Dr. Leake
June 1, 2012
A Meat Eater’s
Manifesto
There is nothing I
like to sink my teeth into more than a huge steak. The feeling of cutting
through a tender steak with crisscrossing grill marks seared to perfect is
incredibly more invigorating than slicing into a steamed carrot. My personal
best feat of vegetables is when I walk into Bob Chinn’s. For those of you who
keep up with my blog, it is clear that Chinn’s in my favorite seafood and steak
house in Chicago and everyone should agree with me. When walking into Bob
Chinn’s you are surrounded by tropical décor reminding everyone of a tiki bar
in the Caribbean. Then, happy employees greet you with a neon blue shirt
covered in neon fishes. As you are guided to your table, you see lobsters swimming
in a tank and raw fish in the sushi bar. So people, may think this is not
right. But, they are the ones in the wrong. Watching you future meal swim is
the best feeling one can have, knowing that these lobsters were looking at you
five minutes ago and now they are on your plate. This certifies the promise of
some of the freshest seafood in Chicago. Steak on the other hand is better
after it is aged, and Bob ages his steaks for at minimum 40 days so that the
taste of steak is amplified. After ordering the Surf and Turf, the excitement
increases, finally the perfect meal is delivered: a lobster tail perfectly
cooked and covered in butter, the best looking Filet Mignon one have ever seen,
and a couple useless vegetables hidden under the mountain of delicious.
Some people would say I have no
food values at all; I don’t care about what animals are hurt and how they are
treated wrongly. However, my food values are strong, we have been killing
animals for our food for thousands of years. Even Jesus multiplied fished for
everyone to eat; he did not make a bunch of broccoli grow. There is no reason
for me to not eat meat. Some say there are bad health benefits for eating meat,
but there are also bad health benefits from not getting enough protein. Do you
know how many animals there would be in the world if we did not eat them? There
is no need for millions of cows to be roaming the plains. For those of you that
have drove the “fly over states” in the Midwest, you can smell when you pass a
cow farm, and it is not a pretty smell. Equally important, meat is much more
nutritionally efficient than plants, because proteins keep you feeling full
much more than carbohydrates. So many jobs would be lost if there was no meat
industry, Chicago in the early 1900s may have completely shut down without the
meat packing industry. Also, the meat packing industry has improved greatly
since The Jungle was written, making
everything much more safe. Lastly, it is impossible to say that anything tastes
better than meat. You may think that my food values are completely outrageous
and dangerous for my health, but I will stick by them until death.
Meat
has been consumed for millions of years, and it would be wrong for us to change
what we have been doing. Besides the fact that it is the best tasting food on
the planet, it would be extremely detrimental if everyone stopped eating meat.
Looking more recently than the first time meat was consumed; meat is a sign of
wealth. Everyone who had any type of wealth wanted to eat meat. Wendy’s say,
“Where’s the Beef?” not “Where is the lettuce?” No one can look me in the eye
and tell me that eating meat is wrong or bad for you. These things many have a
slight bit of truth in them, but not enough for me to give up what I love. Eating as much meat as America does, it shows
how America is so developed “Meat intake varies widely throughout the world. In
the U.S. and other developed countries, meat composes a significant portion of
the normal diet, contributing more than 15% to daily energy intake, 40% to daily
protein intake, and 20% to daily fat intake” (Daniel), this not only shows
America’s dependence on meat, but we clearly enjoy it. We would not consume so
much meat if we did not want too because we have the choice of what we eat.
Unlike some other less developed countries, we do not have to plant and kill
our own food, so seeing that most people in America choose to eat meat shows
why it is important for it to be available. Without meat, humans would be at a
loss to find protein and many jobs would be lost from the meat industry.
Yes
there are possible down sides of eating meat with all of the carcinogens and
fat in the meats, but it is not enough to hide the benefits. Not only does meat
taste so much better than vegetables, but also it helped everyone out in the
long run. If we did not eat cows, there would be so many wild cows that would
be roaming all of the country. Then, if someone is driving in the country, cars
could potentially hit them and they would do a lot of damage to cars. When
driving on these country roads, since the cows would not longer be contained,
the smell would be awful in many more places from their waste. It is an overall
better choice to keep the meat eaters diet.
