Reflection on; why I have chosen to stop eating meat from mammals

Over the last month or so, I have found myself less and less happy eating meat. This has come about for several reasons, which happen to have come about at more or less the same time. The first of these reasons is in response to the horse-meat scandal, which has left me with little confidence that what I am eating is what it says on the package. This seems to be way more wide-spread than the public initially thought, and while there is no certainty that all meat has been tainted, the lack of certainty in what I’m eating has left me feeling that I’d rather not take the chance. I believe that part of the problem has been the refusal for the public to be willing to pay an appropriate price for the meat we eat, and so requiring a meat lasagne to cost no more than £2 will mean that there has to be compromises. The public, myself included, have created a monster, and now we’re afraid this monster will harm us.
 

Secondly, in the wake of the horse-meat scandal I watched two or three documentaries about the treatment of animals, in this case horses, which are farmed for our consumption. How these animals are treated, particularly towards the end of their lives, didn’t sit right with me, and while I am under no illusions that my not eating beef, lamb and pork products will change the meat industry, for me to partake of these products would weigh heavy on my conscience.
 

Thirdly, I recently watched this YouTube video about the overpopulation of the earth. In it, several aspects of overpopulation are analysed. One such aspect (about 37 minutes in) is that there wouldn’t be enough food if the population kept on increasing. However, the video explains that just over 50% of grain that is grown is actually made into food to be eaten directly by humans. Another 20% goes to make biofuels, but the remaining 30% goes to feed livestock which is bred with the specific intention of being farmed for their meat. Now, of course all livestock needs to eat, but the demand the meat market puts on farmers necessitates that many more cattle will be born than are necessary. I realised that if the whole world did not eat meat, this would increase the amount of grain which would be available to humans by 60% (from 50% to 80%). Given that according to www.stophungernow.org one in seven (about 14% of) people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight, having this extra grain available would effectively end world hunger. Again, my conscience compels me to do something about this if I can. In case you haven’t figured out the maths, one person in seven is more than one billion people, which is the equivalent of every single man, woman and child who live in the USA, Brazil, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Austria, Iceland, St. Lucia, the Cook Islands and Vatican city combined going hungry every night. I think this is wrong.
 

Fourthly, I like animals. I grew up by the sea in England, and as such I didn’t get to see animals every day in the same way I would have gotten to had I grown up in a rural village. I am sure that this is part of why I appreciate animals the way I do. I find them fascinating, and I regularly enjoy going to zoos and the likes just to watch them. It occurred to me that it was somewhat hypocritical to say that I appreciate watching a cow and yet I would think nothing of eating a cow for my dinner later that day.

Fifthly, meat is expensive. Or at least, good quality meat is expensive. I have taken recently to eating Quorn mince in spaghetti bolognaise, and there is almost no difference in taste, but there is a significant difference in price; approximately half the price of minced beef. Price alone would not have been a convincing factor, but on top of the other reasons listed above, it makes sense to choose the cheapest option.
 

Finally, and what was really the nail in the coffin, a recent study reportedon the BBC news website linked an early death with eating more than 20g of processed meat per day. Processed meat is meat that is kept edible by using salt and preservatives. When I realised that the two slices of processed ham I was having in my sandwiches daily amounted to more than 20g, I had to question whether what I was eating was best for my health.
 

Now, I am an evangelical Christian. I believe in the inspiration of the Bible and that it is the basis on which I should make my moral decisions and chart the direction of my life. Acts 10 describes the apostle Peter as seeing a vision of a sheet containing all kinds of animals, and being told by God to ‘kill and eat’. Peter refuses, saying that he has never touched anything that is unclean, but God rebukes him telling him not to call ‘unclean’ what God has called clean. This is an indicator that no meats are unclean for the Christian. While I believe that, and I am convinced that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with eating meat, I do believe that the way animals are farmed is immoral and convenes the charge given by God to Adam in Genesis 1:28-30 to have steward the earth and as such I am abstaining from eating mammals.
 

You may well ask, “why only mammals? Why not all meat?” There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I am on a journey with this. Two months ago I would have chosen a juicy sirloin steak over anything vegetarian. However, now I don’t feel in a place where I could do this with a clean conscience. I may abstain from all meat in the future. Secondly, I identify more with mammals than I do with birds or fish; they are more similar to humans and as such I feel like to eat their meat is more of a moral issue than eating chicken or salmon. I do not eat KFC, because of what I saw in this video, as well as the health implications, and when I eat chicken I insist on free-range and ethically farmed animals. Eating fish is a different kettle of, well, fish. Provided they are well-treated and that the process of catching them doesn’t endanger other sea life or abuse fish-stocks, I am happy to eat fish.
 

I am not being evangelistic about this; I believe this is an important issue, but I will not be actively trying to get others to follow in my footsteps. Rather, I hope that people will be better-equipped with the information about the impact of eating meat, and will come to their own conclusions, whatever they may be.