Eating Meat

I've heard many reasons why people are vegetarians.

It's an inefficient use of natural resources.
It's cruel.
It's unhealthy

Now, although I'm not a vegetarian, I give up meat deliberately for periods as part of a cleansing process. Eating meat raises positive energy which effects people both psychologically and physiologically. I've mentioned before about the effects of energy ('Energy Currents and Ley Lines'), and some people find it difficult to cope with positive energy. This is particularly true of women who have had a bad relationship with their father, and if the father was violent the women will associate the positive energy with violence. This is true of many 'anti-men' feminists. Men generally require at least some meat in order to keep up a flow of positive energy, but men who haven't had a strong father figure (and this applies to many boys brought up by single mothers), can also have a bad relationship with positive energy. Often such men become feminised.

However, I want here to examine the reasons given above for being vegetarian. This is not meant to be anti-vegetarian but I want to examine the self-deception involved. Sometimes the real reason (a bad relationship with positive energy) is not understood or admitted to, so other reasons are given.

It's an inefficient use of natural resources
I've heard this from vegetarians who smoke (and quite heavily in one case) and tobacco uses land that could be better used for food. Taken to its conclusion this argument says that we should eat what is 'efficient', in which case eating strawberries or eating anything that isn't 'efficient' is presumably also frowned on.

However, there is a problem with food distribution and Europeans who go to America for the first time are invariably shocked at the waste of food. In restaurants it's common to see huge portions of food discarded practically untouched.

The biggest ecological threat to the world's food supply is over fishing and perhaps the green movement should start a campaign to boycott fish and suggest people eat meat as an alternative.

It's cruel
The cruelty in killing animals for food is not so much in how they are farmed, although some of the mass farming methods employed are cruel, but in the way they are slaughtered. Animals are considered a commodity and no attention is paid to the welfare of the animals in their last minutes. Cows are intelligent animals and are usually aware of what's going on when they approach the slaughterhouse. Commonly the animals are 'stunned' with an electric shock but anyone who has received an electric shock will tell you that it doesn't stun, it's actually extremely painful. However, it serves to stop the muscles twitching so it appears that the animal is not being hurt. The most humane way of killing an animal is to cut the throat and sever the carotid artery that causes the life force to drain from the animal. Although the body twitches the life force has gone.

Some time ago I was witness to the slaughtering of a calf. It was held in a cattle crush, given food and massaged in order to put it at ease, then the farmer stood behind it and gave it a single shot to the back of the neck. Within a few seconds I saw the soul leave the body and although it appeared that the animal was in pain as the muscles made a series of involuntary movements, there was no life remaining in the carcass.

It's worth noting that countless farm animals owe their existence to the fact that people eat meat. It is incumbent on human beings to treat animals with respect and love, and when they are slaughtered that this is carried out in a humane way.

It's unhealthy
Eating meat in moderation is not inherently unhealthy, and as I stated before a certain amount of meat provides positive (Yang) energy. Personally, I don't choose what to eat purely on the basis of what is considered healthy, especially as the medical profession changes what it considers healthy from year to year. If you want to stay healthy then giving up smoking and taking exercise would be better than giving up meat.