Jennett 1

Lauren Jennett

Professor Richardson

ENG 1201 Online

17 March 2019

Casebook

The main question that I will answer throughout my essay is whether or not people

should be eating meat. I’ll answer the questions of how meat affects the human body and

environment. My main goal through writing this essay is to persuade my audience to consider

eating less meat.

Andersen, Kip and Keegan Kuhn, directors. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.

Netflix, 2014, www.cowspiracy.com.

The documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, directed by Kip Andersen and

Keegan Kuhn and produced by Kip Andersen in 2014, performs an in-depth analysis of the

negative environmental effects caused by animal agriculture. Throughout the film, Andersen

focuses on analyzing the effects of animal agriculture on the environment. He addresses the

amount of water it takes to produce a minimal amount of meat, the deforestation of tropical

forests for animal agriculture, and the extreme amounts of greenhouse gases produced

throughout the processes in animal agriculture. He also focuses on how much land is required for

the production of meat.

Andersen’s purpose in producing this documentary was to shine the light on how

detrimental animal agriculture is to the environment. He noticed that major environmentalist

groups fail to speak out about the single most environmentally destructive act and felt the need to
 Jennett 2

be the voice for the environment. His audience isn’t just environmentalist, it’s anyone interested

in knowing how they’re harming the environment. This is a recent film, so the information is up

to date and reliable.

The two men that mainly contributed to the creation of this documentary are Kip

Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. These men are credible because they film their conversations with

highly intelligent professionals and quoted them all throughout the film. This is also why they

have adequate information to script the film. Every person they talked to had a great deal of

knowledge and experience in the meat industry or about the environment.

This film will be extremely useful in arguing my point that animal agriculture is

destroying the environment. The information about water use and greenhouse gas emissions will

be especially useful.

Anomaly, Jonathan. “What’s Wrong With Factory Farming?” Public Health Ethics, vol. 8, no. 3,

Nov. 2015, pp. 246–254. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/phe/phu001.

http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

ue&db=a9h&AN=110856359&site=ehost-live

The article “What’s Wrong With Factory Farming?”, written by Jonathan Anomaly,

published by Public Health Ethics in November of 2015, shares the most concerning aspects of

factory farming. He mainly discusses animal cruelty and antibiotic resistance. He uses statistics

to support his valid claims.

Anomaly’s purpose in writing this article is to inform the general population about the

conditions of factory farmed animals and the risk humans take in consuming them. The audience
 Jennett 3

is any animal-loving person who might be wondering what exactly they’re consuming. This is a

very recent article with recent evidence to support the claims made. Since it was written for

Public Health Ethics, the information is reliable and legit.

Jonathan Anomaly is the writer of this article. The author graduated from Duke

University and has written other pieces, so he is credible. Also, I found this article on Sinclair’s

library database where the source was reviewed for legitimacy by professionals. Anomaly

enhances his credibility by referencing other studies and statistics.

This source will be very useful in arguing how unethical factory farming - and the meat

industry in general - is. This won’t be one of the two main focuses of my paper, but it will appeal

to pathos.

Corliss, Richard, et al. “Should We All Be Vegetarians? (Cover Story).” Time, vol. 160,

no. 3, 15 July 2002, p. 48. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=\http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.e

bscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6915028&site=ehost-live.

The article “Should We All Be Vegetarians?”, written by Richard Corliss and others,

published by Time on July 15, 2002, analyzes what type of people are the best candidates for a

vegetarian diet. He discusses the risks of vegetarian diets, particularly on young children and

infants. He also shares the health benefits provided by a vegetarian diet - no matter the age of the

consumer. Corliss shares statistics regarding the amount of grain, water, and fossil fuels used to

produce meat.
 Jennett 4

Corliss’ purpose in writing this article is to answer the common questions people ask

about vegetarian diets. He discusses all of the different types of vegetarian diets and shares their

benefits. The audience is anyone interested in their personal health. This article was written in

2002, but the information isn’t that outdated considering I’ve found similar statistics from other,

more recent, sources.

Richard Corliss is the writer of this article. The source is reliable because I found the

article on Sinclair’s library database, where sources are analyzed for legitimacy before being

included in the library. Corliss establishes his credibility by addressing the negative effects and

risks of a vegetarian diet.

I plan to use this information to support how vegetarian diets are beneficial to human

health. The statistics about the amount of grain and water used in animal agriculture will prove to

be especially useful.

Hart, Jane. “The Health Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet.” Alternative & Complementary

Therapies, vol. 15, no. 2, Apr. 2009, pp. 64–68. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1089/act.2009.15202.

http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr

ue&db=a9h&AN=38021062&site=ehost-live

The article “The Health Benefits of a Vegetarian Diet”, written by author Jane Hart,

published in Alternative & Complementary Therapies on April 23, 2009, discusses the positive

health effects that a vegetarian diet has on a person. Hart spends the majority of the article
 Jennett 5

sharing evidence about how vegetarian diets help reduce the likelihood of acquiring type 2

diabetes and heart diseases. She references studies with results that provided convincing statistics

of a decreased risk of chronic diseases in vegetarians. She also discusses the decreased likelihood

of cancer in vegetarians but mentions that the evidence is not conclusive and research is still

emerging.

The author’s purpose in writing this article is to inform the audience of the positive

impacts that a vegetarian diet has on the human body. Hart is appealing to an audience with

chronic diseases or at risk to have a chronic disease. She also appeals to any vegetarian interested

in the effects that their diet is having on their body. Since this piece was written in Alternative &

Complementary Therapies in 2009, the information is slightly outdated. Further research may

have been done on the correlation of a vegetarian diet to the risk of cancer, for example.

