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Soy Food Products for a Tofu-Based Thought: On Vegetarianism

You get plenty of flack for being a vegetarian these days, and I mean plenty. People do not necessarily mean to tease or bully, but there is something about the word “vegetarian” that puts those meat-eaters up in arms and defensive. However, when someone calls me out on being a vegetarian like it is a bad thing, I am not just going to sit back and take it. No, I can dish it out just as well as it is served. I, of course, go about my defences much differently than the average meat-eater does, but who is to say I am better than they are?

I openly admit that I am a vegetarian. Everyone I know is aware that I am. I do not go shouting it from rooftops or anything, but the very first time I go out to eat with someone new, they find out about this “eating habit” of mine. It is an inevitable occurrence. Eventually some friend or other will speak up and tell the newcomer that I am a vegetarian. Their first reaction when hearing the news? "Why?" "As long as you do not try to push me into going vegetarian I do not care", and my personal favourite—"I love meat." That is the thing, isn't it? Once someone finds out I am a vegetarian, they go completely up in arms about it, get all defensive as if I am judging them for eating meat, but the thing is, I am the vegetarian, and you are judging me about it; and most of the time, you are being a complete jerk about it.

These meat-eaters are always saying, "Do not try to guilt me into being a hippie vegetarian!" and I always respond with, "No, I will not. If you want to know the truth about where your meat is coming from then sure, I will tell you. Otherwise I will not say a thing." But I cannot hold it back any longer. I need to tell someone. I need to expose the horror to the world. This is why I am a vegetarian based on animal rights, for my health and for the environment. This is everything meat-eaters do not want to hear. This is what they should hear.

“What do you eat?” It is very common for a meat-eater to ask this question. It seems inconceivable that there is something filling for vegetarians to eat, but in today's society, the answer to this question is “anything I want”. There are vegetarian alternatives to almost any kind of animal food. There are soy sausages, “fib ribs”, tofurky jerky and mock lobster; restaurants everywhere are coming up with vegetarian and vegan friendly menu options, although vegetarians and vegans alike have to be careful of fish oils, gelatin and that pesky anchovy paste that works it way into caesar salad dressing.

Being a vegetarian in a meat-driven society is not always a walk in the park. It takes dedication and a little bit of passion about animal welfare to make this lifestyle choice work, but once you get the hang of it, it is almost too easy to ask for no meat or fish sauce in your shanghai noodles at Casey's, or to opt for the garden side salad instead of the caesar salad. Plus, there are lots of helpful websites out there looking to help you out on your way to vegetarian living and don't forget all the cute little cows, bunnies, chickens and piggies you will be saving from death—approximately 50 animal lives a year (The Power of One).

Vegetarianism For The Animals

Vegetarianism and compassion for animals is not the same thing. There are vegetarians who simply do not like the taste of meat or are in it for the glory. Not everyone has done their research. Not everyone really cares. Not everyone likes cute little piggies and gorgeous cows, but for those who have done their research, they know that farm life is not the same as you read in your Little House on the Prairie books when you were ten. It simply is not all green pastures and barnyard scenes of happy animals playing with giddy children. Today, animals on factory farms are treated like meat, milk and egg machines and the majority of farmed animals are confined to the point that they can barely move, denied veterinary care, are mutilated without painkillers, and finally slaughtered; often while fully conscious (Farm to Fridge). Temple Grandin is one person who has worked hard to alleviate the stress these factory farmed animals go through on a daily basis simply by changing the environment they live in. It can be as simple as moving a light to change to ominous loom of the hallways, or changing a door mechanism so an animal can't see the animal before them being immobilized and giving animals comfort in familiar surroundings. She does not necessarily advocate vegetarianism, but she does advocate taking out stress hormones in the meat people eat. Well, at least she is sort of working for the animals, right?

