Standard Arguments Against Veganism, Pt. 6

May 21, 2020

"Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"
-Martin Luther King Jr.

1. Humans are Omnivores

I remember being taught in elementary school about the differences between herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. Of course, since humans eat meat, my teachers taught us that we are omnivores. However, just because we consume animal flesh doesn't make us natural meat-eaters. In fact, physiologically, humans are herbivores! Here are a few reasons why:

We don't have large canines to rip through skin and flesh, though some herbivores -- like gorillas and hippopotamuses -- do have substantial canines. However, our canines are far smaller in comparison. Additionally, we have square, blunted molars designed to bite, crush, and grind plants. Meat-eaters' teeth are "shaped like scissor blades. They simply shred off the meat, and they swallow."[1]
We have a jaw that can move side to side, made for chewing and grinding, whereas omnivores' and carnivores' jaws only move up and down, made for tearing and swallowing.[2]
We don't have the speed, strength, or agility to track and hunt quick prey animals, just as natural meat-eaters can't distinguish between which types of plants are ripe for picking.
We have no natural desire to kill prey animals, like the squirrels and bunnies in our backyard (other than seeing them as pests or nuisances).
We don't feel hungry at the sight of a fresh kill, and we often refuse to look at animals being slaughtered (and most of us wouldn't kill the animals we eat ourselves, despite the fact that actual omnivores feel hungry at the sight of gore).
We have a significantly longer digestive tract, about 15 times our height, whereas natural meat-eaters' tracts are only about four times the length of their bodies, as herbivores are designed to be eating mostly fibrous foods.[1]
We have trichromatic vision for distinguishing the bright colors of ripe fruits and vegetables while meat-eaters have dichromatic vision and rely more on the ability to see fast movements.[1]
We cannot produce our own Vitamin C and rely on plants to get that essential vitamin.[1]
We rely on glucose, a sugar in carbohydrates, as the main fuel for our body, and most plants are far higher in carbs than animal products.[3]
We don't have protein or fat receptors on our tongues, unlike meat-eaters, making the taste of meat (raw, unseasoned flesh) unsavory. Additionally, our tongues have salt receptors, and many meat products have salt added (which is one of the reasons we crave those foods).[2] In fact, chicken corpses are often injected with saline to bulk them up so they weigh, and therefore cost, more.[4]

The list could go on, but I believe that's sufficient evidence. (Please feel free to check out the resources I included for validation -- don't just take my word for it.) Even if we were omnivores and disregarded all the science, it’s still not a valid argument. Being omnivorous simply means that, if we were living naturally, we would have the ability to eat both animals and plants. Dogs, for instance, are omnivores, so their bodies can digest both kinds of foods; my dog has been thriving on a plant-based diet, went through months of heartworm treatment after I adopted her, and is being treated for a rare autoimmune disorder on a (veterinarian-approved) healthy vegan diet. Because of that knowledge, this argument falls apart completely because of its own case; it’s a fallacy. If we are able to consume both plants and animals, and since we know that animals can experience pain while plants cannot (please see Part 2 if you're unsure of plant sentience), we should still be choosing to eat plants to minimize the suffering we inflict.

2. Vegans Eat Fake Food

It's unfortunate that the majority of the public only associates veganism with food, and particularly with plant-based meat and dairy, because veganism itself has nothing to do with food. It is an ethical stance against violence towards animals; however, most animals are used and abused in the food industry, making it the primary target of activists.

What's important to note with this argument is that vegan food is not "fake." The foods we're talking about -- plant-based meat, dairy, eggs, and honey -- are simply the same products we know and love made from plants instead of animals. There are many more natural ingredients in these “fake” products than in animal products: pea protein, coconut oil, enriched flour, vital wheat gluten, sunflower oil, potato starch. In any case, regardless of some of the strangely-named ingredients, the base of these foods is plants, usually soy or wheat or peas. These are things most people eat on a regular basis. What matters is that we’re not killing animals, people, or the planet to eat this kind of food.