The writer of this article is Jane Hart. I found this article on the Sinclair library database,

which adds credibility to Hart since the source was reviewed for legitimacy by professionals.

Hart is a Doctor of Medicine, so she has adequate information to write the article. This particular

article was published in Alternative & Complementary Therapies, which also helps establish her

reliability since her work was reviewed by other doctors before being included in the work.

I plan to use this in my research paper as evidence to prove that a vegetarian diet is

associated with the prevention of chronic diseases. This source relates to the positive impact that

vegetarian diets have on human health.

 Jennett 6

McDermott, Mat. “Assessing the Meat Industry’s Impact on Earth’s Climate.” Hinduism

Today, vol. 39, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 52–57. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.eb

scohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=119815877&site=ehost-live.

The article “Assessing the Meat Industry’s Impact on Earth’s Climate”, written by author

Met McDermott, published by Hinduism Today in the January-March 2017 edition, highlights

the environmental damage being done by the meat industry. McDermott begins his article by

discussing the countries leading in cattle, beef, milk, and poultry production. He also analyzes

exactly how many animals are killed for food in the US. He continues by exploring how the meat

industry affects the environment. He studies how much land is being used for beef production,

the amount of waste produced by animals, the extensive amount of deforestation, pollutes water

caused by animal agriculture, the mind-boggling amount of water needed to produce meat, and

the threat of new diseases. Needless to say, McDermott covers how the meat industry affects the

environment in just about every way. He concludes his article by urging his audience to take

action against eating meat.

McDermott’s purpose in writing this article is to inform his audience of the extremely

harmful effects the meat industry has on the environment. Through doing this, he hopes to

convince his audience to consume less meat. His audience is anyone interested in the health of

the environment and climate. The title of this article attracts people that care for their

environment. This is a very recent article (2017) that uses recent studies and facts to support

McDermott’s claims. This article was published in Hinduism Today, which is important to

address since vegetarianism is strongly linked to this religion. This doesn’t necessarily mean the
 Jennett 7

information is biased in the opposition of meat, it just means that the author is most likely

passionate about this topic and found the best statistics and studies to support his views.

The writer of this article is Met McDermott. Since I found this article on Sinclair's library

database, many professionals have read this piece to ensure its’ legitimacy. The author

establishes his credibility throughout his article by referencing many other sources and studies.

This also proves that he as adequate information to write this article.

The information from this article will prove to be extremely useful when writing my

research paper mostly because of the staggering statistics provided. These statistics clearly show

how detrimental the meat industry is to the environment.

Motavalli, Jim, and Sally Deneen. “THE CASE AGAINST MEAT. (Cover Story).” E: The

Environmental Magazine, vol. 13, no. 1, Jan. 2002, p. 26. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.eb

scohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=5850380&site=ehost-live.

The article “The Case Against Meat”, written by authors Jim Motavalli and Sally

Deneen, published by The Environmental Magazine in the January 2002 edition, explores the

concept of both humans and the environment being healthier without meat production and

consumption. Motavalli studies the environmental cost, human health benefits, and morality

reasons for a vegetarian diet. He addresses the common concern of not consuming enough

protein through a vegetarian diet and ensures that it’s easy to consume the suggested amount of

protein. He also discusses the brutal treatment of animals throughout the production of meat.
 Jennett 8

Motavalli’s purpose in writing this article is to convince his audience to consume less

meat no matter what their motive behind it is. The audience is any environmentalist, animal

lover, or human concerned about their health. This article was written in 2002, yet the

information isn’t outdated. The statistics Motavalli references have only increased since his

report, so nothing contradicts his claims. Since this article was published in The Environmental

Magazine, the information could be seen as slightly biased against the meat industry.

Jim Motavalli is the writer of this article. The author and source are credible because I

found it on Sinclair’s library database, where information is thoroughly reviewed before being

uploaded. Motavalli has accurate information to write the article because he quotes many sources

and statistics.

I plan to use the information in this article to argue how the meat industry is destroying

the environment and how a vegetarian diet can meet the requirements of an adequate diet. This

article also provides moving information on the mistreatment of animals on factory farms.

Wein, Harrison. “Risk in Red Meat?” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, 26 March 2012, www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-

matters/risk-red-meat?scrlybrkr.

The article “Risk in Red Meat?”, published by National Institutes of Health on March 26,

2012, discusses how red meat may shorten life spans and what measures should be taken to

avoid this. The author discusses the studies and statistics that support that red meat is tied to
 Jennett 9

increased risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers. It is also addressed that

red meat is shown to raise the risk of mortality.

The author’s purpose in writing this article is to inform the audience of the risk they take

when consuming meat. The audience is for anyone concerned about their health, especially if

they are already at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or certain cancers. Since this piece

was written in 2012, the information is a little out of date. Of the studies referenced, one was

performed in the 1980s and the other was in 2012. The source is credible because it is the

National Institutes of Health.

The writer of this article is the National Institutes of Health. This author is credible

because it is a long-standing part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This

also proves that the source has adequate information to write the article because the National

Institutes of Health has access to extensive studies related to this topic.

This article will supply me with statistics to support my argument that a vegetarian diet is

beneficial to human health. The information regarding the 24,000 participant study will prove to

be especially useful as it shows an increased risk of mortality for people who consume red meat.