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Why I Eat Meat (And Why You Should, Too)
Featured Author:
Jacky Hayward
Jacky is an omnivorous eater, food writer, and the editor of Chef’s Blade. She currently lives in San Francisco and maintains a blog called OmniEater, which she started in response to the large number of vegetarians and vegans she’s encountered in San Francisco, and because of her belief in the importance of omnivorous consumption. Jacky also writes for Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture.
You can find Jacky at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal farmers market every Saturday morning, talking to her favorite local farmers about dried fruit and fertile chicken eggs. In her free time Jacky skis, pets puppies, and cooks for her friends.
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Jacky Hayward | Chef's Blade
I started writing about food because I was tired of vegetarians and vegans telling me I should stop eating meat all together as my carnivorous consumption was inhumane and contrary to humanities’ evolution as a species. I eat meat. I will continue to eat meat. And I think you should too.
One of my quickest responses to the vegetarian/vegan anti-meat rhetoric is that if we were all vegetarians, there would be no fertilizer and then eventually no plants. If we only consumed plants, all the farmland now used to raise livestock would have to be used to raise edible plants, which could mean no livestock and in turn, no fertilizer from that livestock. In the long term, this would mean no plants. Or plants only raised on artificially produced fertilizers, which would also mean polluted waters.
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Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than this. And there are much better arguments for why to eat meat. Vegetarians and Vegans often focus their anti-meat campaigns on the cattle industry, so I am going to focus mostly on beef production.
Before I continue, there is bad beef and good beef, and I only eat good beef. We have all read the news articles and watched the horrifying videos about cows who are so sick and malnourished that they cannot walk or even stand up, but are then pushed by a forklift to be slaughtered and made into steaks. I don’t eat these and I don’t think you should either. There are such things as happy cows – cows raised on grass-only diets in open green pastures.
Bad beef is raised on corn meal, which cows stomachs have not evolved to digest properly, which often leaves cows with serious stomach problems. On the other hand, cows’ ruminant digestive systems are well evolved to digest grass; the cow’s digestive system has two stomachs, in which the food is softened first before being fully digested in the second stomach. In this manner, feeding cows food other than grass messes with their natural digestive process; one of the reasons why cows are given so many antibiotics now is because feeding them corn and other food that their stomachs aren’t meant to digest causes an upset in their bodies natural chemistry, thus opening them up to infection.
sadiemaego
19 days ago
4 comments
Oha and having NOW gotten around to reading some of the comments before mine... we are not primates, we are evolved from them, we share a vast amount of DNA but are humans now...raw fruits,veggies,nuts and seeds are grrrreat...but generally most are not deligent enough to eat enough of them to provide for all of their nutritiional needs (such as calcium,and iron) by consuming those foods and those foods alone, I know raw foodies that eat 6 meals a day, sorry but my job/family/school schedule doeas not allow me enough time to spend a 1/4 of my day eating... and meat eatin IS killing, no way around it I espouse nad dream of a permaculture lifestyle for myself, where I grow my own food and raise my own meat protein, but most of us are not there yet financially and so, we can make the most ethical choices we can, and then let judgemental types judge all they want, as, in the end, it is up to me to choose how to live... also if everyone just stopped eating meat let's say, over a period of two-three years, what happens to all those animals???? Just have always wondered about that one...
sadiemaego
19 days ago
4 comments
I am a "former vegetarian".. having been raised on a veg diet as a child and continuing in my vegetarianism until I became pregnant with my daughter almost 8 years ago. I would like to agree with Jackie on the point that certain peoples bodies crave meat, and may have evolved to "need" a certain amount of meat in their diet. Women are prone to anemia, and lose blood on a regular basis, and some have promoted the "theory" that when humans were hunter/gatherers, women chose their mate based upon how much meat he could provide for her and her children , and that meat eating actually led to the evolution of the human species. Meat eating may have led to increasing size of babies heads, and overall size in newborns which then led to increased childbirth death rates and an alternate form of natural selection ( one of the biggest proponents of this theory being Leonard Shlain http://www.sextimeandpower.com/).... Just another thought <3
chefcardadeiro1
4 months ago
2 comments
I'm a vegetarian once removed. I eat animals that eat vegetables.
bella
4 months ago
146 comments
Hi Mr Davidson. So I actually agree very strongly with Jacky's opinion. I have tried several times to be vegetarian, and every time, not matter how much spinach I ate, I ended up being severely anemic. Some people's bodies cannot subsist on a vegetarian diet. And I think what Jacky is talking about is cows that are able to live on their natural diet, that are treated humanely, and killed in the most thoughtful and humane possible. As I'm hoping you have read, or will read, Omnivore's Dilemma talks about how it's better to have lived than not to have lived at all. And I would agree.
Also, to your comment that Jacky is "adorably American" well, I just proved that it's true that she might well NEED to eat meat it based on my own experience. But I would also like to point out that only in a country as wealthy as America will we say that we won't eat something as we have that privilege here. So, recognize that you are just as American in your dietary beliefs and don't call the kettle black.
