture for a long time. It’s that very husbandry that has contributed to the growth of culture (along with cultivate crops). Eggs and milk and farm raised meat are a much more secure food source than “maybe I’ll get lucky hunting today”. They are also very nutrient dense food sources, when properly raised. The thousands of beautiful and unique heritage breed animals around the world would not survive without human caretakers and a purpose. That purpose is most often food production.
The implication that eating animal products somehow makes you less compassionate, etc, is just complete bunk.
I definitely agree with your view. Holier-than-thou people with their fingers in their ears tend to make me steam too.
When I look at what could be an approach to a sustainable food future, I see the removal of factory farming of both animals AND vegetables/grains. A move back to local small organic farming that would sustain the area around a farm and reduce GMOs and pesticides/herbicides in our environment.
For me, I see it as more important to reduce meat consumption, but certainly not eliminate it. If we think about it, instead of everyone having a 12-oz piece of meat for dinner, a 4-oz portion should be sufficient to support good health and that same meat would feed 3 people. And we’d all be thinner and much healthier by making that bulk back up with greens and grains.
Well, I am a Catholic so I view this from an inherently Christian perspective. I think that the problem comes from worship of the creation rather than the creator. I owe a proper duty to the creation of God for God’s Own Sake, not for the sake of the creation itself. So, necessarily I view my proper care and attitude to animals used as food for my family as a more compassionate and properly ordered love for the creation.
Secondarily, I think that vegans forget that highly processed foods coming from factories and made by men in hard hats are incredibly far from a natural order as possible. It cannot be sustainable if it defies a natural order. My milk, my butter and my meat come from natural, living sources and are not extruded to plastic tubs and wrappers by machines. Veganism and vegans are too un-natural for me.
Lastly, my food tastes better. That counts for something, too!
Meat was not available daily 150 years ago, they did not eat it every day as we do. Meat was something that was had when it was available, but not daily. So when talking of living how we used to when we grew and farmed everything ourselves, let’s not forget they did not have the massive amount of meat people eat now. Most people nowadays eat meat every single day. There is a difference there. I think both sides can sound holier than thou. Who cares who is more spiritually enlightened from eating if both parties are eating what makes them feel the best? I am grossed out by some animal products and cannot eat them, some others make myself and my daughter sick. So we eat what is the healthiest and best possible for us. That is no way makes us lower than those who eat meat and animal products daily. We do eat a few animal products occasionally, but in no way do I feel our bodies or lacking, our health is lacking, or we are lacking in spirituality because we don’t eat bacon and eggs daily. I think different diets can work for different people. A lot of vegans do care deeply about animals, so that’s not something to make light of. These are people who fight for animal rights because they don’t want to see harm come to them. I know quite well there is a difference from locally and organically farm grown animals that become food, and factory food – which is disgusting – and many vegans and vegetarians know that as well. Not all vegans think all meat is just dirty factory meat. While your comments were directed to this woman personally (and I’m not even sure why as it does not seem she attacked you directly), they can be taken rudely by others who are vegetarians or vegans. I can see much better uses of time than arguing over who’s better for eating what.
Ashley – Thank you for your comment. Like I said above to Chandelle, these comments are not meant to be disparaging towards vegans or vegetarians because I have respect for anyone who is eating mindfully. My main points are that 1). animal products can be sustainable (eggs, milk, and meat) and 2). in an agrarian society we wouldn’t even be having this conversation because people would just eat what they grew or raised and would not be put in a box of vegan/omnivore or righteous/unrighteous.
I did not intend to offend anyone directly, but rather to point out inconsistencies and to maybe consider some deeper questions than animals are good/animals are bad to eat. Nor do I intend to criticize vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, carnivores, or any other way of eating.
I was a raw food vegan for 18 months, and it initially made me feel good. Then, it took my health in a downward spiral till I ended up in the emergency room due to compromised immune system.
Eating real food nutrition, like our ancestors, has allowed me to rebuild my health and body. Thanks for your thoughts on this issue!
Holier than thou veg*ns are a particular pet peeve of mine. I really resent the implication that I’m less “conscious” because I’ve considered the health, environmental, and spiritual reasons about what I eat, and meat wins all of them.
