VEGETARIANISM: A BIOETHICAL IMPERATIVE
By Michael W. Fox BVetMed, PhD, DSc, MRCVS
The singularly most damaging environmental footprint upon this planet is caused by our collectively costly and damaging appetite for meat. Some 3.2 billion cattle, sheep and goats are now being raised for human consumption, along with billions more pigs and poultry. These extensively and intensively farmed animals produce less food for us than they consume, and compete with us for water. Their numbers and appetites result in an increasing loss wildlife and habitat, and of good farmlands and grazing lands. Linked with deforestation, loss of wetlands, over-fishing and ocean pollution, our appetite for meat is the number one cause of global warming/climate change, plant and animal species extinction as well as pandemics of influenza and coronaviruses and other zoonotic diseases.
We can no longer continue to regard meat and other sources of animal protein as a dietary staple because of the enormous costs and harmful consequences of such a diet. Vegetarianism is an enlightened choice, and all people should at least become ‘conscientious omnivores,’ treating food of animal origin more as a condiment than a staple. According to The Economist, (Dec. 2nd 2006, p. 88), over 50 billion animals are killed for food every year, which comes to almost 100,000 a minute 24⁄7. In the past 40 year meat consumption per person has risen from 56 kg to 89 in Europe, from 89 kg to 124 in America, and from 4 kg to 54 in China, in spite of the nutritionally inefficient conversion of grass or grain to meat, some 10 kg of feed being needed to produce 1 kg of meat.
It is surely a bioethical imperative not to kill animals for their flesh when no less nutritious foods of plant origin are readily available, more affordable, and more sustainably produced. Ironically, the shift toward ‘improved’ animal-based diets correlates with increased incidence of so called Western diseases in developing countries, and with an increasingly dysfunctional, unhealthy environment.
These correlations support the karmic truism that when we harm others—animals and the natural environment—we harm ourselves. Hence obedience to the Golden Rule—of treating others as we would have them treat us, is enlightened self interest. This core bioethical principle is embraced by the animal rights and environmental/deep ecology movements that have been demonized by antidisestablishmentarians who have succeeded with the Bush administration to have both movements seen as potential terrorist organizations under the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2002. Homeland Security and the protection of vested interests are one and the same, the continued, economically justified exploitation and suffering of animals, and environmental desecration, being protected under the law. U.S. animal industries have gained additional protection with the so- called Animal Enterprise Protection and Food Disparagement Acts that criminalizes certain conduct aimed against companies engaged in animal production, research and testing.
The economy of the Western industrial consumerist paradigm is non-sustainable, and because of its global reach, is wreaking global havoc, as predicted by Jared Diamond (1) and many other visionaries and critics of these times. For instance, much livestock feed is imported by the multinational food industry oligopolists from the impoverished third world, thus contributing to mass malnutrition in poorer countries. This problem is compounded by what is called ‘dumping’ of surplus, heavily subsidized, animal and other agricultural products/commodities on the third world, from chicken legs and powdered milk, to corn and wheat, often under the guise of emergency food aid. This only serves to enrich a corrupt few, and undermines the economic viability of indigenous farmers and once sustainable rural communities. So, we can no longer continue to regard meat and other sources of animal protein as a dietary staple because of the enormous costs and harmful consequences of such a diet. Furthermore, high meat consumption is associated with increased incidence of colon, prostate and breast cancer and heart disease.
CHANGING ENVIRONMENT, CHANGING OUR WAYS
A report (2) on our global impact on the environment, climate, wildlife and biodiversity in producing food for ourselves shows that while meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, it uses the vast majority – 83% – of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and still feed the world.
Vegetarianism is an enlightened choice, and all people should at least become ‘conscientious omnivores,’ treating food of animal origin more as a condiment than as a dietary staple. At one time, when our numbers were few, the killing of wild animals for food and raw materials was ecologically sustainable and bioethically acceptable. This ‘Paleolithic’ diet was natural, and our ancestors had no other choice in most wild places they inhabited. But such a diet today, and the raising of animals just for their meat, is non-sustainable; it is bad for the planet, bad for animals wild and domesticated, and bad for the health of those who can still afford a high meat diet.
Per capita, the average EU citizen consumes 80 kilos of meat and 240 kilos of milk, compared to a global average of just 42 kilos and 90 kilos respectively. Within this huge appetite, there’s room to shift from meat and dairy to more plant-based foods. “Europeans are culturally attached to meat and dairy product consumption,…..“Reducing our climate footprint does not necessarily require stopping eating these food products, but rather diversifying further our diets to reduce the share of these.”(3)..