This is what I know. This is why I do not eat animals. I hope you are ready for the harsh reality of the situation. Lets start with the birds: chickens and turkeys. That big, fat bird that everyone gave thanks around at Thanksgiving and then proceeded to tear into? Yeah, it was a living creature once. Lets think about how they were treated. More and more people are switching from beef to poultry for the obvious health care benefits of eating less red meat. Now, in the United States there are more than 8 billion “broiler” chickens and over 270 million turkeys that are slaughtered each year (Chickens and Turkeys). These birds are overcrowded, kept in disease filled rooms and pumped with growth hormones and antibiotics to help their meat grow quickly and with limited disease. All of these hormones and antibiotics are then consumed by the meat-eater, resulting in immunity to certain antibiotics in the average meat-eater human. In fact, chickens have been genetically manipulated to grow much larger and faster than their ancestors. They grow so quickly that their legs are incapable of supporting their abnormally large bodies and their heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body (Chickens and Turkeys). This often results in congestive heart failure and death before the chickens are ready to be made into fresh meat (Chickens and Turkeys). Turkeys also undergo unnatural breeding. They have been bred to grow faster and heavier, but their skeletons do not keep up with this fast-paced growth resulting in “cowboy legs” (Chickens and Turkeys). The birds that do not die on the factory farm are shipped to the slaughterhouse at a young age where they are given electric shocks to immobilize them—this makes it easier for the factory worker to slit their throats (Chickens and Turkeys). Poultry are not protected under the Humane Slaughter Act or the Animal Welfare Act (Chickens and Turkeys) meaning that they can be treated as roughly and cruelly as possible with no consequences to the human inflicting harm—it should be noted that if the poultry is considered a pet, they are protected under both Acts. We tend to anthropomorphize animals. Chickens and turkeys do not look much like humans, they do not have very many human traits and so poultry are not considered one of the “beautiful” animals in our culture. They are not animals we wish to save. They are not animals that we care too much about. So, just because we do not share many common features with poultry, we, as a culture, do not care to save them.

“This little piggy went to the market”; not exactly something a vegetarian wants to hear. The piggy is in the market as pork chops, lunch meat, hot dogs and bacon—a common meat-eater favourite. However, we do not really want “this little piggy [to] stay home” either. Before they reach the market, mother pigs spend most of their lives in tiny cages, so narrow they cannot even turn around (Babe's Tue Story). When they birth their piglets, they are taken away from their mothers at as young as 10 days old and packed into overcrowded pens to be raised for breeding or meat (Babe's True Story). Both the mother and the piglets are prone to stress-related behaviours; the mother's biological need to build a nest has been known to produce neurotic coping behaviours like repetitive bar biting, sham chewing and obsessively pressing on water bottles, while the piglets resort to cannibalism and tail biting (Babe's True Story). Apparently, “this little piggy had roast [pig]”. These are the animals meat-eaters are eating. In the United States, approximately 100 million pigs are killed each year (Babe's True Story), “these little piggies go “wee, wee, wee” all the way [into your] home”.

Cows are probably the most commonly consumed animal in American society. People like their steaks. What people do not like is to hear about how their steak was treated before it was a steak. The majority of cows spend their time on overcrowded feedlots and eating food that makes them sick (The Beef on Beef). The typical cow feed includes: corn—a food that cows cannot properly digest—and fillers like sawdust and chicken manure (The Beef on Beef). This unnatural diet for cows can lead to a range of health problems, for example; bloat, acidosis, diarrhea, ulcers, liver disease and general weakening of the immune system (The Beef on Beef). These animals are pumped with antibiotics to maximize their life span in time to send them to their death. These antibiotics are then consumed by meat-eaters which causes immunity to antibiotics in the average meat-eating American. When these cows are finally big enough to be transported to the slaughter house, they are deprived of food the day before and during transportation since it will not convert into profitable flesh (The Beef on Beef), and is therefore a waste of the manufacturer's money. These long trips can result in cattle getting pneumonia, dehydration, heat exhaustion and they may even freeze to the sides of the transport vehicles during the long trips (The Beef on Beef). When the cows finally make it to the slaughter house, federal law requires that the cows are stunned to be rendered insensible to pain before slaughter (The Beef on Beef). A common form of stunning is for the cow to be shot in the head with a metal rod that is thrust thought the skull and into the brain (The Beef on Beef). Goodbye cows.