I didn’t come here to rant though, I came to share a link I read just the other day, that proves that perhaps animal farming (done sustainably- no CAFOs) can actually BENEFIT the earth!
http://donmatesz.blogspot.com/2011/03/operation-hope-meat-is-medicine-for.html
Meat: the sustainable, environmentally friendly choice! 😀
Bravo, Shannon, Bravo!
I recently wrote about my readings of The Vegetarian Myth, which you can read here… http://crossroadsandsteppingstones.blogspot.com/2011/03/paradise-found.html
I work with some very dogmatic vegans who proselytize their way of eating in a “down your throat” manner — I stay out of their firing range, and put in my two cents to all the others when they leave (very exhausting, to say the least). My two cents? Usually with the focus of traditional and primal people… we are biologically predisposed to eat meat and animal products..
Anyway, Great post!
Good stuff, we all need to make decisions that fit only our families, our lives and our ideals. The trouble starts when we forget that the decisions made were in fact only for us, and instead become an agenda to spread and (in a way) recruit followers. I am compassionate, and I eat animal product and when I can afford to, I wear leather shoes. I think my carbon footprint (I am starting to dislike that term) is no larger than any other, maybe less so, because I live within my boundaries of what is needed and not what is wanted. Thank you for this open forum to speak and share.
Why do people spend so much time attacking real food?
Where do all the resources for junk food come from? Sugar? And if those resources were redirected to healthy choices–> sustainability, I’m sure, wouldn’t even be in question. Seriously.
What do I think? I think your response is the exact response needed to the Miss Frestons of the world. Just shout it a little louder!
Interesting post! The only evolving I hope to do is to evolve into being a bit more crunchy, and finding good sources for my meat. I tried to eat a piece of hamburger at a family function and I had to choke the bite down. I think I’m officially hooked on grass-fed beef.
Recently I was approached by a woman asking me for money to help stop cruelty to animals, (I’d just spent 80 dollars buying grass fed meat) It bothered me since she had no name for her organization and all I could think about were humans. The Japanese people, the hungry kids in America, the abused children and families and on and on. People.
So while we will continue to eat organic foods and meats, I must say when I think of cruelty, it’s the people I would worry about most. I think our dollars going to the organic farmers is a good way to show our support.
Shannon – Yes!
We raise our own meat (chickens, pigs, goats, turkeys) and every year we have to go through the hard work of caring for these animals – and the harder work of slaughtering them and understanding what nourishing our bodies entails. It’s not always easy. My kids have to wrestle with their feelings while they wrestle with the turkeys they bring from their pen to where we’re butchering. But it’s honest and healthy.
These animals bring us essential nourishment – plenty paleoanthropologists speculate that eating meat was a major factor in our brain getting bigger. Meat provided the dense calories and nutrients needed for our ravenous thinking organ. But science aside, after being a vegan for many years, I know how much better and healthier I feel with meat in my diet. Zinc, B vitamins, dense protein, iron – my body slurps it up. Nothing gets me focused and alert when I’m dragging like a bite of smoked turkey.
I’m glad you addressed this. To say meat-eating is inhumane ignores the real problems in factory farming and people not being connected to their food source overall.
I was a strict vegetarian for 20 years until my Dr. told me I had to stop because my immune system was shot, we discovered I was a celiac and had a terribly allergy to any dairy, and was not digesting any soy product. I discovered the Eat Right 4 Your Type (blood type) diet. I am type O. Should eat like a caveman. Since I started the new diet, I am 10 times healthier. I lost 10 excess pounds and my Dr. is thrilled with my new blood tests. I don’t get sinus infections anymore. I eat ONLY organic fruits & veggies and have found 2 good local sources for grassfed bison, beef, chicken, lamb and eggs. I understand why you reacted the way you did, and I agree with you. I was severely criticized when I was a vegetarian and I have also been criticized for eating meat, so I try to keep my fingers in my ears and do what is the best thing for me and my husband. Nobody else is going to pay our Dr. bills for us.
