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Debate: should vegetarianism be encouraged?

26 August 2009

We live in a part of the world where we have easy access to fresh affordable meat. But is this a good thing for our health? And is it damaging to the environment?

We are producing and consuming more and more meat. Is this sustainable, or are we just catering for our natural appetites?

  • Should vegetarianism be encouraged?
  • Can you have a balanced diet without eating meat?
  • Or is it a more healthy way to live?
  • Are we causing irreversible damage to the environment by eating too much meat?

What is your experience of vegetarianism? Is it an issue that affects you? Have your say, and debate the issue here on PCS comment, and a selection of the comments will be published in View, the monthly magazine for PCS members.

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  1. vegetarianism

    16 August 2010

    No. A human is a carnivorous animal stemming right back to caveman days. We need the nutrients that meat provides. Many people say about the killing of animals but most would not have been born in the first place but to provide food for us humans.

    Mark Strange
    I'm not veggie, but...

    9 September 2009

    I'm of the opinion that vegetarianism is a nutritionally legitimate, and the morally superior, approach. There's no real need to kill sentient creatures to satisfy our culinary desires. I'd proper miss bacon snagers and a juicy steak but, really, a couple of generations after their gone nobody will miss them. So yes, it should be encouraged, but not enforced. Its time will come.

    Dave Plummer
    The economy

    8 September 2009

    In these hard hit times we should be looking at all aspects of the world before changing a common begaviour. If we moved en masse to vegiterianism tomorrow the results would be catstrophic. Firstly, all non dairy animals would be slaughtered- whats the point of keeping a pig if you cant sell it for meat? Secondly the already squeezed farmers would see their income vanish over night. Sure some could switch to arrible farming but many livestock farmers own land that is not suitible for crop growing. These farmers would have no choice but to close their farms and join the dole queue (unless they are able to sell their land to wimpy homes further destroying the country side.) This would mean higher taxes for everyone. Meanwhile as people would need more grown produce to replace the meat, demand would push up food prices resulting in an even bigger and more litreral society of haves and have nots. Less Greenery from the land sell off would mean fewer trees and thus higher CO2 so then the environmentalists would be on the goverments backs too. People please, for your children's children's children, go to KFC now and stop this from happening!!!

    Alex L
    Energy

    8 September 2009

    I think the reason we need to eat as much as we do is we consume so much energy. There is a lot of energy in meat products but they are also make you quite lethargic as someone pointed out.

    Paul Summers
    Danger to Childrens Health

    7 September 2009

    From a purely nutritional point of view encouraging young children to go vegatarian may risk their health. There are certain essential minerals which encourage growth that are completely missing from a vegtable diet. My son who is a vegetarian will not allow his young daughter to restrict herself to a vegetarian diet because of this. Apart from this restriction I see no reason against vegetarianism in principle, providing the veggie brigade do not attempt to coerse impressionable young adults into forsaking meat until they know the potential health risks from a diet that the human body was clearly not designed for. Give me a bacon sandwich anyday.

    Richard Scammell
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