Vegetarians, pescatarians, and vegans; all these individuals have meatless Turkey Days—Thanksgiving without a turkey.
“We actually eat everything that most people do—stuffing, green beans, yams – we just have turkey that is soy based rather than meat based,” said Mrs. Jacoby, a pescatarian teacher in the Justice, Law & Service small school.
There are always sides and vegetables to eat and tofu or soy products to enjoy.
“It is healthier because it’s more plant-based; many people consume a lot of fat from meat,” said Kunj Patel, a vegetarian sophomore in Technology & Media magnet.
Although some people don’t understand the desire not to eat meat, therefore those who choose not to eat meat can be affected by negative comments.
“I’m not deprived of the meal; desserts are vegetarian, so I’m not missing out,” Jacoby said.
“Veganism shapes the holiday because I cannot eat turkey and people think that is essential for Thanksgiving, but I don’t care because I am happy being vegan,” said Crystal Contreras, a senior in the Visual & Performing Arts small school.
Overall, veganism, vegetarianism, and pescatarianism do not have any profound effect on celebrating Thanksgiving; these lifestyles do not isolate anyone or make dinner any huge feat.
“If you like being vegetarian—you are a happier person and the holidays let you share it with your family,” said Gloria Reyes, a vegetarian senior in the Justice, Law & Service small school.
Holidays are about family, meat is not necessary for focusing on family or for having dinner with them.
1 Comment
It is great to see people exploring responsible choices. There is no question that humanity is over consuming its resources, and it is true that most agriculturally grown plant items demand fewer resources than most agriculturally produced meat items. In addition to health concerns, increased vegetable consumption has the potential to improve our own lives by improving (or slowing the destruction of) the planet we inhabit. But the reality is somewhat more nuanced that one might conclude from the position of mainstream veganism.
To begin, many vegans assume that because an item is vegetable that it must also be animal friendly. In fact, many plants require more resources than others to grow and transport. All plants require, for example, that wild lands be converted to fields upon which crops may grow, with the result that habitat is lost and every creature upon them is destroyed. Some plants require a lot more water than others and so require the liberal diversion of water from sensitive aquatic systems with the result that fish, amphibians, etc all suffer. Others require huge amounts of energy to transport across the planet. Despite all of these concerns, most vegans still think anything plant must be OK, as if there exists a line between plant and animal that somehow distinguishes between good and bad. Yet cashews and almonds require four times as much water to grow than does chicken, and bananas imported across the seas help to contribute to global climate change. Fruit such as kiwi and orange require a lot of land relative to less destructive options. For now, mainstream veganism suffers from the same lack of vision for which it criticizes omnivorism–namely, the willingness to overlook animal and environmental impact in order to please the tastebuds.
The second point of improvement lies in regard to the sustainable consumption of wildlife resources. Most of us reject hunting and fishing as unnecessary and cruel without ever considering the impact of each in comparison to the option of agriculture. To clarify, an animal hunted is immediately replaced by another that would otherwise perish for lack of resources. Nature always breeds more animals than habitat can support and the rest die of starvation or disease. To consume the excess in a sustainable manner has no impact on animal populations and no impact upon the habitat upon which wildlife depends. Agriculture (even plant agriculture), on the other hand, kills every individual, of every major species, on any landscape converted to that purpose. Fields of beans or broccoli are not developed from barren dirt, and wherever they exist the myriad wild creatures that once inhabited these spaces are destroyed. In fact, they and every generation descended from them that might otherwise have been expected to inhabit the land are forever eliminated.
Consider the millions of acres of forest, wetland and grassland converted to exotic monoculture serving no species besides man; consider the billions of pounds of chemicals dumped into the soil, water and air, and consider the trillions of gallons of fresh water diverted from sensitive aquatic systems, all for agricultural purpose. Agriculture is today recognized to be the foremost cause of extinction, world-wide, as well as the single greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Certainly, meat production bears responsibility for a great part of this damage, but this does not alter the fact that where we may consume, in a well-regulated and sustainable manner, some portion of those wild populations inhabiting undisturbed lands, then we have the responsibility to do so in order to avoid the even greater animal death and environmental impact that results from agriculture of any sort.
Of course, the human population is too large to exist entirely off wild fish and game, and so will continue to rely primarily on agriculture for its nutritional needs. But where wild foods are available, it makes sense to utilize them fully. Hunters in the state of Tennessee consume over 500,000 squirrel, annually. Add to this the millions of deer, pronghorn, elk, turkey, geese, pheasant, and innumerable fish taken across the continent, and it becomes apparent that wild game may effectively provide tens, if not hundreds of millions of meals each year. It is a mistake to criticize the rural resident who supplements his diet with fish and game considering that his alternative is to reduce the acreage of wild land available to native species in order to grow his own meal. Putting all prejudices aside, we should encourage those who would step off the back porch and into the woods to hunt deer or turkey rather than drive fifty miles in each direction to the nearest store in order to purchase his meal from the vegetable counter.
Of course, eating responsibly is easier to understand than it is to implement. As there really is no distinct line between “right” and “wrong” when it comes to food consumption, your diet becomes a personal choice–but one with consequences that affect you and everyone around you.