You are what you meat

In the young adult novel that I wrote - available on Amazon - there is a speech one of the character's gives on eating meat. I will include the excerpt here:

“Twenty six years ago, the largest gathering of world leaders in history took place in order to discuss the Millennium Development Goals. First among these goals was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. A mere two billion souls later and we stand now at a critical point in time, the point at which we need to say no to meat and yes to ending poverty. Not only is our beef industry taking a heavy toll on our planet’s natural resources, but it is also harming the environment and the animals themselves. By reducing or even eliminating the industry entirely, we can feed every single human being on the planet. Imagine a world without starvation, a world where innocent cattle, chickens, or pigs are not slaughtered for our benefit. Is it even to our benefit? Health wise, our diet should not consist of more than five percent animal product. Life span would increase and many diseases would disappear if we followed this one simple rule.”

Jeanie looked fired up and passionate. A healthy red glow had replaced the sallow pallor to her complexion. As she finished up her introduction, she began to falter. I saw her peering intently at some of the students in her audience, trying to glean a reaction. That was not a good idea. As she continued into the body of her argument and brought up some pictures of animal cruelty she began to balk even more. As soon as she got to the picture of a pig strung up and dripping blood on the floor she turned and vomited into the garbage. Mr. Atwood stood up abruptly from his stool. Before anyone had a chance to say anything, Jeanie wiped her mouth and spoke,

“I’m fine.”

She breathed deep and closed her eyes, inwardly struggling to keep her cool and probably to keep from puking again. We all watched in silence. Jeanie carried on.

“The solution to these intertwined problems is simple, as I previously stated. No more industrial slaughtering of animals that can’t even sustain the world’s resources and population. I know that is a high demand and not entirely feasible in today’s society. What we can do, right now, is utilize a new technology called in-vitro meat. We can wean our society off a heavy meat diet and introduce this new type of meat into the diet of millions who live in poverty. Due to recent advances in tissue engineering, it is now possible to grow synthetic meat - using single animal cells. In-vitro meat has a number of advantages. Being just a lump of cultivated cells, it is produced without harm or cruelty to animals. It is unusually pure and healthy whilst retaining the original flavor, texture and appearance of traditional meat. Perhaps most importantly, it requires far less water and energy to produce, greatly lessening the impact on the environment.”

Jeanie seemed very tired now and pulled up another picture. This one contained two images side by side. On the left was a packaged container of her proposed synthetic meat and on the right was a starving family. Jeanie stood awkwardly for a moment before rushing to her seat and plopping into her chair. Interesting ending to her speech, decidedly abrupt but overall her speech was strong in both content and delivery. She had done well, notwithstanding the puke session. We clapped more enthusiastically than we had for anyone else and Jeanie smiled meekly from her desk. 

(Pages 247-248; Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams)

I have watched many documentaries on the food industry, meat, health, etc. Recently, I watched Vegucated and really enjoyed it. The documentary basically details one vegan's quest to see the struggle any random New Yorker might have in adopting a vegan lifestyle. She chooses three different subjects to eat vegan for six weeks and the documentary follows their challenges and the various "field trips" they go on as they become vegucated. 

Today (1/1/13) I watched Hungry for Change, which focussed more on the health aspects of veganism and of any diet in general. I did not care for the juxtaposition of a character realizing her need for a plant-based diet and other reforms in her life with what the experts were talking about. The character seemed contrived and slightly out of place for the style of the rest of the documentary. However, I learned some new and interesting facts, such as which foods are good at de-toxifying the body.