Why I don't eat meat

BY TOM FITZSIMONS

Yeah, yeah, predictable - I know. The glasses, the wordiness, the affected style - and now a tofu-chomping vegetarian too.

Actually, I'm a bit unsure of my meatless credentials - I've only been on the greens for a year or so, and even in that time I've occasionally relapsed.

And I still eat fish, which means, technically, that I'm no vegetarian at all. I'm actually a pescetarian, or as I prefer it, a veg-aquarian.

But for right or wrong, I've basically given up the meat, so I suppose I should share why. I mean, how could this happen to a young New Zealand male, who grew up on lamb and chicken and beef and all the rest of the farming kingdom?

Nearly everyone I know still gorges on the flesh of our animal brothers and sisters, so why not me?

Well, there wasn't an epiphany. Cows didn't appear in my dreams. I never really thought: that's it.

It was more of a gradual turning around. And I guess it was helped by the following experiences:

* Reading about the killing of animals. Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma is a great book about food in general, and even though he's still a meat-eater, this made me think a lot about where food comes from. In particular, I wondered: could I personally kill a beast?

* Going to China. The Middle Kingdom is probably a candidate for least vegetarian country in the world. They certainly don't waste a morsel of any slaughtered animal, but I found some parts of the meat menu (chicken feet, etc) to be too close to home.

* My younger brother taking the leap first.

Let's get a few misconceptions out of the way now, and then I'll try to sum up my argument for vegetarianism.

First, I feel no great affinity for animals. I've never had a pet and I don't need to start now.

Second, I don't think animals are the same as humans. They're definitely more stupid than us, at least on average, and I'd willingly see an animal killed to save a human's life.

And third, for the record, my girlfriend is not a vegetarian. Many people assume she's the reason I'm out of the abattoir, but in fact, she's still as carnivorous as ever.

So what's the buzz?

In a sentence, I think it's wrong to cause unnecessary pain to sentient beings, creatures that can feel stuff.

Most people who eat meat will agree intuitively that it's wrong to kill another human. But the real question is: why is it wrong?

Is it just because they're the same as us? Surely not, because that kind of tribal reasoning is what begets racism, and religious fanaticism, and gang warfare, and all kinds of arbitrary crimes.

Or is it because humans possess certain superior traits, certain quantifiable characteristics - like, for example, intelligence?

But of course we don't possess these things uniformly - some people are smarter, some less smart; some more beautiful, some less so; some stronger, some weaker. To defend life because of these things has the ring of eugenics about it.

That's all very abstract. Let me be more concrete: why is it okay to kill an adult pig, but not okay to kill a two-year-old child?

Scientists say the pig is smarter than the child, so intelligence can't be the reason.

And to say it's just because the child is one of us, and the pig is not, is to follow the same sort of reasoning human beings have always traditionally used for killing each other: "They're different to me".

The alternative is to have a morality based, at least to some extent, on pain. Suffering is a universal currency. You don't have to be smart or strong to suffer. You don't have to belong to a race or a species.

This morality says that it's good to ease suffering when you can. It says it's even better to avoid inflicting it at all, if possible.

So it follows that we shouldn't kill the child or the pig - especially when there's so much other food out there.

Look, I haven't broached Mike King and the pig farms (perfectly okay under New Zealand law, but obviously distasteful to the average person - even the Prime Minister called it disturbing).

I haven't mentioned that if we all stopped eating meat, we'd instantly reduce the world's carbon emissions dramatically.

And I haven't revealed that vegetarians live longer.

Because even without all those good reasons, I think we're obliged to become soy-gnashing, chard-munching, broccoli-loving vegetarians.

What say you all?

- © Fairfax NZ News