For every vegetarian or vegan, Thanksgiving is a logistical and emotional minefield. Of course, the centerpiece of the traditional American meal is the turkey, and quite often older relatives, especially relatives whose identity revolves around their cooking like my grandmother, feel hurt and offended if vegetarians do not partake of their cooking. In past years, I tried a number of strategies to hold true to my beliefs about living a cruelty-free existence, while still treating my meat-eating relatives with respect. My first strategy was to suffer in silence, and try to eat as little as possible, focusing on the non-meat entrees. However, this presented several difficulties: firstly, many of the side dishes were cooked with meat by-products, such as chicken stock and animal fat, and my attempt to question if the Brussels sprouts were sautéed in bacon grease brought forth hostility and jokes.
Secondly, I often found myself forced to defend my beliefs yet was reproached for doing so while ‘everyone was eating.’ People would ask why I was not eating turkey, and when I replied that I did not consume animal products, they snapped back with “don’t you know animals eat animals,” or “you should be glad that you have something to eat.” If I attempted to defend my position, and suggested that factory farming for omnivores such as humans was very different from a carnivorous animal hunting and killing another animal in the wild, or noted the fact that our reliance upon meat in the United States actually contributes to poverty elsewhere, I was accused of ‘preaching’ at a holiday function.
I did not like to present an image of myself as a joyless scold on Thanksgiving, but I wished to have my views given respect and consideration. I did ...
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... interdependence as family members, rather than one member exercising his or her power over the other, even though neither of us emerged as mutual ‘winners,’ as is the case in an ideal compromise, when a solution that is equally acceptable to both parties is achieved.
The less meat-intensive meal seemed to make people at the table more, rather than less open to my vegetarianism. They were surprised and delighted with how tasty the vegetarian and vegan dishes were, and said that the bird that was raised in a cruelty-free fashion was also better tasting than in previous years. I admit that I was bothered that the rights of animals were not fully considered in the negotiation of the meal, but I at least introduced my relatives to a new approach to Thanksgiving, and encouraged them to at least entertain ethical questions regarding how the turkey they ate was raised.
"The Case For Animal Rights" written by Tom Regan, promotes the equal treatment of humans and non-humans. I agree with Regan's view, as he suggests that humans and animals alike, share the experience of life, and thus share equal, inherent value.
In her Salon.com essay, “Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian,” writer Laura Fraser uses her own life experiences to explain why she became a vegetarian, what it did to her, and why she decided to go back to being an omnivore. Fraser’s main idea was that even though being a vegetarian might be slightly healthier than a “usual diet”, and that people should not go against what they are made for. Fraser explains why being a vegetarian can be healthier for people in some places, why it is hard to be a full vegetarian, and why it is a good idea to not go against humans natural ways as a human being. By establishing her personal view and facts that she has researched, and appealing to emotions and logic in some ways, Fraser succeeds in writing an
We care so much about what the food is and how it is made that we overlook about where the food had come from. According to the reading selection, “Killing Them with Kindness?” by James McWilliams, an American history professor at Texas State University, states “animals raised in factory farms have qualities that make them worthy of our moral consideration…[and yet, we] continue to ignore the ethical considerations involved in eating meat” (311). This exhibits that when Americans are so engrossed in healthy eating, our morals about animal rights are neglected. Most of what we eat are animals, and animals like we do have emotions, interests, and possibly goals in life. We pay no heed of the animal’s interests and it should not be that way since our interests are no more important just because we are more superior, intelligent beings should not give us the right to perceive animals in such a manner. In addition to paying notice of the origin of where the animals come from, we need to be aware of what killing animals will do to the earth. In the TedTalk, “What’s Wrong with the Way We Eat,” Mark Bittman states “10 billion animals are killed each year for food and they represent 18% of the harmful greenhouse gasses” (Bittman). This reveals that our careless consumption would not only lead to the suffering of animal deaths but the suffering of our world and our imminent death. As we increase our progression with our unhealthy obsession over healthy eating, there will not be any positive effects for the body, the animals around us, or the world. If we were to be conscious about the source of our food and the consequence of eating then we will be able to eat healthily and
While this invitation produced anxiety for every person that attended this meal, the toll that it took on my nephew was rather difficult to watch. His father chose to attend the day before Thanksgiving; but a half-hour before the scheduled 2 p.m. time for dinner, he let his son know that his girlfriend and her children had decided to come as well. While the adults scrambled to add additional seating, my nephew excitedly stood outside on the porch anticipating his guests’ arrival. An hour later, this little boy dejectedly wondered whether his father had changed his mind. When his guests finally arrived, we all ate an awkward, cold dinner, and my ex-brother-in-law whisked them all (including my nephew) away to his family’s Thanksgiving meal, which meant that my disappointed nephew never got to share the chocolate pie that he had helped make.
