October
2000
Calling
All Vegetarians: Let’s Get Political!
By Pamela Rice
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This is for all you vegetarians out there. Do we have
it tough, or what? But what if I told you that finding something to
eat was the least of our problems.
In the big picture, what does the meat-eating world serve up for us
in the way of societal ills? What kind of "reign of meat" do
we vegetarians have to live under? On the other hand, what would life
be like in a vegetarian world?
Read a news story—any news story. No doubt it describes some problem
in society. It tells you the players, the pros and the cons, the costs.
Now, apply what I call the "vegetarian acid test." A societal
problem passes the test if it is one that would disappear in a vegetarian
world. If it would, it can be called a "vegetarian issue."
There are hundreds of vegetarian issues, if you just look. Here are
just a few examples:
Bypass surgery. Would anyone have ever heard of this procedure, would
it ever have been invented, in a vegetarian world?
E. coli O157:H7 poisoning. Would this deadly strain of a common bacteria,
which was incubated as a result of factory farming, ever have come
about
in a vegetarian world? E. coli O157:H7 is especially onerous because
it can infect common water supplies and vegetarian food—not just
ground beef.
Fish extinction due to over-fishing. Many people are utterly unaware
that fisheries all over the world are collapsing, largely because fishermen—driven
by market demand—are employing highly "efficient" and
unsustainable methods.
Where are the vegetarians?
Meat eating, the shorthand term I will use to describe the consumption
of animal-based foods in general, is wrecking our world. Everywhere
you look life is degraded as a result of this everyday consumer addiction.
How do you put a price on an estuary devoid of fish thanks to nutrient
runoff from nearby poultry farms, or on the life of a child who has
to grow up with a parent who was blinded by adult-onset diabetes—a
disease inexorably linked to a high-saturated-fat, low-fiber, meat-based
diet? How do you calculate the abject suffering of billions of farm
animals, who are forced to endure the meat-processing line—from
intense confinement to slaughterhouse?
Now let’s ask: Where are the vegetarians? Are they active politically?
I don’t think so. The question is, why not?—especially when
you consider the endless array of government give-aways to the meat
industry—to the tune of tens of billions of dollars every year
in the U.S. alone. Indeed, the meat industry benefits from numerous
programs that issue direct payments from the U.S. treasury. On the
other
hand, much of the government help is hidden. For example, the U.S.
government pays various operating costs on behalf of the meat industry.
Moreover,
the industry is utterly exempt from certain laws that other industries
have to abide by. I contend that the meat industry would crumble in
seconds if it suddenly had to abide by the Clean Water Act and the
Animal
Welfare Act.
When you want to assess the political clout of any constituency you
need to start with numbers. Vegetarians may be amazed to know how many
of us there are. Surveys have estimated our numbers in the U.S. to be
in the neighborhood of 2.5 percent of the non-institutionalized adult
population (those not in the military, in prisons or in hospitals),
or roughly 4.5 million people.
In 1992, two surveys indicated that seven percent of the U.S. population "considers" themselves to be vegetarian. Today, seven percent
would come to about 18 million people. Though it is likely that many
of these people "make exceptions" on occasion, the fact that
so many people would want to identify themselves as a vegetarian is
quite a revelation.
Now, let’s count the number of farmers out there—you know,
the ones that the politicians fall over for their votes every election
year, passing out special-interest money if they’re lucky enough
to be incumbent candidates. Surprisingly, there are only a measly 2.2
million farmers in the U.S. at the moment.
Okay, all you vegetarians out there, it’s time to stop feeling
so politically outnumbered. Now, go out there and rustle a few political
feathers.
Pamela Rice, author of "101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian," is
giving a talk on government subsidies to the meat industry on October
26 at the Vegetarian Center of NYC. Call (212) 414-9100 for details.