I can never understand why people are always taking what people say to heart & argue with eachother about whom has more compassion for what, yadda, yadda,yadda…
I say live & let live & instead of wasting your time defending yourselves, grow what you wanna grow, eat what you wanna eat, live how you wanna live.
To each there own…no one is right or wrong…& 100 years (if your lucky) will not be long enough to change our planet. Be happy , love lots, & eat well! 🙂
I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong in eating animals. I say this as someone who was a vegetarian (and sometimes vegan) for over 20 years. My issue with meat-eating is that I *do* feel it is inherently wrong to *mistreat* animals and to forget that these are living, feeling (and, yes, I’ll say it – *thinking*) beings. I would feel much more comfortable eating an animal that has been respectfully hunted or caringly raised and humanely slaughtered than one who has been inhumanely “processed” in the meat “industry.”
(As a complete non sequitur, I came across your blog because I saw a post on another blog in which you wrote that you experienced thirst from ingesting erythritol. I was trying to search online and see if there had been any research on the subject, as I, too, have experienced thirst I suspect is a result of erythritol. Have you learned any more about it?)
Nic – I haven’t read anything more about the erythritol issue except for other accounts that say that yes, ingesting erythritol makes them thirsty too. Not sure why, but I pretty much avoid sugar alcohols now most of the time.
I’d suggest reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Samuel Foer. It’s an accessible book with a lot of dirty details on the humanitarian aspects of large-scale husbandry that folks like Michael Pollan side stepped in their works. (that’s not a criticism; Pollan does fabulous things) We do eat meat in our family, a lot of it, and in college I spent several years as a vegetarian. We do now only buy our meat from local farms with humane practices, which we budget for health, environmental, and humanitarian reasons. I found the Foer book to raise a lot of key questions that demand introspection of the reader.
Shannon,
This issue may have been raised by another commenter, but if so, I’ll raise it again. When we talk about sustainability in terms of our eating choices, we have to think about land use. Some land is not suitable for sustainable vegetable farming, but can be used to sustainably raise grass. Since humans can’t digest grass (but can digest herbivores who feed on grass), the only sustainable use for that land is animal products.
Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Rachel
Rachel – That’s a really interesting point. I remember reading an article in Mother Earth News a while back telling the story of how using land like you are talking about to raise animals would actually decrease the amount of oil needed to feed x amount of people. Thanks for pointing that out!
It seems to me that in the north, it is nearly impossible to stay healthy on a vegan diet while also eating primarily local food. Many of the grains and beans on which vegans depend are imported from other parts of the world, and what’s more some of their preferred grains are imported from countries that cannot really afford to give up what little they have of any food–I’m thinking of quinoa (Peru) and teff (Ethiopia) in particular. We live in rural coastal Maine where the land is poor and rocky. It isn’t too difficult for our local farmers to grow vegetables, but with declining fisheries, providing enough local protein is where the rubber really hits the road. Sheep and goats are ideally suited to this landscape and can digest the woody herbaceous ground cover that pretty much defines what cleared land there is. We have a large vegetable garden and root cellar, and while we could grow some grain along with peas and beans for protein, it would be difficult to grow enough of them to sustain us. Sunflowers would then become the only readily grown source of non-animal fat, and sunflower hulling machinery isn’t readily available except on a commercial scale. There are large canola operations in northern Maine, but in terms of the carbon energy needed to plant, harvest, press and distribute it, it just doesn’t make sense from a local perspective when fats instead can be derived from meat and butter. Any way I turn it intellectually or philosophically, the vegan diet seems like a recipe for famine if and when we here in northern Maine need to depend on local food sources.
Every vegan I’ve ever met has been under the erroneous impression that the entire planet is suitable for four season farming. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Inuits have survived for thousands of years on what was available to them in the arctic regions, seals, whales, etc. People groups living in dry Middle Eastern areas have lived for thousands of years on goat meat and milk because that’s what can thrive in their ecosystem. People who make their homes in jungles survive on the plants and animals available to them there. In order to change these particular areas to a vegan paradigm you’d have to come up with a way to heat up the arctic to make it suitable for plant growth, irrigate the arid Middle East to make it suitable for plant growth and cut down the rain forests to make them suitable for plant growth.
Eating local is the only sustainable option.