Protein
is clearly more efficient than carbohydrates because people, who eat meat on a
regular basis, consume less food then people who do not eat plants. “The total
weight of food consumed was slightly higher (1002 kg per year) in the lactovegetarian
diet than in the meat-based diet (995 kg per year).” (Pimentel) Though
it may look like seven kilograms is a small amount, if everyone in the world
was on the lactovegetarian diet that would be a huge amount of food. With the
large amount of food, more gas would be used to harvest and transport all of
the extra plants needed to feed the people. It takes more energy to
break down protein and a longer time. Looking deeper into these facts, it is
clear the more protein you eat, the more calories will be burnt during
digestion. It is possible to see this as a disadvantage, but since it takes
more time to break it down, the person consuming it will not feel hungry as
quickly because the body can not break them down as fast as carbs. Carbs are
easily broken down and simple carbohydrates are burnt so quickly that hungry
will come quicker because all of the energy was quickly absorbed
The
meat industry is part of America; it supports family economically and with
their dietary needs. “Families are behind the foods we eat; 98% of farms are
family-owned and operated. A teen growing up on a Michigan dairy farm may have
milked the cow that produced your favorite yogurt; a farmer in Iowa may have
harvested the wheat to make your favorite breads; a rancher in South Dakota may
have sold quarters of beef from the 4-H steer to the local restaurant in town;
and a cotton farmer in Georgia may have grown the product to create your
favorite t-shirt. (Radke). There has always been a movement in America to keep
the family ran companies running and support them. Seeing that such a large
majority of the farms are family run, if everyone was vegetarian than all of
these businesses would be closed and thousands of Americans would lose their
jobs. Yes, it is possible that they would add more jobs to the crop farms, but
taking out the entire industry would be so detrimental because they would just
have to add more farmers and all of the business side of the meat industry
would be knocked out because they would already have that in crop industry
(Collora) “In 2009, more than 526,290 workers were employed in the meat and
poultry packing and processing industries. Their combined salaries total more
than $19 billion,” () seeing how many people are directly effected buy the meat
industry, it was would be extremely bad for our economy because so many people
would lose their jobs. It would alone take out $19 billion from people who
would put it back into our economy. Not only would this directly effect, but
the indirect effects would but just as bad; “In all, companies involved in meat
production, along with their suppliers, distributors, retailers and ancillary
industries employ 6.2 million people in the U.S. with jobs that total $200
billion in wages.” (The United States Meat Industry at a Glance) With all of
these jobs that have to do with meatpacking, it is impossible to say that vegetarians
would help our economy. This would have such a negative affect on America, it
is a huge part of our economy; “The meat and poultry industry’s economic ripple
effect generates $864.2 billion annually to the U.S. economy, or roughly 6% of
the entire GDP.” (The United States Meat Industry at a Glance)
One of the most infamous
books in American History is The Jungle.
This book unveils the secrets behind the meat industry in the 20th
Century. This helped change the meat industry for the better and helped it
become as strong as it was. Even when it was at its weakest point it was still
getting food on family’s tables. Sinclair shows that the jobs many not be the
best, but it still got people money who needed it the most. “Here
was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of
starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men
every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers,” (Sinclair
88) not many people would like be referred to as slaves, but this saves peoples
lives because they would be jobless without them and therefor their family
would not eat either.
Any vegetarians reading this
right now and probably about to throw there celery and peanut butter snack at
their computer, and that is exactly what I wanted. I take so much pride in my
meat eating that I want everyone to feel the same way I do. Now, seeing that
meat has been being consumed for years and that the health effects are not all
negative, there is no reason in the world for someone to not sink their teeth
into a nice steak and put the veggies aside. This concluded my manifesto and
confessing my love for protein filled meat, and I hope everyone reading right
now is driving to McDonalds to get a McDouble.
Works Cited
BBC.
"What Happens When You Get Drunk." BBC News. BBC, 21 Dec.
2001. Web. 28 May 2012. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1721987.stm>.
Collora,
Chris. "The Digestion of Carbohydrates, Lipids and Proteins." LIVESTRONG.COM.
Web. 01 June 2012. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/366300-the-digestion-of-carbohydrates-lipids-and-proteins/>.
Daniel,
Carrie. "Trends in Meat Consumption." National Institutes of
Health. US National Library of Health. Web. 30 May 2012.
Pimentel,
David. "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition." Sustainability
of Meat-based and Plant-based Diets and the Environment. Web. 01 June 2012.
<http://www.ajcn.org/content/78/3/660S.full>.
Sinclair,
Upton. The Jungle. Cambridge, MA: R. Bentley, 1971. Print.
"The United States Meat Industry at a Glance." The
United States Meat Industry at a Glance.
Web. 01 June 2012.
<http://www.meatami.com/ht/d/sp/i/47465/pid/47465>.