Vegetarianism, Life, and Death

In Barbara Kingsolver's novel Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, she makes an interesting point regarding being a vegetarian for the sake of saving animal lives. It turns out you can't sustain yourself without the death of other living beings. On the subject, she says,

I'm unimpressed by arguments that condemn animal harvest while ignoring, wholesale, the animal killing that underwrites vegetal foods. Uncountable deaths by pesticide and habitat removal--the beetles and bunnies that die collaterally for our bread and veggie-burgers are lives plumb wasted.

It's true, when you plant crops you are taking over the homeland of other living creatures who die either at the blades of the combine harvester or by taking so much of their land that there is no sustainable place left for them to flock to. If you follow the argument that plants provide other insects and animals food, this is quickly negated once you add all the pesticides that we add to our crops (see previous article). Cheating death for life is not an option.

Death is a part of life. Think about death on the human level. Part of the cycle of life involves the transfer of energy. When we die we pass along our energy back to the earth and atmosphere. If you look at the Law of Conservation of Energy, (swiped from the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy),

The law of conservation of energy is an empirical law of physics. It states that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time (is said to be conserved over time). A consequence of this law is that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transformed from one state to another. The only thing that can happen to energy in a closed system is that it can change form, for instance chemical energy can become kinetic energy.

and apply that to the closed system of our known universe, it would follow that when we die, our energy is transferred back to the earth. For example, if you are buried your energy goes into the soil enriching it with nutrients allowing plants to grow. (I like to hope roses are planted over my grave.) Or if you are cremated your energy goes back into the atmosphere turning into molecules that could become anything, from a steam ship to a great river. This is comforting to me in a way, knowing that I am not only surrounded by the energy of relatives, friends, and pets who have passed before me, but I am also part of them and part of everything in the universe. Which reminds me of the Serbian proverb, "Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars."

By deciding to be a vegetarian merely for the sake of not taking lives we have now proven is impossible. It is however, a good idea to know where your food comes from. I agree with being a vegetarian to make a stand against the cruel treatment of our feed animals. I also agree with being a vegetarian if it makes you feel healthier. I just no longer buy into not eating meat because it spares animal lives. Death gives life, and if we can respect that, we can enjoy our meals.

Today's One Small Change:

1. Now that you are aware that even the growing of plant foods takes lives, start thinking about ways of food production that are the least harmful to the environment.