Quote:
Originally Posted by Michelle  There must be a reason why so many people eat meat. And I don't think it is because most people are cruel, arbitrary, closed-minded killers. |
I can't resist saying that just because a lot of people do something doesn't make it right. But besides that, eating meat is an evolutionary advantage. It allows humans to survive when there isn't enough plant food available. Many years ago when humans were hunter-gatherers, they didn't always have a reliable source of plant food, or not enough of it, or not year round, etc. so meat came in handy. Humans also can, and have
resorted to cannibalism to survive in extreme situations.
These days people eat meat mostly because they were conditioned to do it by society. In the US at least, there's a huge amount of money made by the meat & dairy industries. They have the power to lobby the government to get their way and suppress
the truth. Look at the
FDA Food Pyramid for instance -- they've had many years to revise it but they don't. Probably because of industry pressure. Compare this to the modern
Harvard Food Pyramid. Notice that the FDA pyramid recommends eating 2-3 servings of meat/poultry/fish/eggs, and 2-3 servings of dairy per day. The Harvard pyramid recommends
0-2 servings of fish/poultry/eggs, 1-2 servings dairy
or calcium supplement, and red meat and butter are all the way at the top in the "use sparingly" area. The pyramid is not vegan, but it's very close to being vegetarian and it wasn't even developed by people who're pushing a vegetarian/vegan diet.