Fish are commonly an animal that “vegetarians” still eat. For some reason it has become common practice for the average meat-eater to assume that vegetarians eat poultry and seafood. This is beyond me. Poultry and seafood are part of the animal kingdom. You cannot call yourself a vegetarian and eat poultry and seafood. That is not how it works. That is cheating. Poultry and seafood are part of the animal kingdom too. They have a brain, they have a nervous system and they can feel the pain that is done to them (Sealife to Seafood). Fish farming is not much different than cattle farming or poultry farming. Fish, including unintended victims like dolphins, birds and turtles are captured in the huge fishing trawls and squeezed for hours against netted rocks and other debris (Sealife to Seafood). Just like humans, fish who are dragged from the ocean depths undergo excruciating decompression (Sealife to Seafood) which we call the Bends. It causes ruptures in the fish's swimbladders, pops out their eyes and pushes their stomachs through their mouths through intense internal pressure (Sealife to Seafood). It is caused by the change in pressurization as the body raises from the highly pressurized ocean depths to the limited pressurized ocean surface. This causes a strain on the body, internally and externally. In order to avoid this, one must slowly rise from the ocean's depths to its surface. This process takes several minutes as you rise slowly and then wait at the same depth for a bit. Most of the farmed fish die from suffocation once thrown on the deck of boats while others are crushed to death from the weight of their fish siblings; the odd few are still alive when their throats and bellies are cut open (Sealife to Seafood). There are also human-run fish farms which raise more than 2 billion fish a year (Sealife to Seafood). These fishies, like piggies and cows are given limited space while forced to grow quickly in these environments. For these farmed fish, they are dumped into water infused with carbon dioxide which paralyzes them and makes it painful to breathe; others, such as catfish are shocked with electricity to render them unconscious before decapitation (Sealife to Seafood).

All these battery farmed animals are looking horrible to you. You suddenly cannot stand this horrible treatment of living beings, so you have decided to eat organic and free-range animals. I bet you feel like a better person, at least better than those others that eat the cheaper, more common, mass farm animals. Well, lets attack and take down that beautiful dream you have of yourself. You are still not helping them. Lets face it, free-range products still promote animal cruelty. Any time an animal is used as a commodity to be consumed, they are treated like a piece of property, not a living being (What About Free Range?). As a result, these “free-range” animals are often still subject to common abuses like overcrowded living conditions; denial of veterinary care; abusive handling; transport through all weather extremes; painful mutilations like debeaking, castration, dehorning etc.; unproductive animals are killed by methods like suffocation and crushing; and violent slaughter (What About Free Range?). Organic products are not that much better. Organically raised animals often suffer from higher mortality rates than battery farmed animals since they are not drugged but are still kept in overcrowded, filthy conditions which can lead to even more parasites than are found in drugged animals (The Organic and Free-Range Myth). There is one advantage to organic products—they do not contain antibiotics, hormones or arsenic-based additives and therefore will not be consumed by the meat-eater (The Organic and Free-Range Myth).

Lets clear up some misunderstandings here based on food labels. “Free Range” means that the animals must have access to the outdoors (What About Free Range?). Sounds great, right? But there are no government regulations about how much outdoor area must be provided for the animals to live in (What About Free Range?). So, these animals can be just as packed together as non-free range farms. Their only benefit is the fresh air; not that it would be considered fresh with that many other animals crammed around. “Cage-free”—generally referring to eggs—on the other hand, means that the birds laying these eggs are not in cages (What About Free Range?). Awesome! Tiny cages to lay eggs in is not exactly the best place for these chickens to come from. However, just like free-range animals, these hens are living in overcrowded sheds and not in wide open pastures and chicken coops like we want to believe (What About Free Range?). “Organic” products require that the animals are fed organic feed, but that does not prohibit cruel treatment to the animals including mutilations without painkillers and confinement or separation of the mother and her young (What About Free Range?). “UEP Certified” is a logo usually found on egg cartons. Eggs marked with this logo mean that the eggs were produced in the typical battery cage farms that you heard so much about (What About Free Range?). “Kosher” meat refers to the animals that are supposed to be slaughtered within the guidelines spelled out in Jewish dietary laws (What About Free Range?). However, these slaughterhouses can be even more cruel than typical slaughterhouses since they require animals to be fully conscious at the time of slaughter (What About Free Range?). Maybe it is better not to have let these animals be born at all. Being born onto a factory farm means to be fattened up and pumped with antibiotics and chemicals. These animals are suffering through a short life and going through a painful death too soon after birth. We are doing a wrong by ending their lives and we are not making up for it by bringing another cow, pig, chicken, turkey or fish into existence.

