Michale Pollan in chapter 17 challenges himself and everyone in the world who eats meat. He strays from his original dilemma about; unsanitary farming conditions, the use of corn in everything and the unhealthiness of the meat. He now opens what may even be a bigger Pandora's box, and as a proud meat eater I was so upset while reading this chapter. He cites many top experts on animal rights, and many scientists who have studied the effect of pain on animals. After struggling with this decision in his own mind he decides to become a vegetarian. He believes that allowing for animals to be slaughtered and pained with the excuse of them "not being humans" is "speciesist". Thinking about his arguments does bother me a lot because on most points he is so right and it would be so hard for me to give up meat. I agree with him but something in the back of my head is trying to justify myself.
One point he brings up is that the same way we enslaved blacks, and did not give adequate rights to women, maybe todays moral step would be to stop eating meat. What if as we grow as a people we are realizing our flaws and are slowly correcting them? More and more people are becoming vegetarians every year. Is it possible that sometime in the next century meat eating may be outlawed? I just really hope I am not around for it. I can not envision my life without it. It just hits the spot that no vegetarian or vegan food can even compete with.
Is all of Pollan's logic correct when he decides to become a vegetarian?
Are there any people who argue this point and have logical rebuttles that Pollan may not be able to answer? ( please tell me there are!)
I agree that it is very difficult to give up meat. However, it is very hard to justify eating meat as well. I am in a similar situation in which Singer has made me think differently about the food I eat. Although his arguments are very convincing, I don't think that meat will be outlawed anytime soon. I feel that there are too many people out there, like you and me, who just love meat and are unwilling to stop eating it.
ReplyDeleteHow do Pollan's reasons for not remaining a vegetarian relate to what you write about in your post? He grapples with the questions you raise and gives rebuttals by the end of his chapter for eating meat again--were you unconvinced by his rebuttals?
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