July 8, 2008
Become a Vegetarian!
By John Dear
In Fort Lauderdale last week to
speak at the National Convention of Unitarian Universalists, I met my old
friend Bruce Friedrich, with whom I spent eight memorable months in a tiny jail
cell, along with Philip Berrigan, for our 1993 Plowshares disarmament action. A
former Catholic Worker, Bruce is now one of the leaders of PETA, “People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals.” And he gave a brilliant workshop on the
importance of becoming a vegetarian, something I urge everyone to consider.
I
became a vegetarian with a few other Jesuit novices shortly after I entered the
Jesuits in 1982 and later wrote a pamphlet for PETA, Christianity and
Vegetarianism. I based my decision solely on Francis Moore Lappe’s classic
work, Diet for a Small Planet, a book that I think everyone should read.
In it, Lappe, the great advocate for the hungry, makes an unassailable
case that vegetarianism is the best way to eliminate world hunger and to
sustain the environment.
At first glance, we wonder how that could be.
But it’s undisputable. A hundred million tons of grain go yearly for biofuel--a
morally questionable use of foodstuffs. But more than seven times that
much--some 760 million tons according to the United Nations--go into the
bellies of farmed animals, this to fatten them up so that sirloin, hamburgers
and pork roast grace the tables of First-World people. It boils down to this.
Over 70% of U.S. grain and 80% of corn is fed to farm animals rather than
people.
Conscience dictates that the grain
should stay where it is grown, from South America to Africa. And it should be
fed to the local malnourished poor, not to the chickens destined for our KFC
buckets. The environmental think-tank, the WorldWatch institute, sums it up:
“Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grain to animals,
creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and the world's
poor.”
Meanwhile, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more
greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world
combined. (The world’s 1.3 billion cattle release tons of methane into the
atmosphere, and hundreds of millions of CO2 are released by burning forests due
to dry conditions as in California or due to purposeful burns to create cow
pastures in Latin America.)
And global warming isn’t the only environmental
issue. Almost forty years ago, Lappe spelled out the environmental consequences
of eating meat in stark relief. But more recently, her analysis received some
high-power validation. The United Nations recently published “Livestock’s Long
Shadow.” It concludes that eating meat is “one of the most significant
contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from
local to global.” And it insists that the meat industry “should be a major
policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and
air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.”
Much of our potable water and much of our fossil fuel supply is wasted
on rearing chickens, pigs, and other animals for humans to eat. And over 50% of
forests worldwide have been cleared to raise or feed livestock for meat-eating.
(A recent protest in Brazil denounced “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for clearing
thousands of acres of untouched Amazon rain forest for chicken feed.)
As
a Christian, I became a vegetarian because of the Gospel mandate of Matthew 25,
“Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me”--because I do not want
my appetites to contribute to the ongoing oppression of the world’s starving
masses. As a Catholic and Jesuit, I want somehow to side with the poor and
hungry.
But another issue arises, too Over the decades, I’ve learned that our
appetite for meat leads to cruelty to animals--chickens pressed wing-to-wing into
filthy sheds and de-beaked, for example. And since I’ve always espoused
creative nonviolence as the fundamental Gospel value, my vegetarianism helps me
not to participate in the vicious torture and destruction of billions of cows,
chickens, and so many other creatures.
The chickens never raise
families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything natural. Often they are
tormented or tortured before they are slowly killed, as PETA has repeatedly
documented in its undercover investigations--for your chicken dinner or
hamburger. (All this is documented on a video narrated by Alec Baldwin, at www.Meat.org.)
Animals have feelings, they suffer; they have needs and
desires. They were created by God to raise their families and breath fresh air;
and if chickens to peck in the grass, if pigs to root in the soil. Today’s
farms don’t let them do anything God designed them to do. Animal scientists
attest that farm animals have personalities and interests, that chickens and
pigs are smarter than dogs and cats.
Animals figure in the Gospels.
They brim with lovely, respectful images of animals. Clearly Jesus was familiar
with animals, and cared for them, as he urged us to look at the birds of the
air or be his sheep. He even identified himself as “a mother hen who longs to
gather us under her wings.”
And animals figure in the Hebrew Bible.
Isaiah 11, a vision of reconciled creation, dreams of a day when “the wolf
shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the
calf and the young lion shall browse together with a little child to guide
them. The cow and the beast shall be neighbors, together their young shall
rest. The lion shall eat hay like the ox. The baby shall play by the cobra’s
den and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or
ruin on all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of
the God of peace, as water covers the sea.” (Isaiah 11:1-9)
A vision of a
nonviolent world, all creatures nonviolent, children safely at play with them,
and no violence anywhere. That is the peaceful vision of creation that we are
called to pursue--in every aspect of our lives, from the jobs we hold, to our
use of gasoline and alternative energies, to what we eat and wear, say and
do.
I admire the Bible’s greatest vegetarian, Daniel, the nonviolent
resister who refused to defile himself by eating the king’s meat. He and three
friends became healthier than anyone else through their vegetarian diet. And
they excelled in wisdom, for “God rewards them with knowledge and skill in all
learning and wisdom.”
In his workshop, Bruce added another beautiful image,
the Garden of Eden. The Bible opens with a vision of paradise where God,
animals, and humans recreate in peace together. Clearly, the Bible calls us to
return to that paradise.
And Bruce reminded us that from
the beginning we are directed to be vegetarians. Genesis 1:29 says, “See, I
give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has
seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food.”
Biblical images and justice issues
aside, there are medical reasons to stop eating meat. Vegetarian diets help
keep our weight down, support a lifetime of good health and provide protection
against numerous diseases, including the U.S.’s three biggest killers: heart
disease, cancer and strokes.
Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell
Esselstyn both have 100 percent success in preventing and reversing heart
disease using a vegan diet. Meanwhile, Dr. T. Colin Campbell writes that one of
the leading causes of human cancer is animal protein. More, vegetarians are
also less prone to developing adult-onset diabetes. And then we have to contend
with the spread of Mad Cow disease and Avian influenza. One could almost argue
that the human body is not designed for meat-eating.
But for me being
vegetarian boils down to peacemaking. If you want to be a peacemaker, Bruce
said, reflecting the sentiments of Leo Tolstoy, you will want to eat as
peaceful a diet as possible. “Vegetarianism,” Tolstoy wrote, “is the taproot of
humanitarianism.” Other great humanitarians like Mahatma Gandhi, Albert
Schweitzer and Thich Nhat Hanh agree. The only diet for a peacemaker is a
vegetarian diet.
“Not to hurt our humble brethren, the animals,” St. Francis
of Assisi said, “is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We
have a higher mission: to be of service to them whenever they require it. If
you have people who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of
compassion and pity,” he continued, “you will have people who will deal
likewise with other people.”
So it was good to visit with my friend
Bruce, and hear once again the wisdom of vegetarianism. It’s a key ingredient
in the new life of peace, compassion and nonviolence.
* * * * *
John’s autobiography,
A Persistent Peace, (with a foreword by Martin Sheen), available August
1st, can be ordered at www.amazon.com. See also: www.persistentpeace.com.
John’s pamphlet Christianity and Vegetarianism can be read online at
www.peta.org or free copies of the pamphlet or a free CD of John reading the
pamphlet can be ordered by sending an email to VegInfo@peta.org. You can listen to
or download John reading the pamphlet at www.ChristianVeg.com. See also:
www.johndear.org
