Handling Holiday Queries
This Meatless Monday, Will Tuttle, Ph.D. discusses his thoughts on a question many vegans (or Meatless Monday warriors!) receive all the time: “What would happen if everyone stopped eating animals?” After reading today’s blog, you’ll have more knowledge to ponder as your develop your own perspective…
Those of us eating a plant-based diet often find our food choices causing more questions and consternation during the Holidays than during the rest of the year. One of the perennial concerns I’ve found people have is that if everyone went vegan, what would happen to all the animals—chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, and fish? If we stopped eating them, wouldn’t they just take over the Earth, threatening our survival?
For years this question irked me because it seemed patently ridiculous, and worse, would be used to justify the cruelty of eating animal foods. Now, though, whenever I hear this question, I am delighted to respond to it because it’s an opportunity to deliver a brief meditation on how our world can be healed.
Imagining the world gradually going vegan is imagining the most positive possible future for our species, for the Earth, and for all living beings. First of all, as we reduce the number of animals we are eating, that will send a message to agribusiness to forcefully inseminate fewer female pigs, turkeys, cows, and other animals, so fewer animals will be hyper-confined, and there will be less mutilation, killing, violence, terror, and suffering. It also means there will be lower demand for corn, soy, and other feed grains, and thus less deforestation, monocropping, and pollution. As this continues, there will be more food to feed starving people, and also monocropped land can be returned to being critically-needed habitat for wildlife, whose populations are being decimated by the habitat loss caused by grazing livestock and growing feed grains. As the vegan trend continues, streams will come back and run cleaner, more birds, fish, and other animals will be able to thrive, there will be far less toxic pesticides and fertilizers needed, and the oceans will begin to heal. As recent studies have shown, livestock production is the main driving force behind global warming, and this also will decrease. In addition, by eating less animal-based foods, people will be healthier physically as they eliminate the toxic fat, cholesterol, and animal protein that drive obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, kidney disease, heart disease, and drug use. People will become healthier emotionally and spiritually, also, as they cause and eat less misery, and our culture, as its level of violence decreases, will become healthier also.
As forest, rainforest, and prairie communities come back to life, along with riparian and ocean communities, the devastating mass extinction of species that is going on right now will slow down. To raise and slaughter hundreds of millions animals daily for food on this planet, we are forcing many hundreds of species of animals and plants into extinction every week. Because of our appetites for a few species of birds, mammals, and fish, we are destroying the Earth’s genetic diversity, and it seems absurd to be unconcerned about these tens of thousands of species, but to care only about the few that we’re eating. In any event, the animals we imprison today for food lived freely in nature for millions of years and could do so again. The animals that we most intensely factory-farm, such as turkeys, ducks, geese, chickens, and fish, are all doing just fine in the wild (aside from being hunted and having their habitat destroyed). They would continue to do so, and this is also true for pigs, sheep, and goats, which even today have substantial wild populations. There is no reason to think that the animals we are eating and using wouldn’t be able to return to their natural lives living freely in nature—they already are!
Cows are the only possible question—their progenitors, the aurochs, were forced into extinction in the 1600s, but it is very conceivable that cows could be reintroduced into central Asia and Africa where they lived for millions of years, and with time would return to the ecological niche they inhabited before cruel human enslavement tore them from their ancestral homelands.
So, it’s a refreshing question to ponder—uplifting and heartening—to think of “what will happen to cows, chickens, and pigs if we all stop eating meat, dairy products, and eggs?” I hope we all can discuss this question a few times during the holidays, and by doing so, pull back the curtain to reveal the positive future we can create together. There is no action more powerful that anyone can take to subvert the dominant paradigm of exploitation and inequality than to shift to a plant-based diet for ethical reasons. By going vegan, and spreading the vegan message creatively, we take the most effective action to create a world where peace, abundance, sustainability, freedom, and universal joy are not just possible but natural.
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4 Comments
Thank-you Dr. Will Tuttle this article opened my eyes to a new vision.
LOVE THIS!!!! I must memorize every word in case someone asks. It is such a perfect answer.
First off, farmers would still have cows, sheep, pigs, goats, and chickens around. While we wouldn’t be slaughtering them for food, they provide others uses to us. Cows and goats provide milk. Sheep and goats hair can be used to make things. Pigs and cows would be killed to make leather and can provide fertilizer to crops. Chickens of course, provide eggs and their feathers can be used for things. Farmers would have to keep controlled populations to avoid over crowding. The animals may also be killed to feed to other animals such as dogs and what not.
Second off, this could cause major problems with the environment. Crops require certain nutrients that is in soils. After so long of the same crop being planted in the same spot, this could cause s nutrient deficiency and could cause the soil to erode and it would be useless. Even if you switched crops it will eventually happen. You might be saying, well what about fertilizer? Well, it can be used yes, but think about the state this will leave our water supply in. When it rains, fertilizer runs off into the water and this causes problems. Run off destroys habitats and creates what are known as dead zones. These are areas where nothing can grow of survive and as you can imagine the water wouldn’t be something you want to drink. An example of one can be found in The Gulf of Mexico. Going back to the eroded soil, this will cause farmers to move and destroy more habitat. This means less places for wildlife to live.
Third off, veggies and fruits are good for you yes, BUT very few contain enough protein for to survive. The veggies that do have a good source of protien will be expensive. Protien suppliments are always an option, but do you want to have to take a pill everytime you eat? Meat is also more filling than what you can grow. This would mean you would have to eat more to stay full. Also, not every place in the world can support crops and if they don’t have something to trade/sell they are screwed.
Theoretically speaking, we would not have enough food to support ourselves and would be malnorished. We would eventually use up all of the land for crops and soon would end up using the worlds supply of natural resources and would perish. That is if we don’t die soon because we killed off all the insects and animals that we rely on to pollinate the plants because we destroyed their habitat. Also to the veggies I have nothing against you and i respect you for being who you are. But, after taking everything i can think of into account, this is what i think would logically happen.
great article. it envisions a much kinder and healthier world and creates a sense of hope in the midst of this madness we call civilization. :-) thank you, Dr. Will!
December 28, 2009