According to Lord Stern of Brentford, a man considered to be an authority in the field of "climate change," recently stated that meat production not only produces a larger carbon footprint than any other factor (including cars), but that it is also a huge waste of natural resources. As a libertarian vegetarian, this causes me mixed feelings between how I feel about Big Government and meat consumption as a whole.
Big Government
I am anything but enamored with the notion of Big Government. Government is the most inefficient middle man I have ever come across in my life. It's no coincidence that the Founding Fathers stated that "government is a necessary evil," simply because, as James Madison stated, "If men were angels, government would be unnecessary." We should keep government at a minimum. This is why I am alarmed over the fact that green is the new red. Environmentalism has become the new secular religion, which has caused such a Leftist self-righteousness that gives the Left a carte blanche to intervene in the daily lives of Americans. When it gets to the point where the governement is regulating toilet flush water usage, it makes you wonder. If you want to make change, government regulations don't work. There's a reason why Kyoto was voted down 95-0--they didn't want to drag the American economy through the mud! If environmental change is going to be made, it needs to be done through societal pressures. It's how integration and civil rights were changed, it's how women were able to pursue careers, and more recently, it's how gay rights has received more acceptance over time. Former President Ronald Reagan was correct in saying that government is the problem. If you want real environmental change, it needs to happen through individuals within society that make "being green" the norm, and give people the freedom to choose to be green, don't coerse them.
Vegetarianism, Healthcare, and Personal Responsibility
Approximately a year ago, I chose to become a vegetarian for religious reasons. One of those religious reasons, however, was preserving one's health (Deut. 4:9,15). Depending on which study you look at, whether it's the one done with the Seven-Day Adventists, the French study showing that those who live on the Mediterranean who eat vegetarian live longer than those in Northern France who have meat-based diets, or the British study showing that vegetarianism leads to lower mortality rates, one trend that is for certain is that the less one consumes meat, it has the potential to increase your longevity to up a decade. With the health care debate going on, it should be evident that the best way to nip health care bills in the bud is not to accrue them in the first place. Although there are some genetic diseases or accidents that are unavoidable, ultimately, a great majority of health care bills can be prevented. If you don't think the "American Way of Life" is dangerous, think again! Two out of three Americans are overweight, approximately one in five smoke, and a majority of Americans do not get enough exercise, and well over 800,000 Americans die from cardiovascular diseases, the #1 killer of Americans. A healthy lifestyle increases longevity--who would have thought? A healthy diet, consistent exercise, and avoiding self-destructive habits (i.e., smoking, excessive drinking), the trifecta to a healthier you. But I would like to focus a bit on the first part--diet. First of all, a vegetarian diet greatly decreases many diseases, including cancer, stroke, and cardiovascular diseases, to the point where the odds of contracting any of the diseases is slim to none. Aside from conserving longevity, vegetarianism also conserves precious natural resources. An article from Cornell shows, not only does animal consumption consumes eight times the energy than plant protein, but it also consumes an insanely large amount of water, a resource that is becoming more scarce with time. A BBC article also illustrates how vegetarianism would alleviate world hunger, as well as water shortage.
In short. Not only does vegetarianism help with the microcosm of one's personal health, but also with the greater macrocosm of efficient usage of scarce natural resources and world hunger. Although I do not approve of the mainstream envrionmentalists' approach of using Big Brother to force this upon Americans, but I do, however, encourage Americans to examine the aforementioned issues at hand and make sound decisions.
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