If you ask me

The true meaning of VEGAN, which is to say that vegans live a life based upon misguided beliefs that provide no benefits.

If you ask me, the push by the vocal minority towards vegan and vegetarian diets is misguided, unwarranted and just plain wrong. Humans evolved as omnivores, our bodies are designed to eat, process and survive on omnivorous diets and man would not have evolved, as we have, if we had been vegetarian. Vegans, and vegetarians, somehow feel that they have taken the ‘moral high ground’ in this debate but the truth is that they are just deceiving themselves and trying to deceive the rest of society in the process. Maybe not eating animals, or animal products, makes them feel good but the view, that this is the new way to live, is a fallacy and a denial of the truth. Contrary to their views it is simply impossible to live a life which does not generate some impact on animals, whether intentional or unintentional.

To begin with, let’s take a quick look at the human body and what it tells us about our intended diet. I will not go into the construction of our digestive system, as such a discussion is best left to a medical practitioner or dietician.  However, I am just going to make a couple of simple observations that, for most people, are not obvious; although they should be. Firstly, if you look at the teeth of any human being you will find both cutting (canines and incisors) and grinding teeth (molars). The reason we have cutting teeth is for eating meat and the grinders are for eating plant material. Compare human teeth to the teeth of a cow, an elephant or any other herbivore, who all have only grinding teeth, and you will notice a big difference. Why would we have canines and incisors if we were not meant to eat meat as well as plants? Vegans are denying their own physiology.

Also, if you look at the location of the eyes of any human and compare that location to those of carnivores and herbivores, you will see that humans, like all primates^1. and predators, have their eyes in the front of their heads. Why? To give us binocular vision which provides us with the depth perception we need in order to use our hands and in order to be able to focus on a specific object; a target if you will. Why do herbivores have their eyes on the sides of their heads? So that they can have close to 360^o vision in order to give them the best chance of detecting a predator that is sneaking up on them.  They don’t need much depth perception in order to graze or browse on plant material, so their eyes are located primarily for self defence. The location of human eyes is a further indication that man did not evolve as a herbivore, that man evolved to use tools and weapons and that we are not meant to be herbivorous.

Indeed, scientific studies by evolutionary biologists have suggested that mankind would not have evolved, as we did, without a diet that included meat. ^2. In order for the human brain to evolve to the size that is has, and with the high number of neurons that are present, a diet rich in nutrients and calories was necessary. Meat contains far more calories than does plant material, and so for early humans to survive, if they had been herbivores, there would not have had sufficient nutrients and calories in their diet to allow them to evolve as they did. Our ancestors would not have developed the brain and the intelligence that they did, nor would they have had the time to devote to the exercise of that intelligence and to the evolution of learning and speech. Ever notice that, in order to survive, herbivores spend most of their time, of every single day, eating? Most herbivores spend about 80% of their time eating and they have little time for anything else and this is during times when food is plentiful.

At the same time, predators may only eat every couple of days and after gorging themselves on a kill, will then lie up and sleep off the feast. This is clear evidence, from nature itself, about the nutritional value of a meat diet versus a vegan or vegetarian diet. Even if early man had access to a surplus of herbivorous food, and assuming that he could consume it quickly enough to allow time for other activities, such as the development of learning, the arts and technology, the brain would still not have evolved to the size and complexity that it has evolved to; not without the inclusion of meat in their diet. Humans evolved as omnivores and that is a fact that cannot be wished away by the misplaced and excessive sensitivities of some urban dwellers today.

Now, can humans exist without having an impact on animals? Can a vegan diet ensure that animals are not killed, harmed or used, in some way, as a result of that dietary choice? The answer is a firm NO! You cannot grow vegan food without having some impact on, or causing the death of, at least some animals. Farms are located on land that was once home to animals. The establishment of that farm destroyed the food source, shelter and water sources for many animals. Farm equipment, like tractors and harvesters, kill many small animals, insects, reptiles and birds. Animals, that raid the crops, are often culled in order to make growing the crops profitable. The roads leading to and from the farm are also built on the land that was once home to animals. Every single day, animals and insects die on those roads, hit by trucks carrying food, including vegan food, to market and also hit by cars driven by people, some of whom are vegans. Factories, homes, schools, airports, government buildings, all supporting the general population, including vegans, are built on the land that once was home to animals. Our homes, cars, luxury goods and everyday items are built from materials that, in most cases, originated from animals or from the food or the living space of animals. For any person to live a life that has no effect on animals, whatsoever, would require that person to lock themselves in a bubble and die a slow death from starvation.

