Why Do We Eat Animals?

From The Thoughtful Toxicologist website.

Dinner tonight, and all from the FitOldDog vegetable garden – it really is great food.

Why do we eat animals? We eat animals because we evolved to eat animals. Animals provide a highly concentrated, and somewhat storable, food/energy source, but we are really omnivores (consuming animals and plants). I’m sure we’d eat anything we could get our hands on, as the Ice Ages pushed us around (and pumped up our brains).

When it comes to eating animals, or animal products, moderation is the real key, though the Vegans will probably disagree.

I did enjoy this book.

But then, I was a regular meat eater until recently, having just moved over to a diet comprised largely of vegetables and fruit; a little fish (sustainable if possible), when my body says that I need it, which is rarely. The Vegans will probably say, “Never!” Ruminants (cattle, sheep, giraffes, and so-forth), the source of our steaks and most milk products, have been around for some time, and I suspect that they are a critical component of the Biosphere, when it comes to network stability. But cutting down rain forests so people can have bacon for breakfast, a burger for lunch, and steak for dinner, is not a sustainable model, especially with the currently burgeoning human population.

Everything in moderation, including moderation, I say (you have to party from time-to-time!).

When people tell me that we can all live on plants alone, I wonder how they are so sure. I’m not so sure, myself, as networks are unpredictable beasts, but I do love to eat from my new vegetable garden, and I’m finding that I really don’t miss meat (yet!).

I suspect that the Biosphere will set us straight, eventually, if we get it wrong, or even if we get it right!