For a sedentary, affluent sector to have to forcibly exercise and then take various drugs to treat the consequences of a meat-based diet is absurd and hypocritical, for indeed, as Mahatma Gandhi said, ‘The cattle of the rich steal from the poor.’ Poor and rich alike could be better nourished and enjoy healthier and longer lives by becoming vegans, lacto-ovo- vegetarians or conscientious omnivores, more mindful of what they eat, and knowing how to cook nutritious meals themselves and families, a subject yet to be taught in most schools and colleges, and adopted by hospitals and other food-providing institutions and agencies.
A plant-based diet may lower severity of COVID-19 infection by 73 per cent
Hyunu Kim et al. Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention and Health, May 15th, 2021. Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries | BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health
This research finds that in six European countries and the U.S., plant-based diets or pescatarian diets were associated with lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. These dietary patterns may be considered for protection against severe COVID-19. While I applaud this study and its conclusions, I would caution that the research was limited to relatively affluent, if not more educated countries with better food-choices and availability than in many other countries such as India and those of Africa and poor Central and South American communities along with those mainly non-white citizens of the U.S.
It is in these regions and communities with high carbohydrate and low protein diets and close to 700 million malnourished with insufficient dietary calories and essential nutrients that the coronavirus seems to spread and mutate rapidly, gaining infective function and resulting in high mortality and morbidity rates. World hunger is on the rise, affecting 8.9 percent of people globally. From 2018 to 2019, the number of undernourished people grew by 10 million. ( For details see https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/world-hunger-facts-statistics). Using agricultural land to feed people first and not feed for livestock and poultry could help alleviate world hunger but not without coordinated family planning/birth control along with food aid.
POSTSCRIPT From Animal Doctor Syndicated newspaper column Oct 2023
EATING LOWER ON THE FOOD CHAIN FOR THE GOOD OF ALL LIFE
When big fish eat little fish contaminated with various pollutants these chemicals accumulate in their bodies. This is called the food chain effect. This occurs in farmed animals who are not fed organically certified foods. But even such foods can be contaminated by chemical pollutants in the rain, air dust precipitating on crops and vegetation and in the soil where such feed is produced. But at least the contamination, especially with the soil remediation required before Organic Certification, and prohibitions on using anabolic steroid hormones and other pharmaceuticals to boost livestock productivity, will be minimized.
This is why we should, from a holistic health and environmental perspective, all eat lower on the food chain, primarily consuming a plant-based diet. Consuming plants eliminates the risk of zoonotic (animal-to-human) diseases provided these crops are not contaminated with harmful bacteria such as E. coli from animal manure.
Human babies will benefit from their mothers eating low on the food chain as per these research reports: Nursing infants of vegetarian women whose diets are low on the food chain are exposed to less chemical pollution. ( Hergenrather J, Hlady G, Wallace B, Savage E. Pollutants in breast milk of vegetarians. N Engl J Med. 1981 Mar 26;304(13):792.) Research has found that lactating mothers following a vegan diet compared to mothers with an omnivorous diet showed no difference in the human milk concentrations of vitamin B2 or carnitine, despite these nutrients being found in highest concentrations in animal products. ( Juncker HG, van den Akker CHP, Meerdink PL, Korosi A, Vaz FM, van Goudoever JB, van Keulen BJ.Front Nutr. 2023 Aug 4;10:1107768.). See also, Vegan or vegetarian diet and breast milk composition - a systematic review. Karcz K, Królak-Olejnik B.Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2021;61(7):1081-1098
Being vegan will improve our health and has been shown to improve the health of dogs and cats when given properly formulated animal-product free diets. It will also help reduce the loss of biodiversity and climate change associated with the animal farming and seafood industries and prevent the suffering of billions of animals destined for human consumption. Now numbering over 8 billion, we cannot live like carnivores or even omnivores without exacerbating the harms we have caused to planetary life and to ourselves.
1.Diamond, J., ‘Collapse: How Societies Chose to Fail or Succeed.’ New York, Penguin Books, 2005.
2.Poore et al Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 01 Jun 2018: Vol. 360, Issue 6392, pp. 987-992 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaq0216
3.Sandström V, Valin H, Krisztin T, Havlík P, Herrero M, Kastner T. (2018). The role of trade in the greenhouse gas footprints of EU diets. Global Food Security. DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2018.08.007 [pure.iiasa.ac.at/15461]).
ANTI-CANCER NUTRIENT IN MEAT AND DAIRY PRODUCTS: BUT MUSHROOMS CAN HEAL AND ARE BETTER TO EAT!
