Meat and Morals, The Enduring Conflict of Vegetarianism

“ If, then, it be a degrading occupation to kill animals, how can the habit of eating them be other than degrading ? If we condemn the ignorant and brutal butcher who supplies the flesh, how can we acquit the refined ladies and gentlemen who demand it ? The thoughtlessness alone enables people to endure such a system. From infancy they are taught to ignore what "meat" really is ; until they hardly think of oxen and sheep in connection with beef and mutton.
And now contrast with this diet the life of a Vegetarian. ”

“ Some religions require man to refrain from all animal products, while others interdict only the flesh of certain animals. Coupled [236] with man's world-wide search for food, these religious teachings have played a conspicuous part in the question of human nutrition.
Vegetarianism from animal's standpoint
The second phase of the question that merits attention is the moral side, or vegetarianism from the animal's standpoint; in other words, the cruelty involved in the slaughter of our dumb friends and helpers, for whose presence here we are largely responsible. ”

“ The flesh-eater generally affects to look on cannibalism as something monstrous and abnormal, a dreadful perversion of taste which has no connection with the civilised meat-diet on which our welfare is supposed to depend; but the real facts show that the truth is quite otherwise, and that the position of the cannibal who is being proselytised to give up his man-eating is in many ways analogous to that of the flesh-eater who is worried by the vegetarian propagandists. The glories of the old English roast beef may be instructively compared with the glories of the old African roast man. ”

“ Vegetarian extremist and faddist the author is not, but an attention to natural leadings inclines one away from dead meat, which is believed to induce much uric acid, and in favour of first-hand food elements as fresh from the heart and the breast of Mother Nature as possible, leaving the second-hand, once-digested, already decaying, natural food of the savage carnivora and the emergency food of savage man for emergency occasions or a vegetable famine. Much meat excites lust, intemperance, and savagery in man and gives explosive, non-enduring force. ”

“ Cattle are becoming so diseased that apart from a humane revulsion against the consumption of meats in daily food, man is being driven for his own welfare to seek purer food substance. Any physical habit indulged in for generations is difficult to overcome, and the transition period between daily meat eating, and pure vegetarianism is a difficult one. ”

“ Muscular vegetarians demonstrate the superiority of their diet by pointing out that the peasantry of the world are practically vegetarians, and that the strongest and most useful animal, the horse, is a vegetarian, while the most ferocious and practically useless animal, the lion, is a carnivore. Vegetarian moralists mourn over the fact that selfish men would—for the sake of gratifying their lustful and diseased appetite—force the butcher’s trade on a portion of mankind, while they themselves would shrink with horror from such a calling. ”

“ And we all know that when men are in training for athletic contests it is customary to cut down to very small proportions the allowance of meat.
As to the effect of a vegetarian diet, we may reason by analogy from the animals. The strongest animals are vegetarian—the horse, the ox, the camel, the reindeer, and the elephant. In power and endurance the lion and tiger are no match for them, for the strength of the carnivora as a rule shows itself only in short efforts. The longest-lived of the mammals are vegetarian, the elephant living to an age of a hundred years. ”

“ The fact that the structure of the human body is wholly unlike that of the carnivora, and that the apes, who are nearest akin to us in the animal world, are frugivorous, is a somewhat strong indication that flesh is not the natural food of mankind. And if it be said that man, unlike other creatures, is omni-vorous, and has therefore to seek not what is "natural," but what is best, then I readily accept the challenge, and reply that there is a strong concurrence of proof, on economic, moral, and physical grounds, that a vegetarian diet is the most suitable and beneficial. ”

“ The first and most obvious advantage of a vegetarian diet is its economy. Flesh-meat is so much more expensive than cereals and vegetable products, that it must be accounted very extravagant and unbusinesslike to use it as a common article of food, unless, as is generally believed, its superior quality compensates in the long run for its dearness. But if Vegetarians find that they live in perfect health without meat, would they not be somewhat deficient in common-sense if they did not make the most of their pecuniary advantage? ”

“ Food expenditures are investments in health and happiness, if wisely made. Thrift lies in getting full nutritional value for the money spent. Inexpensive foods are often more wholesome than luxuries. For instance, milk and cereals supply proteins more cheaply than meat and “throw in” more mineral salts and vitamins. ”

