Sorry but the "humans are herbivores" argument is a complete myth, albeit a very popular one amongst vegetarian/vegan circles. Whilst those comparisons may look very convincing to someone without a scientific background, they have absolutely no ground in ecology or physiology.
Intestinal length is not an accurate way to determine dietary characteristics, although our intestine is actually mid-way between most herbivores and most carnivores. Surface area, cell type and structural specialisations give a far more accurate view. Humans completely lack the fermenting vats that almost all herbivores have. Our stomach produces hydrochloric acid, whilst herbivores do not. The human pancreas produces a full range of digestive enzymes for both animal and plant foods.
Human teeth are most similar to omnivores and human molars and premolars are often confused with various classic omnivores when found in archaeological dig sites. Saliva and urine data vary depending on diet rather than taxonomic group.
Basically the list of comparisons posted above simply proves that we are not carnivores, which is true. However it fails to mention all the other evidence that shows we are not herbivores either. Biologically, humans are true omnivores and there is no basis in anatomy or physiology for the assumption that humans are herbivores. Of course, there are still plenty of good arguments for a vegetarian/vegan diet in terms of ecological, ethical and health reasons.
Personally, I enjoy eating meat but I try to reduce the amount our family eats and buy only organic/free-range meat that has been farmed in an ethical manner, preferably using traditional methods. I think the supermarkets are to blame for a lot of the issues in meat farming, for example buying intensively-reared chickens for 10p and selling them at a ridiculous profit, making sustainably farmed meat even more expensive by comparison.
Well said!
Thank you!
I have no problem with anyone choosing to be a vegetarian or a vegan ( I was a vegetarian for 6 years myself), but when people start bringing really bad science into the argument, it makes my omnivorous teeth set on edge.
As for the OP, I do think the question of ALL our food, hell, all our
consumption is a huge moral question. Tracking the ecological footprint of just about every aspect of our lives in exhausting, but it has to be done. There's no other way to educate yourself and minimize your impact on the planet.
For me, that means something like the "Hundred Mile Diet" is far more beneficial to the planet than adopting vegetarianism. Basically, this means that I strive for my food to be ethically and
locally raised. In my case, I live on the North American prairies. This is literally the land "where the buffalo roam", (well, where they used to roam before we drove them to extinction in the wild). This grassland is far better designed to support large herds of hoofstock than a soybean crop. In fact, there is a lot of ecological damage done by crops, so choosing vegetarianism does not necessarily lower your impact as much as you might think.
But here's where things get really screwy. We produce a lot of grass-fed beef in Alberta (ie. the cattle are free-ranging and eating graze, rather than spending their entire lives in a feedlot). Ideally, that should be a very logical food for us Albertans to consume. However, we export most of it to the States, and
import something like 50% of our beef from New Zealand (???!!). Talk about heavy ecological foot print! How on earth did our global markets get so screwed up?
So, I guess the moral of the story is to do your homework. Every time you buy something, source it. At least that lets you vote with your dollar. And let the grocers know why you are choosing to buy one item over the other. Take the time to send them a note, etc. It's a slow process, but it does have effects. There have been lots of good news stories on our planet, as well as the bad news. We have to keep reminding ourselves of that and creating the world we want to live in, one grocery shop at a time.
or jelly .. and for some STUPID reason i have had to spend most of my life defending this to people .. when really it should be the other way around if you ask me.. not only are we not suppose to eat meat, but everytime you turn around there is a new horrendous act of animal cruelty taking place in the meat industry i know that isn't that debate but its just another brilliant reason for people to dump it to be honest ... x