And the great thing about veganism is that you don't have to eat those plant-based alternatives! You can follow a whole foods, plant-based diet, which is comprised of staples that should already be in a nonvegan's diet: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds, and herbs and spices. I don't think anyone can argue that there's anything unnatural or "fake" about these foods.

3. Vegans Eat Too Many Processed Foods

This argument is actually pretty ridiculous because everyone eats processed foods. Just putting dressing on your salad means you eat processed foods. Additionally, it actually argues the case in favor of a whole foods, plant-based diet because it suggests that eating anything processed is detrimental to health. And the only foods that aren't processed are whole plants in their most natural form. Because meat and other animal products are the epitome of processed foods. By eating an animal, as I stated way back in Part 1, you're simply filtering the nutrients from the plants they ate through their dead bodies and into your stomach.

And let's not forget that the PC term for slaughterhouses (which is itself a euphemism for animal murder factories) is "meat processing plants." Especially with the craziness of COVID right now, you can't turn on the news without hearing about these "meat processing plants" shutting down as workers keep contracting the virus. To eat animal products, you must breed, raise, and slaughter them -- sometimes stealing their eggs, milk, food, and babies in the process -- and then butcher, season, and cook their flesh. It's fine to be against eating processed foods, but it's hypocritical to only have that disdain for plant-based products.

4. It's Just a Fad

This is one of the arguments I worry about the most, as the majority of people buying vegan products aren't vegan themselves, which I discussed in my previous post. I worry over the novelty of plant-based foods wearing off and carnists returning to their normal eating habits. Obviously, actual veganism could never be a fad because, as I said before, it's an ethical stance against violence. That would be like saying anti-racism is just a fad or equal rights for women is just a fad; it's a ludicrous sentiment. Every year, the number of vegans is growing, particularly in the past half-decade. And like I mentioned in "Will There Ever be a Vegan World?," if we continue to grow in numbers every year, it is incredibly likely that we could see a future of animal liberation.

5. I Don't Like Animals

Even as a self-proclaimed animal lover, there are actually certain animals I don't like very much, primarily nonhuman primates. It's like the uncanny valley phenomenon, because the more human-like an animal looks, the more unsettled they make me. However, this in no way makes it justifiable for me to kill and eat monkeys or buy products that were tested on chimpanzees. Even though I may not feel the same adoration for them as I do for cows, I recognize that they are sentient individuals that deserve the right to live free from human harm and interference. Also, I don't like humans all that much either, but I'm not going to go murder my neighbor; I have no desire or instinct to kill other humans and nonhumans just because I may prefer other species more.

There is absolutely no requirement to be an animal lover to be vegan. In fact, you'd be surprised how many vegans aren't animal lovers, or at least weren't before going vegan. (A few that come to mind are Natasha of That Vegan Couple, Jasmin Singer of Our Hen House, and James Aspey.) You don't even have to care all that much about animals. What veganism is about is respecting their right to life. It's really that simple.

6. I'm Not Killing the Animals

If I can take some time to make a reference here, I promise it will make sense by the end. In season two, episode two of The Office (entitled "Sexual Harassment"), bumbling regional manager Michael Scott gets in trouble with corporate for sending around inappropriate email forwards to his employees. His excuse is that since he isn't the one creating the email, he shouldn't get any of the blame; he's just passing on the information. As he says: "You wouldn't arrest a guy who's just delivering drugs from one guy to another." ...Right? Obviously, this is meant to be humorous, to show how detached from reality Michael is, but that excuse is exactly what we're dealing with here.

It's like saying, "I’m not the one actually pulling the blade across the animals' throats, so I don’t really have any of the blame for paying for someone else to do that.” But just like paying a hitman to kill someone, every time we purchase animal products, we are paying for everything that happened to the animal while he or she was alive, ranging from breeding their mother to their bodily mutilations to their murder. So, though we may not be physically holding the knife, each time we purchase an animal product, we are forcing another human to do the act that we can't. And if we can't even bear to look at the suffering we inflict on others -- both human and nonhuman -- then we have absolutely no right to be doing that in the first place.