Reading-520 #4journal-

It’s More Than Just Meat

Many people would surprise when they hear that about 50% of human beings are starving. (FAO, 2006) In contrast, at the same time, people live in the developed worlds are suffering from the “Diseases of affluence,” such as diabetes, heart strokes, obesity, and cancer. Irrationally, at the same time, one-third of grains are being consumed to raise live stocks. (Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef) Many people think eating is a way of living; however, it is more related to politic nowdays. Therefore, many vegetarians and organizations are claiming that we should change are eating habits: reducing consume of meat. Also for several reasons, they believe it will help to make our world a better place. First factor is environment. People who against “factory meat system,” which is not ethical since companies have started to raise live stocks with a huge number,claim that this factory farms ignore even minimum of ethics and ruin environment critically. For example, a herd of cattle emit a large amount of CO2 which is speeding up global warming. Moreover, enormous amount of dirt from huge factory-like farms pollute lands and underground water. In addition, these situations accelerate desertification around the earth. Many companies are cutting down forests and plains to build huge factory-like farms in order to feed their livestocks. Desertification of southern Texas and the rain forest in Amazon are good examples. To be specific, according to the research from the Department of Agriculture of U.S, 16Kg of grains are necessary in order to produce 1Kg of beef. (Jeremy Rifkin, beyond beef) consequently, it means when you eat a hamburger, you are destroying the rain forests. Another factor that leads us to consider about current “beef system” is ethical issues. The “factory meat” is being produced by “factory farms” which is the practice of raising farm animals in confinement at high stocking density, where a farm operates as a factory. (Wikipedia, factory farming) one of the problems of this method is the enviromental issue that I mentioned above. Another issue is related with ethics. Factory farms have been criticized for more than decades from moral philosopher and PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They argue that these factory farms are not following ethical principles and PETA believes it is very creul and savage. Well, some people might raise questions such as why human should rerally care about animals' sake. Some people even say that human is very different from the other animals and we humanbeings have rights to do anything to animals if we need. I am not a scientist, nor a moral philosopher, nor a business person. However, it is true that this “factory farms” have produced many problems such as excessive use of antibiotic and growth hormone. For instance, Jane Goodall pointed a girl from Mexico experienced her secondary sex character since five, due to taking too much growth hormones in meat. (Jane Goodall, Harvest for hope: A guide to Mindful Eating) Also, in ethical back ground, Peter Singer also stated eating meat in modern society is related with politics. Moreover, he believes a person who thinks human can kill and use any other animals is another form of discrimination such as sexual and racial discrimination. (The Ethics of What We Eat, Peter singer, Jim Mason) In sum, still enormous argues are going on this topic. As a non-technical individual, I can’t decide what is absolutely right or wrong. However, it is very obvious that the current system and the situations have shown us a lot of problems. Therefore, I firmly believe we should reconsider about eating meat and try to make these situations better. Consequently, that would leads us to a better world.

References: -FAO,Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

-Jeremy Rifkin, Beyond Beef.

-Jane Goodall, Harvest for hope: A guide to Mindful Eating.

- The Ethics of What We Eat, Peter singer, Jim Mason.