Malcolm Hawks

Ms. Jessica Morton

UWRT 1102
February 19, 2016
Argument Essay
Do we really need meat? Since the dawn of time, man has eaten meat. Rare, well-done, stirfried, marinated. Man has created many different ways to consume the flesh of another being.
Did we have ever stop and think about the harm we cause when mistreating and killing animals
for the sake of feasting on their dead body? It doesnt seem like theres anything wrong with it
but theres a whole lot. We have coddled the concept of eating meat even though "most of
mankind for most of human history has lived on a vegetarian or Lacto-ovo vegetarian
diet."(ADA) Interesting isnt it? Theres another story to tell though, one of the boy or girl,
who suffers mentally/emotionally due to their own insecurities and the anxieties of living in a
depressed society. Mental illness can be just as abusive as the slaughter of other beings; the
crippling and scarring thought process and the scarring and gutting of an everyday animal. Its all
violence, violence that those in the dark of the subject will live with every day in its ignorance,
its blissfulness, and theres something that should, neigh, must be done about it.
Shes too thin, she needs to eat more meat, Can I get double the meat?, Can I have chicken
on that salad?, Real men eat meat, You need to eat meat to be stronger, Im not a rabbit,
therefore I do not eat much vegetables; All completely normal statements and questions in the
world we live in. I dont understand. Meatless food options are seen as a side, an extra to the
main event: A big ol piece of smolderingly hot animal flesh. Does it not seem a little weird that

we feast on animal flesh and its socially acceptable, but the moment an animal eats a human
alive its gruesome, awful, and that animal must be put down to eternal damnation. Thats a little
hypocritical, and bigoted dont you think? I need those who eat meat, the vast majority of the
world, to think: Would you want animals to attack and feast on our flesh, by the mass, just
because we were seen as unintelligent, a life that is worth nothing?
Beyond the grand scheme of the issue, to shrink the scope and see it through the brown widened
eyes of one boy, i.e. me. What is animal cruelty to him? It didnt seem to resonate in him much,
until recently. People ask him how/why he became vegan/vegetarian and he always answer with:
I just woke up one morning. Animal cruelty has always been something he was disgusted with,
but not disgusted enough to give up the smoky flavor of bacon or the juiciness of a cheeseburger.
He was a coward. He was disgusted by this, but the fear/neglect of never being able to taste the
lovely meaty things he was accustomed to made him follow suit in an ignorantly blissful, meat
filled world. Wow, to think such a boy could be so cowardly and selfish. Selfish because he was
so concerned of his own wants and predispositions that he could care less about the lives of the
animals suffering around him.
Dont you just love hippies? All vegans are hippies and weirdoes, separate, innate to society.
To think that someone could live without meat is appalling, there must be something wrong with
vegans/vegetarians respective heads. They dont get protein, or a majority of the vitamins you
would normally get in the snap of a finger through juicy delicious meat. They are such sad
people; Normal people get to eat burgers and those tree hugging losers get salads, with only
their tears to use as dressing. Its unnatural. God gave us animals to eat, not to waste our time
hugging them. If we were herbivores rather than omnivores, then how do you explain our fangs,
and the crave for meat since the stone ages. Vegetarians/vegans will all die off due to their lack

of essential nutrients. Theyre driving themselves crazy, and the hippies that think its the best
things for their life are back-seat driving. Its sickening. They need some meat like normal
human beings.
For all the vegans/vegetarians that read the above paragraph probably got really upset, due to the
upsetting reality that views such as those exist. For all omnivores, they probably dont disagree
with some of those statements; granted, its a little harsh, but the feeling is still present. So to
address the stereotypes of veganism specifically: Where do vegans get their protein from?
The question thats been perplexing society since its relevance. Vegans get their protein from
many places: Beans, nuts, quinoa, chick peas, some non-dairy milk, daily vitamin supplements,
Oats, etc. There are many ways to get protein and through these as well you can the vitamins that
you would normally get from meat.
Now for those who may not know, protein and vitamins are very important to your health;
without them you can open your body up for deficiencies and even disease. A really big tie to
veganism/vegetarianism is mental illness. This is primarily due to some lack of protein, resulting
in negatively spiked energy. One of the biggest issues with vegan/vegetarian diet can be lack of
the vitamin B12 can cause a certain type of anemia where red blood cells are larger than they
should be and signs of nerve death like numbness and tingling in the fingers and toes(Dean
M.D.) and has links to depression and anxiety. Depression and anxiety is a sadly overlooked
problem, and so is the consumption of meat; as vegetarians/vegans grow in silence, so does
mental illness.
To piggyback, lets touch on this topic through the eyes of the brown eyed boy discussed earlier.
He was a happy, optimistic, compassionate, skippy young lad; but life changed him. He lives a
good life, surrounded by mostly good people. He has nothing to complain about- or did he?

Despite his upbringing he began to see everything at a different angle than before, in an angle
that opposes his original outlook. He starting to see the bad in everything: friends, society,
significant others, various partners, nature, religion, family, you name it. This was due to the
prominent development of depression and anxiety.

