The Livewire Guide to Going, Being and Staying Veggie

Juliet Gellatley

Section 2 – Saving the World

Introduction

Some people say eating meat or not eating meat is a personal thing. They say it’s everybody’s right to choose and they wouldn’t dream to telling anyone they should give up meat. I’m not one of these people and I’ll tell you why. Let me paint a picture for you.

If someone offered you a cake and told you how much sugar was in it, how many calories, what it tasted like and how much it cost, you might decide to eat it. That would be your choice. If, after you’d eaten it, you had to be taken to hospital and the person said, ‘By the way, it’s also got arsenic in it!’, you’d probably feel well choked.

Choice is useless unless you’re told all the facts that affect your choice. When it comes to meat and fish we’re told almost nothing and most people are pretty ignorant of the facts. Who would believe you if you told them that children in Africa and Asia go hungry so we in the West can eat meat? What effect do you think it would have if people really knew that a third of the world’s surface is turning to desert because of meat production? How shocked would they be to know that over one half of the world’s oceans are on the point of environmental collapse because of fishing? Or what about the deadly food poisoning which comes from meat?

These are the hidden doses of arsenic in the meat and fish eater’s cake. These are the realities of being a carnivore. That’s why I’m not a quiet vegetarian – it’s much too important for that.