For Health Reasons

You cannot just jump right into vegetarianism, there are a few things you need to research first, like what exactly it means for your nutrition to change your diet this way. Yes, it is beneficial for your health to be a vegetarian, if you go about it the right way. When your body is used to getting jam-packed with protein and Vitamin B12, you cannot just suddenly stop giving it over. These are essential ingredients to any human's good health and people who have not done their research on what foods to eat to make up for this lack of nutrients find themselves in to visit their doctor. Everyone needs to start off on the right foot so that a personal choice can continue to be a good choice both for your own body and for the animals. Vegetarian diets offer nutritional benefits such as lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol and animal protein; higher levels of carbohydrates, fibre, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants like Vitamins C and E and phytochemical (Heart Smart). Some of the leading killers in American societies today are heart disease, cancer, obesity and strokes which can all be directly linked to meat-based diets (Vegetarian 101). For example, heart disease can be caused by the build-up of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products in our arteries (Vegetarian 101). Other heart problems tied to clogged arteries—like poor circulation and atherosclerotic stokes—can be virtually eliminated with a vegan diet (Vegetarian 101). Want some interesting health facts? Vegans are approximately one-ninth as likely to be obese as meat-eaters and have a cancer rate that is 40-percent less than that of meat-eaters (Vegetarian 101). They have been reported to have lower body mass indices, lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer (Heart Smart). People who consume animal products are at an increased risk of other illnesses like strokes, obesity, osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, multiple allergies, diabetes and food poisoning (Vegetarian 101).

Here is what I know about each of these diseases in relation to vegetarian diets: Heart disease claims the life of nearly one out of every two Americans (Heart Disease). Animal foods are high in saturated fat, and cholesterol is found only in animal products (Heart Disease). Plant foods, on the other hand, are low in saturated fat and are cholesterol-free, plus powerful cholesterol-lowering agents such as soluble fibre, unsaturated fats and phytochemicals are found almost exclusively in plant foods (Heart Disease). Score: One for Plants, zero for Meat.

Vegetarians have considerably lower rates of several types of cancer than non-vegetarians including prostate cancer—54-percent less—and colorectal cancer—88-percent less (Heart Disease). This is even after controlling for age, sex and smoking (Cancer). Score: Two for Plants, zero for Meat.

Obesity is a huge issue in our society. Approximately 65-percent of Americans are overweight with 31-percent classified as obese (Obesity and Diabetes). Vegans and vegetarians, on the other hand, have a much lower obesity rate and on average weigh 10-percent less than meat-eaters (Obesity and Diabetes). Along with looking better in society's eyes, being lighter reduces the risk of numerous health problems including respiratory problems, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Obesity and Diabetes). Score: Three for Plants, zero for Meat.

Besides disease, opting for a vegetarian diet ensures that you are not consuming products that contain antibiotics, hormones or arsenic-based additives (The Organic and Free-Range Myth).

For The Environment

Concerned about the environment? Of course you are. Ever since Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth came out, it is all anyone has been able to talk about. Forgetting to put that water bottle in the recycling bin? Do not worry, a random stranger will remind you. Becoming a vegetarian is one of the most effective ways you can help save our Earth with its limited resources, pollution, global warming and mass extinction all on the hands of humans (Our Earth). Our culture's meat addiction is poisoning and depleting our potable water, arable land and clean air (Vegetarian 101), and the way we breed animals for consumption pollutes our environment while consuming large amounts of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides and drugs (Our Earth).

Cows, chickens, turkeys, and pigs are eating our food! Not only that, but the large amount of grain we are feeding to farmed animals is significantly less than the amount of farmed animals that are being turned into food; it is an inefficient waste of limited resources (Wasting Resources). In comparison to plants, animal protein demands about eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than plant protein does (Wasting Resources). Why can we not just eat plants? We are humans. We can survive without meat. Even more than the consumption of food and burning of fossil fuels, the meat industry is a major cause of fresh water depletion. In fact, if you pass up on one hamburger you can save as much water as you would save by taking 40 showers with a low-flow shower head (Wasting Resources).