He would often go on spurts where he would go most of the day with little to no food. He grew
to hate himself. His weight or his appearance, his talents - to him a lack there of. He ruined
himself, he stopped caring for himself and those around him, pushing numerous people away.
He became depressed, paired with the everyday anxieties of the world. One of the main things
that helped him change and become compassionate and happy again was, a meatless diet. It
reminded him how beautiful the world is and the animals that live in it. He studied compassion
and care for those around him, which in turn relieved him of a lot of depression. Granted, he
often falls back into his old habits like Freaking out over the troubles and uncertainty of the
world or pushing people away for thats all he knows to do. Despite his relapses casual
occurrence, he makes a point, now, to practice compassion instead of violence towards himself,
others, and animals around him.
That brings us to the harmful topic of: Mental illness. A topic that the little boy above knows
more than enough above. Theres many different mental illnesses and many forms of each.
Mental illness is a form of violence. When one typically thinks of violence they think of:
Fighting, wars, gangs, or the mean kids on the playground. Little do people know that, verbal
abuse and the war each faces with their own brain every day, is some of the worst violence there
is. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt A phrase that is a
positive message but mainly false in its essence.

People seem to be unaware of the harm words can cause, and the harm one can do to oneself.
Self-harm is so common, but its not even spoken on much. 1 in every 5 females and 1 in every 7
men commit self-harm. Thats an awfully huge number of people. Despite the boys (the brown
eyed boy spoken of earlier) low quality outlook on life he, luckily, has not committed to selfharm in any way. He is one of the few people, with mental illness or not, who has not induced
themselves to self-harm.
To delve deeper, the main causes for self-harm includes but is not limited to: Depression, anxiety,
conduct and oppositional disorders, substance abuse, anxiety, and eating disorders. Anxiety is
depressions evil twin; Often times, when you have one, you have the other. Depression could be
simply defined by, even though it is by no means a simple subject, as: One who sees the glass
half empty. One who sees the bad in everything. One who is consistently sad, reason or not.
Someone who is tired. Tired of living. Of being in the place theyre in. That is a violence that is
waged oneself every day, and it hurts and can be as permanent as a deep cut or lifelong injury.
Just like physical pains, those with serious depression often must take medication as well. It can
harm ones whole existence, if they dont fight it or come to peace with it; in their heads its much
like an actual war.
Anxiety. Anxiety. Anxiety. Something that is natural to the people of the world due to the
insecurities of it. Where do we go when we die? Whats the meaning of life? Is life meaningless?
Are we all just insignificant? How did the world come to be? These are the thoughts rooted in
the inconsistency and uncertainty of the world. From the mouth of the post-Greek philosopher,
Heraclitus: Change is the only constant in life. Anxiety induced beings cant accept that.
Scared by the fact that they cant control everything, almost to point of shutting down and having
an anxiety attack, or needing to have to take themselves out of the anxious situation at hand. This

can be violent to their wellbeing. Forcing them to take themselves out of many anxious
situations, situations that could have bettered their life, but due to that anxiety ridden fear, they
couldnt carry it out, in turn possibly causing self-hate for all the things they couldve done,
leading to even more anxiety due to what possibilities couldve occurred if they were able to just
get through it. Its a never ending circle. Every person experiences some form/level of anxiety,
and they can attest for those who have it substantially, that its a difficult feat, one that can defeat
any person, no matter how brave within.
My last subject on mental illness is one that ties in very closely with the subject of
vegans/vegetarians: Eating disorders. Eating disorders are the feeling that youre based on your
appearance, that without it, you are worth nothing (Nicole Albrecht). Having one can mean
planning your whole day around food (Nicole Albrecht), and depending your mood on the
amount of food you eat; the less, or lowest calorie, food the better. Eating is something everyone
must do to function, but for those with eating disorders it can be a plague to it. It can leave the
affiliated full from all the food the mind makes them eat or famished from the lack of food
consumed. Starving oneself is another example self-harm. No matter how much their stomachs
may growl, they ignore it in hopes for a better body image. Its often a never ending violent
circle: You starve yourself, so you need more food, you eat food and you overdo it, then you
starve yourself again.
Now, how does that tie into veganism/vegetarianism? Well I shall answer you audience! When
starving yourself often times people think: Since I cant stop myself from eating too much, I
might as well eat the best food possible when I do. Although this is not the main way people
overcome eating disorder, by becoming vegan/vegetarian, this can be a pivotal change, helping
their disorder through the change in diet and/or outlook.

Now, do we really need meat? The answer is no; if youre smart. If one can get their essential
nutrients without it then by no means should we eat meat. When you look at the makeup of
humans, we share most of the same traits as herbivore animals than carnivores. We dont have
fangs, but rather flat rear molars for grinding, we dont have claws, and we have 20 times weaker
stomach acid than meat eaters (A.D. Andrews). Were not meant to eat meat its a social thing.
This social contract along with many others are why compassion is dying and social/mental
illness is growing.
Vegans/vegetarians search to abstain from violence to animals, but that doesnt always prevent
them from the violence that can be committed to themselves. Violence is something that no one
can escape. You may stop it from the limited area around you, but it may still be present inside of
you, and vice versa. In the media, the people around us, in the places we eat, the places we live,
etc. Its everywhere and we cant fully stop it, but the closer we get to doing so, and learning to
practice compassion and love, the closer well get to a better world.

Works cited
Andrews , A.D. Chicago: American Hygiene Society, 1970. Fit Food for Men. 19 Apr 2016.
Nicole Albrecht. LIVING WITH AN EATING DISORDER | NEDA WEEK, 23 Feb 2016.
YouTube video clip. 19 Apr 2016.
Deans, Emily. Psychology Today, 03 Mar 2016. Web. 19 Apr 2016
ADA = American Dietetic Association