According to various dictionaries, meat is defined as a food consisting of muscle tissue, flesh, or any edible part from animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, serving as food, among others, for the man. Among other animals that we consume are fish, molluscs, seafood, oysters and shellfish, but also crustaceans.
The increase in the consumption of these foods on a global scale is ever greater and over the years has caused real ecological disasters.
According to the FAO, 83% of the world's agricultural surface is used for livestock breeding (grazing and production of cereals intended to feed them). This contributes to intensive deforestation, to ever-increasing industrial farming, to the waste and pollution of fresh water and the oceans, to the increase in greenhouse gases, to global warming, to overconsumption of energy, to the disappearance of species, but also to the waste of resources, to health dangers. The list is long…
Furthermore, we cannot say it enough… In addition to the harmful consequences for our environment, excessive meat consumption represents a significant risk to health. More and more scientific studies are showing that it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or even inflammation of the intestine.
A collective awareness leads more and more followers to the vegetarian diet. We can say that these people feel concerned as much for health reasons as for the animal cause.
According to L214, in 2019, worldwide, livestock and slaughter activities affected more than 80 billion land animals and more than 300 billion aquatic animals. At the same time, over 1,000 billion wild fish have been caught.
The FAO forecasts, by 2050, a 73% growth in meat consumption, linked to the increase in the population and the development of emerging countries.
According to the latest reports, we are told that animal husbandry is increasing global warming faster than the use of transport.
The British start-up Zelp did not need less to manufacture anti-methane masks and Cargill, the giant of the food industry and the trading of agricultural raw materials, to seize the opportunity to market these masks capable of '' absorb the methane returned by the cows and transform it into CO²!
And to think that it would be enough to reduce our consumption from animals to reduce many of our problems!
According to an English study, the massive adoption of a vegetarian diet worldwide would be enough to reduce by two thirds the CO² emissions linked to food.
Without intensive animal husbandry, much of the land used could be used to plant fruits and vegetables, but also cereals and legumes, and finally stop deforestation permanently. The return of trees or plants to this land would absorb more CO². The absence of livestock in many areas would dramatically reduce water consumption around the world
As we will have understood, all the reasons are good for changing our relationship with food and permanently eliminating our animal consumption. Whether they are philosophical, medical, benevolent, ecological, ideological, ethical, fashionable, or even physiological, they will all make you happy and happy to have made the choice of a life without violence towards animals.
This feeling of absolute well-being to say that we are no longer participating in all this pollution but especially in the suffering and slaughter of living beings for food is undoubtedly. No longer having this selfish motivation for the pleasure of the mouth is incomparable with the pleasure of seeing animals flourish and respect their right to life in this world.
During the 1st Century AD, Plutarch, philosopher, doctor, moralist and biographer of Greek origin, a vegetarian already in his time, admired animals. He wrote in a moral treatise on animals, a remarkably obvious reflection, revealing our indifference to life: "But nothing moves us, neither the beautiful color, nor the sweetness of the voice granted, nor the subtlety. of the spirit, neither the clarity of life, nor the liveliness of the sense and understanding of the unfortunate animals, so for a little flesh we take away from them the life, the sun, the light, and the course of the life which was prefixed to them by nature. "
To Einstein to declare 17 centuries later: “I think that the transformations and the purifying effects of a vegetarian diet on humans are very beneficial to the human species. Therefore, by choosing vegetarianism, one will be both happy and peaceful. "
We will also quote Pythagoras who, already in the 6th century BC, took a stand against the consumption of animals and wrote: “Refrain, mortals, from defiling your bodies with abominable food. [...] the earth, lavish of its treasures, provides you with delicious food; she offers you food which is not paid for by murder and blood. These are the animals that satisfy their hunger with flesh, and yet not all of them, for horses, sheep and oxen feed on grass. There are only animals of a cruel and ferocious nature, Armenian tigers, ever-raging lions, wolves, bears, who love bloody food. Alas! What a crime is it not to engulf the entrails in one's entrails, to fatten one's greedy body with a body which one has gorged oneself on and to maintain in oneself the life by the death of another living being! What ? In the midst of so much wealth produced by the earth, the best of mothers, you only find pleasure in crushing with a cruel tooth the frightful remains of your victims, with which you have filled your mouth, like the Cyclops? "
From Pythagoras to Marguerite Yourcenar via Rousseau and Leonardo da Vinci, many great intellectuals took a stand against the consumption of animals, long before anti-speciesism was established.
We will end with what Voltaire said. They are not numerous but are nonetheless extremely vehement, as this extract from his complete works proves, and more precisely from a diatribe written in 1772 and entitled "We must take a party, or the principle of action ":" All they need is their word; if they had it, would we dare to kill and eat them? Do we dare to commit these fratricides? Who is the barbarian who could roast a lamb if this lamb conjured us with a touching speech not to be both murderer and cannibal? It is only too certain that this disgusting carnage, constantly displayed in our butcher's shops and in our kitchens, does not seem to us an evil, on the contrary, we regard this horror, often pestilential, as a blessing from the Lord and we still have prayers in which we thank him for these murders. What is there more abominable than to continually feed on corpses? "
And how can we not mention all these top athletes who are convinced vegetarians and whose extraordinary physical performance has not been affected in any way by this diet?
As we can see, this current of thought does not date from today. Being vegetarian or vegan allows us to be in harmony with ourselves once we realize that the consumption of animals is not necessary for our survival and that there are many alternatives. The risk of deficiency is very low by varying the dishes and the combination of foods. The vegetarian diet is synonymous with a healthy lifestyle. It is very rich in fiber, vitamins and complex carbohydrates. It offers a wide variety of colorful foods.
We cannot claim to love animals and eat them. There are not those we eat and those we love. The animal kingdom is one and indivisible. He is entitled to our respect and protection. Our intelligence has brought us to the top of the living. Now she must uplift us even more by freeing us from our instincts. Life cannot be extinguished for a few moments of gustatory pleasure. There is nothing festive about taking it off.
We think, we examine, we reflect. Therefore, we have a moral responsibility to our friends. The point here is not to convert or to bring to a sterile guilt but rather to give birth to a firm determination not to fail in this responsibility any longer.
Posted on 2021-06-10 16:37
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