The Livewire Guide to Going, Being and Staying Veggie

Juliet Gellatley

Section 3 – Meat: The Mighty Myth

Introduction

What nationality you are, how you speak, many of the things you believe in and what you eat are really an accident of where you were born. An Austrian might be crazy about skiing but if they’d been born in the USA it could have been baseball. You might like thick butter on your bread but if you’d been Italian it would have been olive oil. Most Europeans and Americans eat meat regularly – you might still do – but had you been a Hindu in India, you wouldn’t know what it tastes like.

So we have to be very careful when we use words like ‘natural’ or ‘we’re meant to’ or ‘it’s human nature’. What might be ‘natural’, ‘necessary’ or ‘instinctive’ for one person is entirely the opposite for another.

Most people in the rich countries of the world are often told that it’s natural to eat meat. What does this mean? That we’re born meat eaters, that we’re biologically programmed to do it, that our instinct tells us to kill animals? But let’s put this to the test. Let your imagination run free for a minute.

Visualise a young cat in a small enclosed space with a mouse. It will immediately leap on the mouse and bat it around until it’s dead. In the wild it would then eat it. Now imagine a small child in an enclosed space with a lamb. The child will almost certainly stroke the lamb, play with it or hold it. I don’t think you’ll find many children trying to kill it.

Okay, it’s not the most scientific approach but I think you get the message. The next five chapters are all about who tells us it’s right to eat meat and why they do it. The best bet is, it also shows you why they’re wrong.

Of all the objections and finger wagging you’re ever likely to get as a vegetarian, most will be about the information in this section. So read on!

Special Bonus Fact

Vegetarianism is not a new idea and certainly not a fad! Check out what these geniuses from the past (forgiving their sexism!) had to say:

‘The day will come when men look upon the murder of animals as we now look upon the murder of men.’
- Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519, artist (painted The Mona Lisa), scientists, musician, sculptor, prolific inventor and great animal rights campaigner
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‘ As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.’
- Pythagoras, 6th century BC, ancient Greek philosopher and ace at maths (Yes, it was him who discovered all that stuff about triangles!)
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‘ Animals are my friends and I don’t eat my friends.’
- George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, the great Irish playwright
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‘ Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.’
- Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, genius physicist (he said E=MC2) and vegetarian