As a species, humans are generally concerned about extinction of other animals. Not because we have this kinship with them and it would break our hearts to see them go, but because if other animals can become extinct, then so can we. It is something everyone is conscious of. Zoos keep endangered animals hoping to help reproduction rates in order to save the animals as a species. However, cattle grazing is a serious threat to endangered species. In fact, in the United States, grazing has contributed to the demise of 26-percent of federal threatened and endangered species (Extinction is Forever). It is estimated that for each hamburger made from rainforest beef, it destroys members of life forms from approximately 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammals and reptile species (Extinction is Forever).

Global warming is the big one. We are all terrified that our grandchildren will not be able to go outside for fear of incinerating into ash—okay, that is a bit far, but the point stands. If we do not do something soon to prevent this, sea levels will rise resulting in the flooding of costal areas, heat waves will be more frequent and intense, droughts and wildfires will occur more often, disease-carrying mosquitos will expand their range and species will be pushed to extinction (Global Warming). Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined; by becoming vegan, most Americans can reduce more greenhouse gases than by switching to a hybrid electric car and eating a vegan diet prevents the equivalent of 1.5 tons of CO2 emissions every year (Global Warming). But why exactly does meat cause so much global warming? Well, let me tell you! The manure produced by the tens of millions of animals in the world emits greenhouse gasses like methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide (Global Warming). Ruminant animals like cows and sheep burp and fart, just like us. These burps emit large amounts of methane which has has 23 times the global warming potential of CO2 and the livestock industry alone is responsible for 37-percent of human-induced methane emissions (Global Warming). Livestock need places to graze and crops to eat. Forests are being destroyed in order to make room for the abundance of livestock (Vegetarian 101). The problem with this is that trees store CO2 and when they are cut down or burned it escapes back into the air (Global Warming). Growing feed for farmed animals requires the use of synthetic fertilizers manufactured with fossil fuels; using this process emits CO2 and nitrous oxide which is 296 times more potent than carbon dioxide (Global Warming). The meat industry uses fossil fuels to heat the buildings that house the animals, to produce the crops the animals eat in their feed, and to transport, process and refrigerate all of the meat (Global Warming). Burning fossil fuels releases CO2 (Global Warming).

Pollution is another thing we are conscious and very afraid of. Factory farms produce run-off that pollutes our streams and rivers, endangering the water supply for humans and harming eco-systems (Pollution). Animal feedlots can contaminate nearby water with high levels of nitrates which have been linked to miscarriages in humans as well as “blue baby” syndrome in infants (Pollution). There is also pollution of the air by emitting ammonia, methane and hydrogen sulphide from manure lagoons and spray fields from animal agriculture (Pollution).

Meat-eaters are a strange group in the way they express themselves. They want to know why vegetarians have chosen not to eat meat, but when the suggestion of how animals are treated on farms come up, meat-eaters are on the defensive, as if they need to defend the farmers for how they treat animals, simply because they eat the meat those farmers slaughter. Which is actually very interesting since most meat-eaters would not have the stomach to skin and gut their own meat. They start out defensive, and then comes the contempt; "Oh, my god. How can you not eat meat? It is natural. What is wrong with you?" Um...EXCUSE ME? When someone says to me, "I love meat," do I start on with "Ew, gross. You are one of those? You eat meat? Why? Ew." No, no I do not do that. I do not do that in any case. So, please do not go asking me questions about my lifestyle choice if you are just going to grunt and moan and roll your eyes at me. I have my own personal views on why I do not eat meat—environmental, moral, health—but do you see me running around to everyone who eats meat and telling them all these reasons? No. So do not call me stupid, do not rant to me about how meat is natural, and do not laugh at me when you do not have the knowledge that I do. I do not question you, I am respectful, so do not rant and rave at me trying to make me feel bad. It is a personal choice that, according to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I am entitled to make and follow through with. So what is the deal with people's attitudes towards it? It is a personal choice and I will stick to it.