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by my 12 yo son. He had to write a "persuasive essay" on a subject about which he felt *passionately* for his writing class. He's dysgraphic, so he has some difficult in "writing" - not only they physical act of writing, but organizing thoughts on paper - while simultaneously holding all of the "rules" of writing in his head. It's hard to do for kids like him. So it's not a best seller or anything, but I thought you guys might appreciate it.
FYI - his class is a homeschool mini-course that had a large number of fundamentalist hs "southern rural" children as well, thus some of the references. . .
Also we were "semi-vegetarians" for a year (no beef/pork); we've been full vegetarians for a little over 2 years now - "led" to the lifestyle by my then 9 yo son.
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LIFE AS A VEGHEAD
I haven’t always been a vegetarian; but I converted for ethical and ecological reasons. There are other good reasons too such as health, and cost, and so can you convert. Are you a vegetarian? Maybe not, there are some pluses but some minuses such as teasing and taunting, temptations, reading labels on everything, and not being able to eat at a friend’s or relative’s house as well . Listen to this, it may convert you.
The main reason most people aren’t vegetarians is because most people think vegetarians aren’t healthy because they don’t get enough protein. However you don’t need as much protein as you think. Also vegetarian’s get more protein than people think. In addition vegetarians live longer and we don’t have meat clogging our arteries and intestines. Most vegetarians are healthier and have lower cholesterol and blood pressure then omnivores. It’s also impossible for us to get mad cow disease!
Along with being good for you, it’s good for the animals because fewer animals are tortured and killed. Think of those poor little moo cows and pigs getting slaughtered. Most of those animals have never seen the light of day because they are born there and never escape their cold metal cell where its only five feet tall, three feet wide and eight feet long- not even room to turn around. When you here about when some baby male cows are killed to make veal while others are raised pumped with steroids and food till they pop and made into 100% angus beef you have to flinch. However, when the females are forced to get pregnant to be dairy cows until they are a good age then they kill them and they are sent to Burger King, you’ve got to spring a tear. But it’s not all easy to be motivated because some people tease you and there are temptations.
Some people will tease you if you’re a vegetarian they might call you veghead, or joke around and say “I have a cow don’t make me..” However, that’s nothing like driving past Chikfilet. It’s really hard staying a complete vegetarian because you may smell a steak and have a complete and total break down be cause you want it so badly. Then you think about that cow getting its legs ripped off and kneaded by robots into big Macs and you come back to your senses. Then your friends think you’re a complete whacko because you have these random spazzatacks.
Now just think for a second if everyone were vegetarian, it would be great for the ecology, just read this you’ll see what I mean. “One million people will die from malnutrition this year. 60 million people could be fed if Americans lowered their meat intake by 10%. 20% of the corn grown in the U.S. is eaten by people, 80% of the corn and 95% of the oats grown each year are eaten by livestock (90% of all grain is eaten by livestock). One acre of land can produce 40,000 pounds of potatoes or 250 pounds of beef. 56% of all U.S. farmland is devoted to beef production. To produce 1 pound of beef requires 16 pounds of edible grain. 20 vegetarians could be fed on land needed to feed one person consuming a meat-based diet.” (Resource “Natural Zing”)
Many people argue that god put animals on earth to be our food. But it actually says “ and god said , behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” So anyone who tries to argue with that is just shooting himself in the foot, and has too weak a mind to become a vegetarian.
Unfortunately, many people believe it so I don’t have a bunch of people to relate to. However, I’m lucky enough to know Nora, a good friend who I admire greatly for her courage, because she is as far a vegetarian as her family will allow and alone in her family. It’s great to have her to talk to because she’s going through the same trials and tribulations of being a vegetarian as I am. Of course, a lot of the teasing is from your relatives.
One of the hard things about being a vegetarian is you can’t visit your cousins, aunts, and uncles very much if they live out of town; or go to their house for Thanksgiving and Christmas because they don’t have much food you can eat. Meanwhile you have Mr. Gung ho shoot and eat meat Uncle Gary, who is nagging you that you need to eat meat to be strong and healthy, but in reality some of the world’s fastest runners and strongest men are vegetarians. However, even they probably have trouble ordering off the menu.
One of the big killers for vegetarians is finding some place to eat and then it’s ordering off the menu because obviously we can’t just pull in to KFC or Hardees. We have to go to a place, look at the menu before we go in to see if they have enough vegetarian options, then we go in and decide what we want. After that, we ask ten million questions about the baked potato soup and the vegetable stir-fry to confirm that it doesn’t have meat. Finally, after the waiter is sufficiently worn out, we order.
Did it convert you? If you are discouraged about the minuses, think about the poor little moo cow you’re having for dinner tonight – think how he feels!
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