Bad arguments against vegetarianism/veganism – Part 1

Let’s tackle the obvious issue: I am not vegan or vegetarian. Yet, I recognise that they present some persuasive arguments.

Truthfully, it’s becoming more difficult to justify my consumption of meat intellectually. I find myself unable to defend it on intellectual or philosophical grounds. In a future blog post, I intend to share the arguments that have persuaded me that eating meat is unjustified. But, as I wish to give them a fair and focused discussion in their post, I will address the arguments against eating meat in due time. So, stay tuned.

In my youth, I attempted for a few months to be a vegetarian, but, I am now ashamed to say, the peer pressure got to me, and I never went back. Since then, I have been living a somewhat hypocritical life, meaning I still believe that there is no ethical justification to eat meat, yet here I am.

If willpower weren’t an issue, I might have embraced veganism or vegetarianism intellectually and in practice. Yet, here I am, a meat-eater, simply because the flavour is “irresistible” to me, and giving it up feels beyond my strength.

That explains why I would critique arguments opposing vegetarianism, including the principle of intellectual honesty. Even if one is intellectually persuaded that consuming meat is morally acceptable, no one wants to be swayed by a feeble argument, right? So, what are some weak arguments? Let’s see.

Disclaimer: This is a philosophical analysis, not medical advice. You should only get serious medical and dietary advice from a doctor or a nutritionist with experience in vegetarian or vegan diets.

You can’t get enough protein.

Well, this one is plain wrong. Studies done as early as the 1970s cast doubt on this claim.

Note that Protein needs depend on age and sex, so if you are planning to become a vegan, make sure to do your research—how much do you need, and how do you get there? But it is doable—and without supplements.

The body needs 10-15% of Calories from Protein, and 10-20% of calories in most plant foods are from Protein. It is easy to see how a plant-based diet would fulfil those needs. This is especially true for whole plant foods.[1] See also: How much protein do you need every day? – Harvard Health

This is just one of those myths that can be disproved with a simple Google search. Luckily, the internet also makes finding the best protein sources for vegans much easier. There are also entire sites dedicated to vegetarian and vegan menus.

The only potential issue I know of would be vitamin B12 for vegans, meaning there might be a need to take a B12 supplement or have foods fortified with B12. However, some studies show that vegans who use adequate supplements or fortified foods are less likely to suffer from a B12 deficiency than the average meat-eater.[2]

As more people become vegan, more animals will be killed

You might have heard this bizarre argument in the form that to grow vegetables, fields need to be made, which causes the death of many animals as they are killed by the farmers and farming machinery, e.g. by the harvesters.

This argument makes some sense, but it loses power as soon as you realise that animals need to eat plants, too. It is much more efficient to eat the plants and get the nutrients directly than to feed the plants to the animals and then eat them. It’s simply logic—animals use plant nutrition to grow their bodies, so much food is lost over time. When the time comes for the slaughter, we don’t even eat the whole animal.

Even the best estimates for the meat industry tell us that chickens have a 2:1 nutrient return-on-investment ratio. In other words, chickens are the most efficient animals to harvest, which causes a 2:1 loss in food crops. And that is being as generous as possible, not taking into consideration that a lot of weight after the slaughter is lost due to the removal of inedible body parts.

In case you were wondering, estimates are at 4:1 for pigs and 6:1 for cows.[3]

However, the need for more cleared land to make room for oats and grains for animal consumption has a more significant impact on climate change than the environmental impact of growing plant food for humans.

Your veganism/vegetarianism can’t make an impact.

This is an interesting argument. It says that an overwhelming number of people eat meat, and the fact that you don’t buy chicken wings has no noticeable impact on the world.

If this is true, it impacts the whole supply-and-demand theory, and demand does not affect the supply of anything.

The whole supply chain might not be as sensitive to the demands of a single individual, but that is true of just about any product or service.

When we are talking about a supply chain, it is always true that there must be a point when the demand is reduced to such a point, contributed to by every individual decision, of course, that there comes a point at which the store chain decides that too much is wasted and that they should order 200 chickens less next time – or 10 hams less, similar to how the store chooses to it is not selling as much bananas as they order and then decide to order less next time.

So, in this sense, our individual decisions can and do make an impact.

Does it make a difference if I eat a “happy cow”?

Yes, I would say it is better to eat a cow who has had a good and happy life and then be painlessly killed – but even here, things are not as black and white as they would seem.

One point is that, even if a happy cow has had a good life and a painless death, it might still have suffered near the end of life, with inhumane transport and dread as it is waiting in the slaughterhouse – so it is even doubtful if it is possible for a cow raised for the meat industry to have a pleased life.

Next, we might, yet again, consider the environmental impact. Most people who use the term “happy cow” understand that “grass-fed” means a diet that produces more methane emissions than a grain diet.[4]

Next, if you are going out of your way to eat only “happy cows,” are you also making sure that people know you are doing that? Indeed, that isn’t required, as you are free to live your own life, but being a vegetarian is sure to come up more than eating only “happy cows,” and you might not have as much of an impact as you hope.

References

1. Demystifying Vegan Nutrition « International Vegan Association
2. Vegan Nutrition | Vegan B12 | Everything you need to know (vegansociety.com)
3. Feed-to-Meat – Conversion Inefficiency Ratios – A Well-Fed World (awellfedworld.org)
4. Carbon Footprint Comparison Between Grass- and Grain-finished Beef | Oklahoma State University