Meat-eaters for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (META) There are two issues seemingly unrelated (but I will

argue otherwise) that I have struggled with for a long time: religion and vegetarianism. For the first of these issues, the problem has been trying to determine what my own spiritual beliefs were while simultaneously dealing with a constant onslaught of people trying to shove their own beliefs down my throat. Ironic that the proselytizers declare their mission to be in the name of God and the sake of my soul, because I can tell them that they are failing on both counts. Not that they will take responsibility for turning anyone off of religion, because they are too high off of their "I'm holier than thou" attitude to see that they are shooting themselves in the foot. Since I do not want to let spite determine what my beliefs, or lack thereof are, I am open to the possibility that maybe someday I will find religion. However, if I do, I hope that I do not forget how it feels to be on the outside and recognize how obnoxious their selfrighteousness could be, and how they are potentially doing more harm than good. I want to keep the same notion in mind if I ever manage to become vegetarian. My lifelong desire to save the environment led me to the student environmental club in college, where I quickly received the message that despite my eco-passions that I did not actually care. You see, the environmental club was run by the same people who ran the vegetarian club. They themselves were vegan, and made it quite clear that unless you made all of the same choices that they did then you were a part of the problem. It reminded me of trying out Christian Fellowship, where again the general consensus was that they alone were on the path to salvation. Although it has taken some time, my desire to live in an environmentally conscious way has made me see that there is some logic in the argument to adopt a vegetarian, or even a vegan diet. It has taken a long time for me to see the logic however, and for that I blame the evangelical vegans themselves. I have often wondered how so many people can seem to live their lives without seeming to care at all about the world they live in, but from my personal struggles I can see how one can develop apathy. If you tell people that they must choose an all or nothing attitude towards living in an environmentally conscious manner, then just about everyone will choose the latter. I have often been troubled by the excesses of western lifestyles. If everyone in the world was to use electricity, oil, and the meat-eating habits of the average American, it would take 5 Earths to provide all of the resources that we consume. That has lead me to explore possibilities in sustainable living, but my attempts at letting myself be converted have always fallen short. Most recently, I spent some time on an organic farm . To lessen their carbon footprint, the owners of this farm not only ate vegetarian, but lived in a drafty, dirty, tick-infested barn, without either electricity or running water. In spite of my desire to join the "back to the land" counter-culture movement that I have always romanticized, after about three days on this farm I said "this is bullshit" and left. And the first thing I did after leaving (besides take a long hot shower) was enjoy a big juicy burger. We do live in a world of excess, but to voluntarily deprive oneself of all modern comforts seems to me like insanity. I understand now why there are reactionary groups like the "other PETA" (People for Eating Tasty Animals).

Such groups often put forward arguments like "animals were meant for us to be eaten" or "eating meat is healthy", but somehow I feel like those arguments leave a lot unsaid. I have watched the videos for where our meat comes from, and it is as horrific as I heard it was. Most recently, I saw an undercover video of a factory where newborn baby chicks were put onto a conveyor belt, and all the unwanted ones were tossed by the hundreds into a grinder while still alive. Meat-lovers usually leave that fact out when they are defending their dietary choices. Well, I think such processes are horrendous, and anyone with a conscience must agree, even if like me they still enjoy the taste of Chicken McNuggets. I couldn't understand how most people could ignore the conditions that our livestock animals are subjected to. Then the makers of the chicken-horror video left off with saying that people could make a difference by going vegan. Not vegetarian, not cutting back on the amount of meat they ate, not making sure that all their eggs came from cage-free hens, but going all out vegan. Despite the fact that there is no indication that the vast majority of people feel ready to adopt a vegan-diet, they just couldn't refrain from making the appeal at the end of their movie. By linking this atrocity to a call for everyone to completely change their lifestyles, they are ensuring that the status quo will be maintained, and that these atrocities will continue. As if this lack of reason by the more radical animal-rights activists was not bad enough, the comments people left made me lose most of my hope for a brighter future. First, you have the people who say that this is just where our meat comes from and that we must accept that, as if there was no other way to treat livestock. I disagree, but if the only alternative they have heard is going vegan then I can understand why they would think that. Next comes the commentators who use the opportunity to argue the health benefits of going vegan. The brilliance of this argument is that it acknowledges a link between the well-being of the planet the animals that inhabit it, and yourself. But then I think about the people who are vegan, but don't know how to do it right, and are thus extremely unhealthy. The guy who owned the organic farm I worked on was so scrawny that he made runway models look fat. When he would comment on how strong and muscular I looked I wanted to say, "yeah its called protein bitch. you should try it sometime". I know that there are plenty of non-meat sources of protein, but I doubt that this guy knew what they were. Many vegetarians seem to lack this knowledge, and they are just reinforcing the false notion that meat is a necessity of a balanced diet. I have known many anemic vegetarians and they certainly didn't make a beleiver out of me. The only worse advocates for the health agrument for vegetarianism would be all of the cigarette-smoking hippies I have met. They are certainly not making their health priority number one. Not to mention how many people or animals you could feed with the crop land that is devoted to tobacco. Just thinking about their hypocrisy makes me want to have another burger right now. But the commentators who piss me off the most have to be the ones who use it as an opportunity to hate on liberals, "for caring about newborn chickens but caring nothing for unborn babies" in reference to abortion. "Pro-life" proponents often piss me off for the same reasons that PETA does. They are letting single-issue political stances convince themselves of their moral

supremacy. In this instance they are bringing up abortion to take attention off of cruelty to animals (at other times I have heard them use it to take attention off of the genocide of the Tibetan people). And, like PETA, the pro-lifers could probably have a much greater impact if they would recognize the limits of their power. Conservatives probably could have saved the lives of a lot more orphans in Africa if they didn't focus the last forty years on trying in vain to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Likewise, PETA could have done a lot more to help foster a culture of sustainability and compassion if they didn't obsess themselves with the sisyphean task of trying to get 7 billion people to go vegan. Let me state again, someday I might become vegetarian, but many of the advocates for vegetarianism are not making it easier by how preachy they are. I am also not trying to discourage anyone from going vegan. Anyone who does so is definitely shrinking their carbon foot-print. However, I can't help but imagine how much it would help the environment if they could convince people (who would otherwise not be convinced to make any dietary changes at all) to cut back on their meat intake, or make sure it came from free-range livestock. It might be less than everything, but it is a lot more than nothing. You must look past your own egos to see how you can have the maximum effect on changing the world. And PETA: the next time you do something like protest the Nintendo character Mario wearing a racoon suit, I'm going to have a burger just for you.

"I ain't no bleeding-heart vegetarian" -Dave Foreman, founder of Earth First!