Custom essays on Against Vegetarianism

Ethical, healthy, psychological and logical arguments, as well as financial and economical ones, for vegetarianism deserve their right for existence and these arguments cannot be ignored, however, there are biological and fossil arguments which prove human’s omnivorous nature due to the organism’s structure and evidence provided by the archeologists.
The fossil records prove that the human diet has always included meat starting from the earliest humans, the genus Homo, which is considered to be 2.5 million years ago. “[S]tone tools and fossil bones–the latter commonly displaying distinctive cut-marks produced when a carcass is dismembered and stripped of edible flesh with a sharp-edged stone flake–are found together on many Plio-Pleistocene archaeological sites, convincing proof that by at least 2.0 to 2.5 Ma [million years ago] before present (BP) these early hominids did in fact eat meat” (Aiello, 43). The taphonimic and archeological researches prove that meat used to be a necessary component of the early human diet, however, it was not the only one. The diet was mixed and included both vegetable and animal-tissue components depending on the environmental and seasonal peculiarities, people’s development and tools implementation.
So, this fossil evidence proves that meat has been the “natural” component of the human diet for about 2.5 million years. It means that animal-tissue products are created for consumption by evolution. Meat is a part of the evolutionary development of human beings, however, it does not mean that people who reject this component should follow this schema and be obliged to eat meat.
There is also another interesting fact found by the archeologists and anthropologists. The excavations show that hominids which had a meat diet used to have a larger brain in comparison with hominids of the earlier period who preferred a vegetarian diet. These findings are also controversial, however, one of the possible explanations is the fact that meat produces more calories and saved people’s energy for thinking rather than gathering and physical working. Hominids with larger brains were more adopted to those conditions of life and were able to survive passing their genes to next generations.
Most opponents of the vegetarian diet insist that structure of human body differs greatly from the structure of real carnivores. They give such evidence: carnivores have a jaw with a shearing motion which moves predominantly up and down and is limited in side-to-side movement. People do not have extremely sharp teeth and claws to tear row meat. Carnivores often swallow prey were quickly, while humans divide the food into pieces and chew them. Human beings have starch-digesting enzymes in the saliva and carnivores, on the contrary, do not (cited in Milton, 1987).
However, facts taken in isolation from other facts, conditions of life and evidence provide doubtful veracity. It is obvious that humans do not have the teeth, claws or jaws of carnivores, such as lions, wolves or tigers. People are not constructed to hunt in nature, catch their prey and swallow it. Firstly, due to the evolution and brain development, people have learnt to cook food and adopt it for their organism, so they have a body structure which appropriates this process. Secondly, it is ridiculous to prove that humans are carnivores, despite the fact that they may follow exclusively carnivorous diet, as the Inuit do, for example. People are omnivores, so their body structure is adopted to the mixed diet which is based on the rational balance between meat and vegetables. It can be easily proven by evolution and biological peculiarities of human body.
Moreover, opponents of the vegetarian diet list only general characteristics of carnivores’ body structure, which are not peculiar for all representatives of this group. It is also important to note that animals, as well as humans and any other organisms, use to adopt to the appropriate conditions of life. Tigers and lions hunt outdoors and their body is adopted to this process, people live indoors and combine meat and vegetable diet and adopt to this process.
Some proponents of the mixed diet insist that some parts of human body are similar to the structure of herbivores, for example structure of cheeks. Cheek pouches of humans and herbivores is somehow similar, while differs great from the carnivorous one. Richard (1995), for example states: “cheek pouches may increase foraging efficiency and may assist in the pre-digestion of starchy foods. However, until those making claims regarding cheek pouches clarify their claims, the importance (if any) of this point, cannot be evaluated” (Richard). Moreover, structure of human cheeks and mouth is not restricted just by eating, it is presumes adaptation for language, an important differentiating feature of human beings and, so, cannot serve as an argument for vegetarian diet.
Brain possibility allows people to use technological tools, not just body structure. More powerful intelligence deprives people of the necessity to have a strong body, sharp teeth and claws and at the same time makes them the dominant mammalian species on the Earth.
Structure of human teeth which is not created for row meat swallowing also does not serve as evidence of herbivorous nature of humans. “In archeological sites, broken human molars are most often confused with broken premolars and molars of pigs, a classic omnivore. On the other hand, some herbivores have well-developed incisors that are often mistaken for those of human teeth when found in archeological excavations” (McArdle, 174). This evidence rejects strict vegetarianism and proves one more time the necessity of omnivorous diet for people.
To sum up, human diet has always been the subject of heated debates among proponents and opponents of vegetarianism. Both groups list numerous arguments for and against meat consumption. Strict vegetarians provide ethic, psychological and even religions arguments. Animals are alive creatures and consumption of meant may be compared to a murder. Moreover, if to believe in the energetic field around us, the killed animals contains the energy of death, panic and fear and this energy transforms to the human organism together with meat. Opponents of this theory also propose a number of biological arguments which prove that human species has more in common with herbivores than carnivores. However, it is possible to provide counterarguments for all this evidence. Firstly, if we consider consumption of meat as an animal’s murder, we should also be aware of the fact that plants also grow, develop and are living organisms. Using meat or plants does not differ greatly in such a way. On the other hand, nature is a perfect example for humans. In nature everything is harmonic and is constructed in accordance with world order. There are carnivores, omnivores and herbivores. Human being is also part of this order and was created by God to follow these laws. Humans are omnivores and all the peculiarities of their body structure prove this fact. It is senseless to find evidence that our body structure is purely carnivorous or herbivorous or that it lacks some important parts peculiar for this or that species. Being omnivores, humans have all necessity components that are necessary for them to adopt a mixed diet of meat and vegetables. There is no sense to reject that meat is an essential component (however, not the most important one) of the human diet. It is impossible to change the laws of nature and reject evidence presented by human evolution. It is a personal question and decision whether to eat meat or not, however, it is not fair to propagate that vegetarian diet is the only necessary or naturally proven diet for humans.
It is evident that enormous consumption of meat and adaptation of slaughterhouses where chemicals and other harmful things are used to produce more meat are not appropriate for the normal healthy society. It is also unnatural because it is harmful. Factory-farming methods which are applied nowadays should be replaced by small farms with pure organic meat and crops. “Organic” farmers and kosher butchers which produce healthy meat and vegetables are an alternative solution of the unhealthy food problem which is becoming more and more actual every day.

 
Works Cited
Aiello, L. “Body size and energy requirements.” In: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, Cambridge University Press, 1992. pp. 41-45.
McArdle, J. “Humans are omnivores.” The Vegan Handbook, eds. Wasserman D, Mangels R; Vegetarian Resource Group, Baltimore, Maryland, 1996, pp. 173-174.
Milton, K. “Primate diets and gut morphology: implications for hominid evolution.” In: Food and Evolution: Toward a Theory of Food Habits, eds. Harris M, Ross EB; Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1987. pp. 93-115.
Richard, A. F. Primates in Nature, W.H. Freeman and Co., New York, 1985.