Carrielyn23
4 months ago
454 comments
How undeniably condescending of you Mr. Davidson.
ryandavidson
4 months ago
4 comments
While I'm on a roll:
"humans, among most other species without rumens, cannot digest grass. "
- then don't grow grass
"It tastes good. I crave it. "
- Aaaaand it's worth killing for! Right?
"I believe there is a biological reason I crave meat: My body needs it."
- how adorably American of you. You believe something. It's not true but you BELIEVE it, go right on believing...
"there are ways to eat meat responsibly that are arguably better for the environment and for our food system than being a vegetarian or vegan."
- Really? I'd like to hear them, I'm afraid there are none presented in this article.
I don't want to be mean to you, really. Lord knows I barely have the energy, subsisting as I do on nuts and berries. I think you've wound me up a little though, and I believe I've found the source.
Many meat eaters feel the need to try and debunk vegetarianism in order to assuage what can only be their own innate sense of guilt. I'm happy to read why you eat meat, but PLEASE don't tell me I should too. Because I did, and now I don't, and I've thought about it. Most vegetarians have. ;)
ryandavidson
4 months ago
4 comments
No fertilizer? Serious? Uuuuuuuuum. I hate to break it to you but: Rotten Vegetables = Fertilizer.
Kinda thought that would occur to most people.
Aaaaaaaanyway.
I'm not really interested in pushing vegetarianism on anyone, but here's why I am:
I've only been vegetarian for about a year, and initially went on eating chicken and fish, but have now given those away too. And I'm hooked. I'm cooking FAR more interesting and delicious meals now than I ever have, and I do like that feeling of sitting back after a hearty meal, thinking: "... and no one got killed." Simple as that. I simply have an aversion to unnecessary killing. Weird I know.
Here's an experiment to try. Watch this movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0358456/ (I do believe it's available for free now)
If you can't watch the whole thing, and you eat meat, that kinda makes you a hypocrite. Or you just don't care.
Go on, test your metal, you big tough carnivores. ;)
arjayscafe
4 months ago
132 comments
thoroughly enjoyed that article jax.
ChefAdamWeiner
4 months ago
4 comments
Reminds me of the old joke: What is the perfect vegan meal? A porterhouse and a beer. Here's why. What is a steak: condensed grains, water and vegetables. What is a beer: condensed grains, hops, barley and water. Thus a porterhouse and a beer is just consuming grains, vegetables, water. Kind of like taking a warer and grain vitamin.
JenniferCote
4 months ago
20 comments
Thanks for putting this so well, Jackie. The cost keeps me from consuming much meat (as I also choose to dine on the grass-fed). But I've been pondering how much food is eaten just because it's so readily available. If we had to grow our own everything, milk our own cows, etc.etc., we'd all be skinnier and healthier, and wouldn't take food for granted as we so often do. While I'm sure we'll never quite return to those days, we might still change our mindsets a bit, gratefully eating whatever we've been blessed with in a more conscientious and appreciative manner. You know?!
SvenB
4 months ago
26 comments
Aww.... Did I forget the Budweiser too?
SvenB
4 months ago
26 comments
I'm getting hungry now.
I think I'll fire up the charcoal and whip out some 'baked' potatoes, corn on the cob, and a nice thick juicy steak slathered in butter and garlic, seared to rare.
That's REAL eating!
RawVegan811
5 months ago
2 comments
I haven't eaten meat in 16 years, and the article didn't sway me at all....the arguments are half thought out. I don't think the writer cares about meats' effects, but meat itself.
I found this site looking for cow digestion of grain. I'm questioning weather grain belongs in the human diet.(meat's a no-brainer/we're primates). I think alot of problems can be eliminated by eating naturally. I've found other people thriving on a primate diet: Fruit, nuts, seeds and veggies. Since we're primates, that is now what I eat. And I eat it RAW, and doing well, thank you.....nature.
as for "God made animals out of meat".......Meat is muscle, with the purpose being to move animals around(us included).
Muscle's original source is plants. So meat is second-hand plants. I get nutrients first-hand.
realfoodman
5 months ago
4 comments
and imagine all the fat and lazy grain eaters of the world when we have to eat corn and bread for sustenance...
realfoodman
5 months ago
4 comments
Whatever... eat meat, enjoy it. It's good for you and it tastes great. Most vegetarians and pretty much all vegans are weak. Vegetarianism is a form of delusional mental illness. Get off your high horse you lame lefties and get some meat onto your plate. We are a meat eating species. That's how we developed, and it is a healthy way to eat. We are at our best when our diets include fresh protein and vegetables. Fish, pork, poultry, beef, lamb etc. This is the diet of the human race, so shut the hell up with the ideologies. Because that is what this is. An ideological battle being waged by the cultural warriors of the demented left. I am not actually a right-winger, I'm just sick and tired of these anti humans, trying to convince us with pseudo scientific claptrap to follow their pathetic example.