I had been debating on whether or not to give up meat for the past few months, and today I finally made a decision … I’m going vegan! I love all types of cheese, but since cheese is pretty much liquid meat, I gotta axe that as well. I am a member of the Environmental Law Society at my law school and we showed a documentary called Eating.  I found it very informative in highlighting the problems involved in the American diet. Some of the more persuasive and revealing facts from the documentary concerned the healthiness of a plant-based diet, the environmental costs of animal-based diets, and the unknown influence of the dairy and meat industries.

Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize winner, once said, “Each patient carries his own doctor inside him,” referring to the human immune system. The healthier we keep our bodies, the better we feel, and the longer we live. In the documentary, there were stories of people overcoming cancer simply by changing their diets. We really are what we eat. Meat creates a lot of cholesterol and cholesterol does a great job of clogging our arteries. Clogged arteries lead to heart disease, which is a predominant killer of Americans.

A lot of the deforestation that is taking place around the world isn’t to produce lumber but to create space to cultivate crops to feed animals that are ultimately eaten by us. The effects of this practice are extremely detrimental to the environment. Not only does it remove trees, but it also aids the maintenance of livestock, which produce tremendous amounts of methane, which plays a key role in climate change.

So where did we get this notion that eating meat is a requirement to being healthy? Well, like most popular beliefs in pop culture, the answer can be found in ads and what is on television. I’m starting to learn that if you really want to know why things are the way they are, just follow the money. The dairy industry is just as guilty as the oil, banking, and tobacco industries in lobbying Congress effectively and having their interests continually preserved. The US provides a massive amount of subsidies to farmers to preserve their livelihood and stabilize market prices, but should the leading receiver be farmers who produce feed grains (source)? I mean, I guess so if you don’t have a problem with Big Macs and double cheeseburgers costing less than salads (source). Unfortunately, when big industries are able to control Congress, the average American normally gets the short-end of the stick and often becomes a misled and manipulated victim.

[Update: As of March 2011, I am no longer a vegan, but now a “select-a-tarian” as described to me by Evan Mascagni. To understand why, consider In Defense of Meat]