Researchers have discovered that trans-vaccenic acid (TVA) — a nutrient found in meat and dairy products derived from sheep and cows — promotes the activity of cancer-destroying immune cells. (Trans-Vaccenic Acid (TVA) is a polyunsaturated fatty acid. It is an isomer of linoleic acid. The researchers screened 255 blood nutrients for their role in antitumour immunity and found that TVA activated cytotoxic T cells. When mice with melanoma or colorectal cancer were given a TVA-rich diet, tumour growth slowed compared with a control group.(Fan, H., Xia, S., Xiang, J. et al. Trans-vaccenic acid reprograms CD8+ T cells and anti-tumour immunity. Nature 623, 1034–1043 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06749-3). It is notable that the researchers advised that people shouldn’t consume excessive amounts of meat or dairy to acquire the fatty acid. It can be purchased as a supplement and is expensive.
A high intake of red meat has been linked to an increased risk of breast, colon and rectal cancers, for example. Also, Diabetes Type 2 with its complications of heart and kidney disease, is now becoming globally more prevalent with rising consumption of meat. Type 2 diabetes rates are increasing rapidly in the U.S. and worldwide. This is concerning not only because the disease is a serious burden, but it also is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and kidney disease, cancer, and dementia. In one study researchers found that consumption of red meat, including processed and unprocessed red meat, was strongly associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Participants who ate the most red meat had a 62% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who ate the least. (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/red-meat-consumption-associated-with-increased-type-2-diabetes-risk/#)
The meat and dairy industries may seek to promote the benefits of trans-vaccenic acid and claim health benefits of their products while the health risks are downplayed. But there is another reality from the fungal realm where some species of mushrooms contain lower levels of trans-vaccenic acid, so we do not need to eat meat and dairy products to protect ourselves from certain cancers. See Chan, Jannie Siew Lee, et al. “Chemical composition and medicinal value of fruiting bodies and submerged cultured mycelia of caterpillar medicinal fungus Cordyceps militaris CBS-132098 (Ascomycetes).” International journal of medicinal mushrooms 17.7 (2015).
The more well-studied and abundant actives in mushrooms that would have an “anti-cancer” effect are their highly branched insoluble beta glucans, triterpenes, and nucleosides and nucleoside analogs according to veterinarian Dr. Robert Silver. For instance, see Dan A. et al Therapeutic Effects of Medicinal Mushrooms on Gastric, Breast, and Colorectal Cancer: A Scoping Review. Cureus. 2023 Apr 14;15(4):e37574. doi: 10.7759/cureus.37574. PMID: 37193480; PMCID: PMC10183216. Also, Jeitler M. et al Significance of Medicinal Mushrooms in Integrative Oncology: A Narrative Review. Front Pharmacol. 2020 Nov 11;11:580656. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2020.580656. PMID: 33424591; PMCID: PMC7794004.
In developing purely vegan pet foods there has been concerns about the necessary inclusion of vitamin D which is usually vitamin D3 of animal origin making the claim that the diet is vegan, false when vitamin D3 is included. There is an answer for this question in veterinarian Dr. Rob Silver’s forthcoming book There’s a Mushroom for That: Your Healthy Pet Guide. “Dogs and cats are unable to convert (ultraviolet light-B) UVB from sunlight into sufficient circulating vitamin D3 in their skin. For this reason, dogs and cats are dependent upon dietary sources of vitamin D to maintain healthy vitamin D levels. Shiitake (Lentinus edodes), maitake (Grifola frondosa) and button (Agaricus bisporus) mushroom powder that has been exposed to UVB will contain substantial amounts of ergocalciferol. This mushroom source of Vitamin D2 is gaining a lot of traction in the natural health industry as a healthier source of vitamin D for people and pets. As a non-animal source of vitamin D, it may provide a more hypoallergenic, organic, and vegan alternative to animal-sourced vitamin D3. Mushroom vitamin D powder is an organically grown source of D2 that also contains β-glucans and other bio-active molecules naturally occurring in the mushroom.”
The anti-cancer power of mushrooms is now being documented. Polysaccharopeptide (PSP) is the bioactive agent from the mushroom Coriolus versicolor. One recent report states: “Studies indicate PSP has in vitro antitumor activities and inhibits the growth of induced tumors in animal models. Clear evidence of clinically relevant benefits of PSP in cancer patients, however, is lacking….. Because of its high metastatic rate and vascular origin, canine hemangiosarcoma is used for investigations in antimetastatic and antiangiogenic therapies. In this double-blind randomized multidose pilot study, high-dose PSP significantly delayed the progression of metastases and afforded the longest survival times reported in canine hemangiosarcoma. These data suggest that, for those cancer patients for whom advanced treatments are not accessible, PSP as a single agent might offer significant improvements in morbidity and mortality.
Single Agent Polysaccharopeptide Delays Metastases and Improves Survival in Naturally Occurring Hemangiosarcoma by Dorothy Cimino Brown and Jennifer Reetz. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 384301, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/384301