“ Under wheat that land will feed forty-two people; under oats, eighty-eight; under potatoes, maize, or rice, one hundred and seventy-six; under the banana, over six thousand. The crowded nations of the future must abandon flesh-eating for a diet that will feed more than tenfold people by the same soil, expense and labor. How rich men will be when they cease to toll for flesh-meat, alcohol, drugs, sickness, and war! ”

“ The most fertile districts of the habitable globe are now actually cultivated by men for [other] animals, at a delay and waste of aliment absolutely incapable of calculation. It is only the wealthy that can, to any great degree, even now, indulge the unnatural craving for dead flesh, and they pay for the greater licence of the privilege by [Pg 228] subjection to supernumerary diseases. Again, the spirit of the nation, that should take the lead in this great reform, would insensibly become agricultural.
“The advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of any other. ”

“ The world wants meat, but it must have bread, the true staff of human life. Signs are not wanting of the coming of a day when the majority of the human race will be forced into vegetarianism by the growing scarcity of meat; but the time when wheat shall be no longer obtainable by the multitude is so much farther off on the speculative horizon as to be a negligible factor in any but abstract contemplation. ”

“ At this period of our national history, when food is scarce, and the supply of meat insufficient to meet the demand which our national habits of feeding perpetuate, it is an object of the first importance to consider whether other aliments can be obtained at a cheaper rate, and at the same time equal in quality to those of the existing dietary. ”

“ Simply that we have needed the food at home to supply our increasing millions and hence had less to sell in the markets of the world. Can we continue to feed our people by reducing the exports in food stuffs? Obviously not, and in many instances they have been reduced already near the vanishing point. We have even actually begun to import meat and corn. ”

“ Nearly one half of the total income of the average workingman is spent on food. Not only does he spend a large amount on food, but he wastes money in purchasing the wrong kinds of food. A comparison of the daily diets of persons in various occupations in this and other countries shows that as a rule we eat more than is necessary to supply the necessary fuel and repair, and that our workingmen eat more than those of other countries. Another waste of money by the American is in the false notion that a large proportion of the daily dietary should be meat. ”

“ If one-half of these retailers could be transferred to the country, to become growers of food instead of distributors, there would be few failures and the cost of living would be reduced. There is no doubt whatever that the ever-rising price of foodstuffs is due chiefly to the alarming increase in the number of consumers, with [555] a corresponding decrease in the number of producers.
Particularly unfortunate is the disinclination of farmers to raise vegetables and small fruits for the market, or even for their own tables in many cases. ”

“ Although there are still many vegetarian restaurants in our large towns, the prejudice against animal food is, happily, dying out; and if ridicule could kill, we should not hear much more of the “cranks” who with delightful inconsistency, would spurn a collop of beef, and gorge themselves on milk, in every shape and form. If milk, butter, and cheese be not [Pg 132] animal food I should like to know what is? And it is as reasonable to ask a man to sustain life on dried peas and mushrooms as to feed a tiger on cabbages.
Once, and only once, has the writer attempted a
Vegetarian Banquet. ”

“ And their instinct is perfectly sound, for the food-crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in hopes of adding five years onto the life of his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity. ”

“ THE commonest obstacle to Food Reform, as indeed to every other Reform, is prejudice. The popular belief that flesh-food is the best diet for mankind is so deeply rooted in the minds of every class of Englishmen, from highest to lowest, that we cannot reasonably hope to eradicate it all at once. ”

“ I have been a vegetarian ever since I was born. No matter how much you try to avoid it, in foreign countries they mix some meat stuff in the vegetarian food. It's difficult to explain to them what I want. So I have difficulty in the restaurants. Once, in a foreign restaurant, the waiter brought me tomato soup with beef stock in it. First, I didn't find any difference. After I drank a little, my friend told me that `Those red bits are meat!' Yet, it did not cause any disgust in me. 'Meat' is just a sound. ”

“ We have wished to avoid meat, and yet have eaten it, because it was on the table, and we did not like to startle our hostess—and perhaps find ourselves in [Pg 204] volved in an argument about vegetarianism, in the course of which we had either to permit a good cause to go down into defeat, or else to tell facts about meat which would take away every one’s appetite for meat, and for vegetables as well. But in the end, the desire for health has conquered all other motives with us, and we have broken with every trace of the old ways. ”

“ Woods Hutchinson, the most prominent of the champions of meat eating, puts the case: “Vegetarianism is the diet of the enslaved, stagnant, and conquered races, and a diet rich in meat is that of the progressing, the dominant and the conquering strains. The rise of any nation in civilization is invariably accompanied by an increasing abundance in food supplies from all possible sources, both vegetable and animal.” ”

