By Meg Lister, Gavel Writer -

Hi, my name is Meg. I’ll pass on the chicken. Nope, no hamburger. I don’t actually eat meat, thanks. Yeah, that means no fish either. Really, no animal products — I’m a vegetarian. I’m still American, I’m still sane. I don’t miss meat. I’m not a member of PETA, I won’t spray ketchup on your fur coat. I really don’t care for your jokes. This is important to me, and I will explain it to you if you actually listen. Please stop waving your chicken fingers in my face — that’s gross.

Hi, my name is Meg. I have been a vegetarian for over three years, and I haven’t eaten red meat or pork for five. Why don’t I eat meat? Usually, I simply answer, “Oh … I don’t like eating animals. It’s not a big deal.” I don’t want to have to tolerate your jibes and self-imposed, closed-minded attitude. This time, I’ll start off with a few objective, unbiased facts.

83 percent of all chicken meat is infected with campylobacter or salmonella at the time shoppers pick it off the shelves. 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics and antimicrobials are fed to chickens per year. Factory farming and livestock cultivation now accounts for one-third of worldwide land use.

Animal agriculture is the number-one cause of global warming. It uses 19 percent of the United States’ factory fuel resources. 98 percent of captured matter on fishing and dredge lines is “bycatch” — discarded sea plants, coral, and other (often endangered) animals, the loss of which leads to decreased biodiversity and ocean resources. Widespread abuse and slaughterhouse negligence directly contribute to the deaths of millions of animals each year. Most livestock never see the light of day, except when transported to slaughterhouses. They are packed into cages so tightly they cannot turn around and share space with a few dead companions. Slaughterhouses not infrequently skin live animals, cut the legs off live pigs and boil live chickens.

I will not go into the technicalities of factory farming and the horrors of day-to-day life in the industry. Moreover, this is not a purely “vegetarian” standpoint — it is receiving increasing national attention, including a Time article on the subject (see “Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food, Aug. 21, 2009). The real issue at stake is not the atrocities committed against the animals or the environment, or the industry’s blatant disregard of human health in favor of cheap, okay-tasting meat. These things cannot be resolved or dealt with until the American public starts noticing and caring. The facts and statistics are all there, but we just don’t give a damn. In the not-too-long run, we’ll start feeling the effects: high (typical American) meat intake is linked to obesity, high blood pressure, increased risk of stroke and heart attack. As a friend recently remarked, “I’d rather have a great life, eating a steak-and-cheese per day, than add an extra 10 years to my lifespan.” (Interestingly, I have never heard anyone repeat those words as they’re wheeled on a hospital gurney.)

Even more important is the pattern we are setting for the next generation. Meat demand and intake has exponentially increased in the past few decades and is expected to further expand by 25 percent by 2025. This means more pollution, more mistreated animals, and more destruction. Everyone and their mother has tried one of the latest fad diets — Dr. Atkins, South Beach, the Master Cleanse — which demonstrates that people do care about the food they eat, or, at the very least, how it affects their bodies. I do not understand, and perhaps do not want to understand, how people can affect such a callous attitude towards the meat they put inside their bodies, their children’s bodies, their loved one’s bodies.

This does not mean I advocate vegetarianism for everyone, everywhere. I merely wish to express my motivations for something that I consider a crucial aspect of my lifestyle, both practically and morally. I do not want you to “go veg,” only to understand what you’re eating and where it comes from. Ignorance is bliss, but not a type that tomorrow’s society can afford. My veggie burritos are not going to change the world — in fact, my efforts and those of the 2 percent vegetarian American population will make very little impact. Interestingly, Buddhists who ate meat used to think they were the karmically “lucky” ones — they killed only one animal for their food. Others, living in more agricultural areas, had to kill numerous bugs and worms living on rice paddies and vegetable gardens to obtain their nourishment. However, I cannot accept and inherently endorse a practice so environmentally, socially and morally bereft in an area over which I have the most control.