I’m Sorry, Meat-Eaters, But You’re Full Of It

August 29, 2008

taste bud

I think this article, “I’m Sorry, Taste Buds” is compelling for those who believe in human supremacy. The author, Kevin Padrez, offers plenty of good reasons to go vegan:

“If the impending heart attack isn’t enough to scare you away, there are the added immoral actions of the meat industry. Twinkies, though more unhealthy than meat, are not jacked up with sickly growth hormones, aren’t raised to be brutally slaughtered and don’t cause an environmental toll that is both grossly underestimated and completely unsustainable.

He doesn’t think it’s right to treat animals the way they’re treated in industrial agriculture. And he believes in God. And he thinks veg*nism is a sacrifice. These are common assumptions for many Americans.

Padrez decided to go vegetarian for Lent and he realizes some things:

“[T]he vegetarian life is growing on me [...] I feel better about myself knowing I am doing something good for my body and soul.”

I share it here because it might be compelling to you or someone you know. He makes some excellent points about how vegetarianism and veganism are good for your health, the environment, and your conscience.

However, this is my blog and this space is essentially about me and my ideas. And well, I disagree with some of his premises.

Of course, I agree with him regarding industrial animal agriculture (aka factory farming). I think it’s terribly cruel and completely immoral. Animals should not be confined in tiny crates, cages or crammed into warehouses. Animals should not be force-fed, forcibly impregnated, pumped full of hormones and antibiotics, or inhumanely slaughtered. Every animal should know the feeling of natural sunlight on their back or belly. Every animal should have access to clean air and water. Every animal should be able to live a long, full life. Every animal should have plenty of room to roam and wander. Every animal should be the beneficiary of human kindness and compassion, not cruelty and greed.

I also agree with Padrez about the health benefits of vegetarianism. Both my mother and my husband made major health transformations due to their change in diet from omnivorism to vegetarianism. They became much healthier people as vegetarians. (My own transformation wasn’t nearly as dramatic given that I became vegetarian at age six and hadn’t developed health problems related to meat-eating.) Moreover, I’ve read The China Study, which documents numerous health and nutrition studies and concludes that vegetarianism is indeed much more healthy than omnivorism.

But I disagree with some of his other premises.

For starters, I’m atheist. I think God and religion has been used to justify many horrors in this world and I don’t support any religion or any irrational belief that is destructive to the belief-holder or anyone else. That said, I think many people’s belief in God and attachment to religion is relatively harmless. Moreover, I understand that beliefs formed in early childhood are exceptionally difficult to erase. Therefor, I place no major emphasis on eradicating that particular irrational belief. If someone believes in God, I don’t worry about their cognitive abilities or reasoning skills the way some atheists and agnostics do. I usually simply let them have their belief and try not to offend them too much with my lack of belief.

Next, I don’t agree that veganism is a sacrifice. In fact, I feel that’s it’s a moral baseline. It’s the least we can do. It doesn’t make us better than anyone else. It doesn’t make us superheroes. We aren’t exceptionally generous or compassionate people. Vegans are not “brave” or “heroic” regardless of what some people think. We are merely humans who’ve made the decision to try to live our lives without harming animals.

Furthermore, not only is living as a vegan not a sacrifice, it can be an abundant lifestyle. Vegans tend to have an abundance of health, an abundance of a clear conscience, an abundance of interesting foods, an abundance of energy, and more. The saying that “when you close one door, another door opens” is absolutely true in regards to veganism. The so-called sacrifice of abastaining from harming animals is not a true sacrifice because harming animals is not a true good. Just as ridding ones self of bad habits like smoking cigarettes is not a sacrifice, veganism is ridding ones self of a bad habit and is not a sacrifice.

However, given Padrez’s premises, his logic is valid. If I shared his perspective of the world, I would likely come to similar conclusions about animals and veg*nism.

This is why I focused on the major issue that he used to justify his actions of meat-eating: taste. He claimed that:

“Sure, meat is packed with fat and bare of most vitamins and minerals, but it will always have one thing: flavor. Study after study showing the health benefits of vegetarian diets were not enough for me to sacrifice my favorite food group.”

Padrez may well favor meat, but his taste buds are not independent, unbiased judges. His taste buds are merely extensions of his brain - and all the judgments and biases within that brain.

In fact, studies have shown that taste is so subjective that it belies one’s assumptions. A preference for the taste of meat is a physical manifestation of cultural and philosophical/ religious baggage, not an empirically valid fact.

