{"id":4637,"date":"2016-04-26T04:24:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-26T04:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2016-04-27T04:26:22","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T04:26:22","slug":"why-its-impossible-to-actually-be-a-vegetarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-its-impossible-to-actually-be-a-vegetarian\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it’s impossible to actually be a vegetarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Smith<\/a>, Drexel University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In case you\u2019ve forgotten the section on the food web<\/a> from high school biology, here\u2019s a quick refresher.<\/p>\n

Plants make up the base of every food chain of the food web (also called the food cycle). Plants use available sunlight to convert water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air into glucose, which gives them the energy they need to live. Unlike plants, animals can\u2019t synthesize their own food. They survive by eating plants or other animals.<\/p>\n

Clearly, animals eat plants. What\u2019s not so clear from this picture is that plants also eat animals. They thrive on them, in fact (just Google \u201cfish emulsion\u201d<\/a>). In my new book, \u201cA Critique of the Moral Defense of Vegetarianism<\/a>,\u201d I call it the transitivity of eating. And I argue that this means one can\u2019t be a vegetarian.<\/p>\n

Chew on this<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll pause to let the collective yowls of both biologists and (erstwhile) vegetarians subside.<\/p>\n

A transitive property says that if one element in a sequence relates in a certain way to a second element, and the second element relates in the same way to a third, then the first and third elements relate in the same way as well.<\/p>\n

Take the well-worn trope \u201cyou are what you eat.\u201d Let\u2019s say instead that we are \u201cwho\u201d we eat. This makes the claim more personal and also implies that the beings who we make our food aren\u2019t just things.<\/p>\n

How our food lives and dies matters. If we are who we eat, our food is who our food eats, too. This means that we are who our food eats in equal measure.<\/p>\n

Plants acquire nutrients from the soil, which is composed, among other things, of decayed plant and animal remains. So even those who assume they subsist solely on a plant-based diet actually eat animal remains as well.<\/p>\n

This is why it\u2019s impossible to be a vegetarian.<\/p>\n

For the record, I\u2019ve been a \u201cvegetarian\u201d for about 20 years and nearly \u201cvegan\u201d for six. I\u2019m not opposed to these eating practices. That isn\u2019t my point. But I do think that many \u201cvegetarians\u201d and \u201cvegans\u201d could stand to pay closer attention to the experiences of the beings who we make our food.<\/p>\n

For example, many vegetarians cite the sentience of animals as a reason to abstain from eating them. But there\u2019s good reason to believe that plants are sentient, too. In other words, they\u2019re acutely aware of and responsive to their surroundings, and they respond, in kind, to both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.<\/p>\n

Check out the work of plant scientists Anthony Trewavas, Stefano Mancuso, Daniel Chamowitz and Franti\u0161ek Balu\u0161ka if you don\u2019t believe me. They\u2019ve shown that plants share our five senses \u2013 and have something like 20 more.<\/a> They have a hormonal information-processing system<\/a> that\u2019s homologous to animals’ neural network. They exhibit clear signs of self-awareness and intentionality<\/a>. And they can even learn<\/a> and teach<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important to be aware that \u201cvegetarianism\u201d and \u201cveganism\u201d aren\u2019t always eco-friendly. Look no further than the carbon footprint of your morning coffee<\/a>, or how much water is required to produce the almonds<\/a> you enjoy as an afternoon snack.<\/p>\n

A word for the skeptics<\/h2>\n

I suspect how some biologists may respond: first, plants don\u2019t actually eat since eating involves the ingestion \u2013 via chewing and swallowing \u2013 of other life forms. Second, while it\u2019s true that plants absorb nutrients from the soil and that these nutrients could have come from animals, they\u2019re strictly inorganic: nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and trace amounts of other elements. They\u2019re the constituents of recycled minerals, devoid of any vestiges of animality.<\/p>\n

As for the first concern, maybe it would help if I said that both plants and animals take in, consume or make use of, rather than using the word \u201ceat.\u201d I guess I\u2019m just not picky about how I conceptualize what eating entails. The point is that plants ingest carbon dioxide, sunlight, water and minerals that are then used to build and sustain their bodies. Plants consume inasmuch as they produce, and they aren\u2019t the least bit particular about the origins of the minerals they acquire.<\/p>\n

With respect to the second concern, why should it matter that the nutrients drawn by plants from animals are inorganic? The point is that they once played in essential role in facilitating animals\u2019 lives. Are we who we eat only if we take in organic matter from the beings who become our food? I confess that I don\u2019t understand why this should be. Privileging organic matter strikes me as a biologist\u2019s bias.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the argument that mineral recycling cleanses the nutrients of their animality. This is a contentious claim, and I don\u2019t think this is a fact of the matter. It goes to the core of the way we view our relationship with our food. You could say that there are spiritual issues at stake here, not just matters of biochemistry.<\/p>\n

Changing how we view our food<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s view our relationship with our food in a different way: by taking into account the fact that we\u2019re part of a community of living beings \u2013 plant and animal \u2013 who inhabit the place that we make our home.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re eaters, yes, and we\u2019re also eaten. That\u2019s right, we\u2019re part of the food web, too! And the well-being of each is dependent on the well-being of all.<\/p>\n

From this perspective, what the self-proclaimed \u201cfarmosopher\u201d Glenn Albrecht<\/a> calls sumbiotarianism<\/a> (from the Greek word sumbioun, to live together) has clear advantages.<\/p>\n

Sumbioculture is a form of permaculture<\/a>, or sustainable agriculture. It\u2019s an organic and biodynamic way of farming that\u2019s consistent with the health of entire ecosystems.<\/p>\n

Sumbiotarians eat in harmony with their ecosystem. So they embody, literally, the idea that the well-being of our food \u2013 hence, our own well-being \u2013 is a function of the health of the land.<\/p>\n

In order for our needs to be met, the needs and interests of the land must come first. And in areas where it\u2019s prohibitively difficult to acquire the essential fats that we need from pressed oils alone, this may include forms of animal use \u2013 for meat, manure and so forth.<\/p>\n

Simply put, living sustainably in such an area \u2013 whether it\u2019s New England or the Australian Outback \u2013 may well entail relying on animals for food, at least in a limited way.<\/p>\n

All life is bound together in a complex web of interdependent relationships among individuals, species and entire ecosystems. Each of us borrows, uses and returns nutrients. This cycle is what permits life to continue. Rich, black soil is so fertile because it\u2019s chock full of the composted remains of the dead along with the waste of the living.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u2019s not uncommon for indigenous peoples to identify veneration of their ancestors and of their ancestral land with the celebration of the life-giving character of the earth. Consider this from cultural ecologist and Indigenous scholar-activist Melissa Nelson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The bones of our ancestors have become the soil, the soil grows our food, the food nourishes our bodies, and we become one, literally and metaphorically, with our homelands and territories.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You\u2019re welcome to disagree with me, of course. But it\u2019s worth noting that what I propose has conceptual roots that may be as old as humanity itself. It\u2019s probably worth taking some time to digest this.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Andrew Smith<\/a>, Assistant Professor of English and Philosophy, Drexel University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Smith, Drexel University In case you\u2019ve forgotten the section on the food web from high school biology, here\u2019s a quick refresher. Plants make up the base of every food chain of the food web (also called the food cycle). Plants use available sunlight to convert water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":4638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118],"tags":[175,584,582,585,581,186,583],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4639,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions\/4639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}