Molly the cow didn't want to be killed. She wanted to live. So, in New York, as butchers attempted to get her to the knife, she bolted, went running for her life. Thankfully, she was rescued by the New York Animal Care & Control and was not slaughtered. She was one of the lucky cows, but for hundreds of millions of other cows worldwide they are not as lucky. The vegetarian revolution has begun. Across the globe concerned citizens are turning to a cruetly-free way of life, and despite what Jenna Woginrich wrote in The Guardian UK's Comment Is Free (CIF) on January 19 about why she returned to a meat-eating lifestyle, it isn't all about “cleaner meat.” Those of us out there who have taken meat off our plate have done so for a variety of reasons, reducing factory farming only one of the myriad factors in our choice. Also on the list of reasons why people turn away from flesh consumption is the environment and health concerns. While this is an important aspect for the discussion, Woginrich overlooks, or appears to avoid, talking about the moral and ethical reasons for going vegetarian. No matter how one looks at animal production, the rule for even the small farms is that animals are machines, born and bred for our consumption. To “live” and die for our gastrointestinal desires. This, for the vast majority of herbivores, is the number one cause behind our vegetarianism. Look at the numbers of people who have turned vegetarian in recent years and the statistics are optimistic. In Germany, nearly 10 percent of the population is plant-eaters, in the UK it's around 7 percent and the numbers are growing in almost all industrialized nations. Factory farming is a great concern for millions of us, but it is also the so-called “sustainable farms” talked up by Woginrich that we are also campaigning against. The factory farm industry is horrific and well documented by animal rights groups worldwide. One need not be an expert to refuse to eat from these institutions. However, the smaller farms should not be seen as an altruistic alternative to the factory farm. On numerous small farms, animals are still branded, debeaked, castrated and ultimately slaughtered without the opportunity to live a full and social life – animals are social beings much like us “higher” beings. To say that vegetarianism is not having a direct impact on meat production whether factory farm or small farm is wrong. Ending meat eating helps show and push an agenda where we will not accept the killing of beings who want and deserve a pain-free existence where they are able to form communities, be merry and interact with one another without fear of meeting a cleaver. Maybe we vegetarians are not making as much of dent in meat-eating as we would hope, but we are making a difference. Wal-mart, America's largest retailer, has in the past few years, has begun selling a number of vegan alternatives. If this isn't proof that we are making a difference with our pocket book then what else is needed to convince ardent meat-eaters? The health factors are well-documented. Vegans live longer, have less disease, lower cholesterol, and as the world's largest animal rights organization the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has said, have better sex. All the above seem to be worthy in themselves of going vegetarian. The China Study – conducted over 20 years by Oxford University, Cornell University and The Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine – has shown that meat consumption has put Americans on, literally, a deadly path. The study details the connection between nutrition, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. “People who ate the most animal based foods got the most chronic diseases … people who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic diseases. These results could not be ignored,” said Dr. T. Colin Campbell, an author of the study and a respected nutritionist. Environmentally, going vegan and not participating in animal production is the number one thing we, as individuals can, immediately and on our own, help reduce the effects of climate change. Seems to be vegetarians are doing a lot. It is more than a political statement, it is an economic one in the same way abolitionists against slavery were two hundred years ago. We believe, as animal rights supporters, that it is morally wrong to exploit animals in any manner. Reducing the idea of vegetarianism to whether or not it is having a direct impact on meat production and meat consumption misses the point entirely. We are not avoiding animal products because we want to see less meat eating – although this is a major factor in the long run – instead it is about not participating in the wholesale slaughter of intelligent animals who feel pain and suffering as acutely as humans do. Professor Jeffrey Masson tells of how elephants can feel grief for the death of a fellow elephant as deeply as a human does for another human. At the end of the day, one cannot persist on small farming without also participating in factory farming and causing the unnecessary suffering of animals at our expense. Do people like Woginrich refuse to eat meat when they go out if they do not know where it comes from? Doubtful. The only way one can, without worry, know that they have not participated in the killing of animals is to go vegan. ** This is part of Bikya Masr's series “Why I am vegan” – read the first article in the series BM
