The subject of meat consumption has deeply affected me for the entirety of my life. It is a passion of mine that I believe is truly a part of who I am. This passion has affected my life for as long as I can remember, and even before that.
When I was three years old, I made the conscious decision to be a vegetarian. I came to this through the perspective of the common sense of a three year old; I just plain didn’t want to eat a cute snuggly animal. I was at my Grandma’s house in Minnesota, and we were about to sit down to a big Christmas Eve meal. My Grandma had spent the entire day making sure that the pork roast was perfect. As we were sitting down to eat, I asked my grandma a simple question; “What is pork roast made out of?” My Grandma didn’t want to lie to me, so she told me; “It’s made out of a pig honey”. This shocked me so much that I ran out of the room screaming “bloody murder” (this is how my mom described it to me) and holed-up in my room until finally my mom was able to coax me back to the party. I refused to eat at all that night, I had no idea what anything was made of anymore and I didn’t trust any category of food. Later that night, I crawled up onto my Grandma’s lap and blatantly stated that I no longer ate animal. My parents didn’t take that comment very seriously, thinking that this was just a phase and that I would forget about it soon enough. However, the decision has stuck with me to this day.
I don’t remember a single thing about this story. However, my first memory is of eating a hotdog, asking my mom what it was made of (while I was eating it), and feeling so guilty for consuming an innocent animal that I wanted to throw up. Since then, I’ve never been able to consider meat as food. Although the reasoning behind this decision has evolved, the thought of eating any type of animal still bothers me and to this day I still can’t understand humanity’s need to consume animals.
I know this is a very personal and emotional reason to becoming a vegetarian, and honestly, not a very good one. And it’s not very persuasive for many people. One of the most common reasons that people become a vegetarian is due to the inhumanity behind the slaughtering process. I remember sitting in my AP Environmental Science class, junior year of high school, right before the lunch period, watching Food Inc. surrounded by my ignorant peers. The documentary horrified the students within that class and many were unable to stomach the uncensored videos. (I cried throughout most of it, and wasn’t the only one).
I remember thinking that this movie was going to change the way in which all of these students looked at meat. This movie was the key to ending the inhumanity behind the meat industry. However, when the bell rang, it was as if my peers had forgotten everything that they had just seen. Many were leaving the classroom saying, “Hey! Want to grab some Chick-fil-A with me for lunch?” or “Hey dude, I’m craving a hamburger, let’s hit up Wendy’s”. I was stunned. How could they even think about eating the exact product that was just shown to be produced in the most horrific of ways? I was ignorant to believe that one documentary could change the habits and lifestyles of thirty students at my high school.
The realization that even a very gruesome, factual video was still unable to dissuade people from consuming meat products was one of the most disappointing things that I’ve ever faced. (AND it was right before the lunch period, so the video was even still fresh in their minds!) Was this process ever going to change? How could revealing the inhumanity behind the curtain still not be enough? I couldn’t even convince my own family to stop consuming the meat produced in this way, how could I convince the world? How could I affect change? I was, and still am stumped. This is why I am excited to be focusing on vegetarianism/veganism for my Environmental Studies 160 class this semester. I hope I will be able to persuade some of my peers even just to think about what they eat, and where it comes from.