“ Many people have adopted a so-called vegetarian diet, believing that it is better for the health than eating meat. Undoubtedly food from the vegetable kingdom is a great benefit to the human system, but strict vegetarianism is not recommended by our medical men. Nature apparently intended us to be omnivorous, and, in addition, vegetarianism may run too close to the dangers of carbohydrate excess. As man progresses after middle life he can unquestionably diminish materially the amount of meat in his diet. ”

“ The same is true of that other widespread superstition, that meat alone "gives strength"—i.e., that vegetarian diet, as compared with a flesh diet, is deficient in flesh-forming constituents—an error which the medical faculty, as a whole, has secretly fostered and encouraged, though in face of the existence of the elephant and rhinoceros and other mighty herbivora, its responsible spokesmen have, of course, not committed themselves to any such absurdity. ”

“ Before starting to the cookery book proper, I would point out some of the commonest errors into which would-be disciples of food reform so often fall, and which not unfrequently leads to their abandoning it altogether as a failure. Nothing is more common than to hear people say most emphatically that vegetarian diet is no good, for they "have tried it." ”

“ If we suffer, we blame any departure from time-honoured orthodoxy, when, perhaps we ought to blame our wrong conception or working out of certain principles. It is never wise, therefore, to adopt the reform dietary too hastily, unless one is quite sure of having mastered the subject, at least in a broad general way; for if the health of the household suffers simultaneously with the change, we cannot hope but that this will be held responsible. Other people may have "all the ills that flesh is heir to" as often as they please. ”

“ But we can readily see that mankind, with that elasticity of constitution and power to avail themselves of their surroundings, can adapt themselves to their environments, and become animal feeders, vegetable feeders, or subsist on a mixed dietary at will. This is the true solution of the vegetarian controversy. It is climate and race which determine the food of a nation. It is individual intelligence, liking, and constitution which determine variations and departures from the dietaries of the race. ”

“ Opinions may, and do, differ as to the source from which this sustenance for the body should be obtained whether from the animal or vegetable kingdoms, or both, and while admitting that vegetarianism and flesh-eating both have their advantages and disadvantages, our own conscientious conviction is, that the true solution of the question is to be found in the happy medium—that a mixed diet is the best for mankind under existing conditions. ”

“ Years back many persons were under the impression that by vegetarianism was meant simply an abstention from flesh-meat, but that fish was allowed. Such, however, is not the case, according to the rules of most of the Vegetarian Societies of the day. On the other hand, strictly speaking, real vegetarians would not be allowed the use of eggs and milk ”

“ Can a man be called a Vegetarian who takes milk, butter, cheese, and eggs?" We beg to reply that the majority of Vegetarians partake of these articles, and that a few only do not, whilst all are alike denominated Vegetarians, the principle of the movement being simply to abstain from the flesh and blood of animals, which cannot be procured except by means of slaughter ”

“ This ignorance of the long-standing claims of vegetarianism to a scientific basis is the result of the indifference and prejudice that have always made dietetics the most unpopular of studies, those who are in health not caring to give more than a passing thought to the hygienic quality of their food, while those who are sick are naturally suspicious of change or over-ruled by medical advisers. ”

“ Does vegetarianism progress? Yes and no, according to the expectations, reasonable or unreasonable, that its supporters have been cherishing. If we have fondly hoped to witness, in the future, the triumph of the humaner living, it must be allowed that the actual rate of progress is extremely disheartening; but if, on the contrary, we work under a rational understanding that a widespread change of diet, like any other radical change, is a matter not of years but of centuries, then we shall not find in the slow growth of our movement any reason for dissatisfaction. ”

“ But deeply rooted in the minds of the mass of cultivated ethical men and women is the conviction that mankind has the right to be fed and clothed at the cost of the lives of animals; the domestication of animals is held almost universally to include the right of slaughter as well as the right of service.
To be consistent, the philosophical vegetarian must not only abjure the use of flesh in the diet, he must also abstain from the utilization of products of animal bodies, the procurement of which entails the death of the animal. ”

“ The evils of gluttony also exist, and that more people die from direct and indirect causes arising from overeating than from drink will not be denied, yet who would propose a law to close the butcher shops, and prohibit the milling of fine flour and the importation of tea and coffee—higher medical and dietary authorities having decided all these latter to be injurious—in order to improve the physical condition of the people! ”