One other excuse for the alleged superiority and desirability of a herbivorous diet, and this is often put forward by the vegans and vegetarians amongst us, is that such a diet has less effect on the environment and on global warming. Yet recent studies have debunked this notion, too. ^3. The vegan argument suggests that it burns more energy, requires more water and creates more green-house emissions, to raise livestock than it does to grow crops, however this claim conveniently overlooks a few vital points. While, at first glance, this claim may appear true it only appears to be true if you compare meat versus crops by weight, it does not hold true when you compare them by calories, and it is calories that are critical to the human diet. To replace the calorie intake, afforded by meat, you have to consume a far greater weight of vegetable foods, perhaps as much as 6 or 7 times the weight. In this light, it can be seen that the argument that a vegetarian diet has less impact on the environment is somewhat misleading, if not an outright falsehood.

The other consideration, that is usually overlooked, is that animals can convert plant materiel that are totally unsuitable for human consumption into calories and that these calories, in the form of meat, can then be consumed by people. This is true of livestock converting fodder crops into calories but, even more so, with wild animals converting totally unpalatable, from a human viewpoint, plants and trees into calories. Indeed, wild animals often thrive in environments that are totally unsuitable for farming or cropping and which, otherwise, would be ‘dead’ from a human dietary viewpoint. Meat is a valuable and important by-product of wildlife conservation and management efforts around the world but, particularly, in some parts of Africa. In many of these locations, the diet of the average person is already limited and deficient and it would be impossible to totally replace meat with vegetable products for these people and to attempt to do so would be irresponsible and unjust.

While discussing wild animals, let me add that I find it incongruous that vegans, who are usually animal liberationists as well, bemoan the decrease in wild animal populations around the world, but then claim that the size of present livestock populations are contributing to green-house gases through the emission of methane and carbon dioxide. I would suggest that the wild animal populations that existed before the world became industrialised would have produced at least the same, if not more, of these green house gases than the livestock populations of today and it wasn’t a problem for the environment then, so why is it a problem now? Could this just be another example of the vegans and vegetarians ‘clutching at straws’ to justify the vegan ‘lifestyle’?

If an adult makes the choice to revert to a vegan, or even vegetarian lifestyle, then so be it and that is their choice. However, for those individuals who go this route, there is no justification, no reason and no right to try and force that lifestyle onto other people. It is especially wrong for them to force that lifestyle onto children who are not yet able to make important life choices for themselves and who do not understand the implications, and even dangers, of such choices.

Further, it is just plain animal cruelty to force a vegetarian diet onto a pet, such as a dog or cat, and people who do this to their animals should give up those animals and allow them to be cared for properly. To bring a carnivorous animal into your life and then fail to feed it correctly while pretending that it is thriving on your vegan diet, is the height of selfish, egocentric and stupid behaviour. You can be sure that any dog or cat, in that situation, would be spending a fair bit of it’s time trying to supplement it’s diet with any lizard, insect, bird or small mammal that it can catch. I find it quite a contradiction that vegans adopt their peculiar diet, on the pretext of not bringing harm to any animals, and then subject their own pets to this form of abuse.

In summary, if you are a vegan or vegetarian, then good luck to you on your dietary choice, but please stop trying to force your strange life choice onto the rest of us. More importantly, stop subjecting your children to your views, feed them the foods that they need to develop normally and give them the right to make their own dietary choices when they are old enough to understand ALL of the implications. Finally, stop the cruelty that is being subjected on your pets and feed them the correct and appropriate food or give them up. You may be happy deceiving yourself about the diet of humans, but it doesn’t wash with the rest of us.

Notes:

1. It should also be noted that many primates, although generally considered herbivores, will kill and eat other animals, including primates, when the opportunity presents itself.

2. Suzana Herculano-Houzel, a neuroscientist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro http://www.suzanaherculanohouzel.com/lab.

3. ‘Energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions for current food consumption patterns and dietary recommendations in the US’, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), see http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10669-015-9577-y