Leaving Omelas

November 8th, 2006

I think I’ve decided to stop eating meats. Okay, so not completely maybe. But not blindly either. I have done my reading, fact checking, interviewing. I only seem problems with no easy solutions. With some help, I think I have three major reasons why this needs to happen now for me:

• My Body
• My Environment
• My Spirit

My Body
I could try to justify all I want, but there is a huge amount of research and studies have repeatedly shown that various foods (red meat as one of the worst) negatively affect the body. The same groups that show tobacco use to be dangerous are showing similar information about fat intake and meat consumption. The AHA has released papers that give their own recommendations(pdf) for healthy diet and living that contain restrictions on those aspects of eating to be the most healthy.

I also have problems with medication. Not that they don’t work for me, but that they still do. I have taken antibiotics very few times in my life. I think that they are over prescribed and contribute to the increase in resistant strains of bacteria that are seen. However, the adage still holds true, “You are what you eat.” The best way to make chickens grow faster? Antibiotics in the food. This is based on experience with 4H poultry my family raised in the past.

From Feeding Poultry Properly, a publication by the Poultry Dept. at Mississippi State University:

Antibiotics may also be added to some poultry
feeds. Antibiotics aid broiler performance and
maintain healthy birds. They are usually added at
low (prophylactic) levels to prevent minor diseases
and produce faster, more efficient growth. Higher
(therapeutic) levels are usually given in water or
injected into the bird. Examples of antibiotics fed
in the feed are Penicillin, Bacitracin,
Chlortetracycline, and Oxytetracycline.

My Environment
I know, from going to farms during my childhood, that animals produce a lot of poo. A lot. The problem with this isn’t really noticed when you deal with family farms, but as you work up toward the mega-farms that mass produce what we buy at the store, where does it all go? If you have several thousand head of cattle, you have to ship that stuff somewhere. Slurry? Where do you pump it to? Generally, that waste makes its way into groundwater.

The March 28, 2002 edition of the Edmonton Journal(ref) states that in regards to the pork industry’s contribution to animal waste:

According to recent figures released by Environment Canada, an average
Alberta sow releases 4.5 kg of phosphorus per year in excrement. This is 7.5
times the amount released per year by a human being.
Simple mathematics shows that 1.8 million hogs produce as much phosphorus as
13.5 million people, not 18,000.

Hog excrement also contains large quantities of nitrogen and several
pathogens of concern, including E. coli and Cryptosporidium, which caused
the problems at Walkerton and North Battleford, respectively.

Recent projections indicate that by 2010 we may share Alberta with 2.7
million hogs and 6.8 million beef cattle. At that point, human sewage will
produce only about two per cent of the phosphorus and 10 per cent of the
nitrogen released into the Alberta environment.

Yeah. Lots of crap from pigs.

My Spirit
I know dairy farms. I have been to many in my life while riding in the milk trucks with my grandfather and uncle. I know that most farmers will stand and talk to you until you’ve finished all the coffee in your thermos and there’s no way you’ll get home before dark. I know that barn cats will avoid you no matter what, but a little saucer by the bulk tank will get the wildest feline to at least consider coming close to you.

Small dairy farms are disappearing though. The USDA’s (United States Dept. of Agriculture) NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Service) shows(ref) a 40% decline in dairy operations over the past 10 years (1996-2005), as shown in this graph:
while dairy cow quantities have decreased by only 4% in that same time. Only 1/4 the amount of the operations decline(ref)

The fact is that the loss of small farmers leads to large, mega-farms where animals tend to be treated poorly, fed other ground-up animals, and other nasty sorts of things. I don’t have a problem myself with using animals as food, but I do have a problem with treating them as mass produced commodities. When eggs require the decimation of the hens who lay them, it doesn’t make me want to eat eggs.

I find that as I consider who I am and where I want to see myself, I can more easily accept this path. Will I still eat meat? Probably. Will I eat much of it? Probably not. There are ways to eat more conscientiously. And that’s my plan. Life without death isn’t possible, but life without cruelty is.

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