As healthy lifestyles have come to take over the minds of the general public, people have begun to pay increased attention to the food they eat, which in turn has sparked a renewal in vegetarianism. Vegetarianism is a term used to describe the practice of living on a diet consisting of nuts, grains, fruits, and vegetables, with or without the use of eggs and dairy products. People usually associate vegetarianism with the hippy movement in the 1960’s; however, it was Frances Moore Lappé's iconic book, Diet for a Small Planet, released in 1971 that launched the vegetarian movement. Since 1971 vegetarian cookbooks, restaurants, and food brands have become popular and have enticed the likings of about 7 million Americans. Unfortunately, despite the growing popularity of vegetarianism most people living on a carnivorous diet laugh at the idea of giving up meat. Although omnivores are reluctant to give up their current diets, giving the vegetarian diet a chance even for just a month or two can bring about a number of positive consequences. By adopting a vegetarian diet a person is not only...
Textbooks in today’s schools still tell the same story that has been handed down from generation to generation. Every year children dress up and put on plays about the famous story of the first Thanksgiving. No one knows the truth though or at least people pretend to not know the embarrassing truth of our “founding fathers.” Textbooks today give the candy coated version of good saintly Englishmen come to a better world and find good neighbors willing to help in their time of need.
For me, the decision to remove meat from my diet stemmed solely from the belief that humans have no right to eat any living creature — period. In short, I believe all lives have equal value, even if they’re a non-human animal. An offshoot from this, which also helped fuel my vegetarianism, includes the horrendous treatment animals endure for the sake of consumption.
When the great holiday of Thanksgiving comes to mind, most people think of becoming total gluttons and gorging themselves with a seemingly unending amount of food. Others might think of the time spent with family and friends. The whole basis of the holiday is family togetherness, fellowship, and thankfulness for blessings received during the previous year.
Jonathan Safran Foer wrote “Eating Animals” for his son; although, when he started writing it was not meant to be a book (Foer). More specifically to decide whether he would raise his son as a vegetarian or meat eater and to decide what stories to tell his son (Foer). The book was meant to answer his question of what meat is and how we get it s well as many other questions. Since the book is a quest for knowledge about the meat we eat, the audience for this book is anyone that consumes food. This is book is filled with research that allows the audience to question if we wish to continue to eat meat or not and provide answers as to why. Throughout the book Foer uses healthy doses of logos and pathos to effectively cause his readers to question if they will eat meat at their next meal and meals that follow. Foer ends his book with a call to action that states “Consistency is not required, but engagement with the problem is.” when dealing with the problem of factory farming (Foer).
New information exposing the malpractices of the meat industry is constantly surfacing, pushing more and more people towards a meat-free diet. Whether it may be for ethical reasons or health purposes, veganism is becoming normal in household throughout the United States. Veganism is now a trendy topic in popular culture. BuzzFeed has released numerous videos, articles and quizzes about veganism in the past two years. Its video, “Non-Vegans Try Vegan Desserts” has over four million views and forty thousands likes on YouTube (BuzzFeed). Vegan Instagram and YouTube accounts sprouted up all over social media. It is clear through my study of mainstream media that, over the past fifteen years, that veganism has piqued the interest of Americans who have become better informed about its health benefits and that, in all likelihood, it will most likely continue to rise in popularity in the
Rachels, J. (2013). The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism. In L. Vaughn, Contemporary Moral Arguments - Readings in Ethical Issues Second Edition (pp. 617-622). New York: Oxford University Press.
Vegetarians are uncomfortable with how humans treat animals. Animals are cruelly butchered to meet the high demand and taste for meat in the market. Furthermore, meat-consumers argue that meat based foods are cheaper than plant based foods. According to Christians, man was given the power to dominate over all creatures in the world. Therefore, man has the right to use animals for food (Singer and Mason, 2007). However, it is unjustified for man to treat animals as he wishes because he has the power to rule over animals. This owes to the reality that it is unclear whether man has the right to slaughter animals (haphazardly), but it is clear that humans have a duty to take care of animals. In objection, killing animals is equal to killing fellow humans because both humans and animals have a right to life. Instead of brutally slaying animals, people should consume their products, which...
Although vegetarians come in many forms, they are often thought to hold to a few set positions. Unfortunately, as is often the case, ascribing all (or most) vegetarians to specific camps is improper. One suspected position claims that it is wrong (or immoral) to eat meat-an act that obviously requires the slaughtering of the animal in question. Though some vegetarians hold to this position, I do not. While it is problematic that people eat excessive amounts of meat, eating meat isn't immoral in my view. And while I don't think meat eaters are somehow wrong, I certainly can understand and respect the position that eating meat is immoral. A second stereotypic position holds that vegetarians despise meat eaters. While there are certainly vegetarians that have issues with meat eaters, I suspect they are no more than the number of meat eaters that find vegetarians objectionable for some reason or another. I believe there are many acceptable ways to think and act and, thus, I don't begrudge those that eat meat or those that choose to think that it is immoral to do so.
21 Sept. 2011. Freeman, Carrie. The Packwood. " Framing Animal Rights in the "Go Veg" Campaigns of U.S. Animal Rights Organizations.
For several years the issue of eating meat has been a great concern to all types of people all over the world. In many different societies controversy has began to arise over the morality of eating meat from animals. A lot of the reasons for not eating meat have to deal with religious affiliations, personal health, animal rights, and concern about the environment. Vegetarians have a greater way of expressing meats negative effects on the human body whereas meat eaters have close to no evidence of meat eating being a positive effect on the human body. Being a vegetarian is more beneficial for human beings because of health reasons, environmental issues, and animal rights.