This also explains why many vegetarians and vegans dislike faux meat products: because the taste reminds them of eating animals. They have a dislike of the idea more than a dislike of the flavors.

One of Padrez’s central premises is untrue, thus his entire argument crumbles. I didn’t even have to attack his belief in God or even his assumption of human supremacy in order to get there, I simply had to use some sociological/ marketing studies.

See why I was interested in going back to school to study Sociology?
;)

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Animals, Environmentalism, Food, Lifestyle, Philosophy and Guidance, veganism, vegetarian, vegetarianism 

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Comments

4 Responses to “I’m Sorry, Meat-Eaters, But You’re Full Of It”

  1. Serena on August 29th, 2008 1:17 pm

    Hi Elaine,

    I noticed your article talks about veganism. My sisters and I have a band called Truth On Earth. We have been vegan since birth, and we write, produce, and sing original songs about major problems in the world such as Factory Farming, Cyberbullying, Starvation and Child Abuse to name a few. 70% of our profits go to those who are working on real solutions so that we can get earth on track and leave a planet worth inheriting to future generations. We would appreciate any networking suggestions you might have that would help us get the word out to a wider audience. At truthonearthband.com you can hear our music and read more about our mission. We just added our first music video “Factory Farm” to our youtube page as well.

    Hope to hear from you. Thanks,
    Serena

  2. Bea Elliott on August 30th, 2008 4:23 am

    Hi Elaine, You said “This also explains why many vegetarians and vegans dislike faux meat products: because the taste reminds them of eating animals. They have a dislike of the idea more than a dislike of the flavors.”

    Thank you for validating that for me. I have a terrible time with “TVP” and “mock meats” - simply because the texture, the taste, the presentation - everything about meals made such are so “like meat” that seperating the memory is quite difficult.

    My husband and I have often said if “so & so meat-eater could taste this - they’d never believe it was plant based!”. It’s true.

    Anyway, I thought it was just me having trouble with “meat substitutes” because of the indistinguishable similarities. Nice to know I’m not alone :)

  3. Judith on August 30th, 2008 7:40 am

    Children pick up a lot of their eating sense from their parents. This is why so many children don’t eat vegetables, or don’t like them - their parents model their beliefs that vegetables are “good for you” but they don’t taste good. They reinforce this belief by saying things like “no dessert until you eat your vegetables”, as if eating vegetables is unpleasant.

    I know that when I accidentally eat something with meat in it it makes me feel sick - but this is a psychological, not a physiological, reaction. I had a veggie burger at a strange place called Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner (on highway I-15 near Barstow for those of you familiar with the drive to Las Vegas) that was so much like meat that I sent it back, telling the waitress she had made a mistake. She came back with another one and said this really is vegetarian. It was freaky, frankly. I eat faux meat products but not because they taste like meat; mostly because they don’t.

    There shouldn’t be any need to point out that taste is psychological, a matter of conditioning. Yet so many people continue to think that it isn’t. One way that I have, in the past, tried to overcome these prejudices is by bringing home-cooked vegetarian dishes to potlucks. But not just any veg dish; they had to be especially tasty. People got so they always looked forward to what I was bringing. It’s a great way to open the door, I think. And now I have a guest for dinner every Saturday night and every time the meal is different, interesting, tasty. This particular guest lived as a vegan for probably a year but he subsisted almost entirely on beans and rice. I think he developed a distorted view of what it can be like to be vegan.

    One other element that makes this effort a bit difficult is that meat-eaters tend to have taste buds that aren’t very sharp. I have no scientific proof of this - perhaps someone else does? - but it seems that when you eat meat you dont’ taste a lot of more subtle deliciousness.

  4. Elaine Vigneault on August 30th, 2008 11:18 am

    Well, I hate to say it, but anyone with an eating disorder can tell you that taste is subjective. Having spent some time around people with anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders I can say for certain that many utilize psychological triggers to condition their eating sensations. Some even do it completely intentionally and with full knowledge of what they’re doing.

    My own experience has proved to me that I can develop a preference for healthy foods the more that I eat them and think positively about eating healthy foods. Good spicing and cooking obviously helps, too, and that’s another area where some meat-eaters get it wrong. They’ll prepare vegan foods in ways that ruin their taste, for example, over-cooking or under-spicing.

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