In the past couple of weeks I have been exposed to the constant onslaught of vegetarian health claims and campaigns on the AU campus. Day after day I see signs and tables on the Quad, changes in the TDR daily menu and editorials in The Eagle hammering the ideals of vegetarians into the minds of all AU students. Being a meat-eater, I have politely refused the literature and talks from the vegetarian activists and dealt with the utter lack of meat in TDR. My patience has reached an end, however, with the recent opinion article by David Benzaquen published in The Eagle on the April 18.
His article begins by bashing the College Republicans' light-hearted campaign to promote omnivorous eating habits. I was rather excited by the appearance of this table on the Quad. It gave me a chance to enjoy some quality meat, which I rarely am able to enjoy on campus lately. The College Republicans also allowed me to sign a simple pledge to recognize the normal eating of meats in my diet. Mr. Benzaquen criticized this event and falsely stated the purpose of the event. He used grave fallacies in saying that the event promoted bad human health, cruelty to animals and the destruction of the environment.
To state that eating meat causes the three things mentioned in his opinion piece is ludicrous. First and foremost, eating meat does not promote bad human health. I am convinced that Mr. Benzaquen has been using the results of recent polls that state that eating a purely vegetarian diet is much more healthy than including meat. However, these polls are extremely primitive in their methods and do not account for other factors aside from eating. Dr. Walter Millet, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard University, concluded that the "low intake of red meat does not seem to be an adequate explanation for the general good health of vegetarian populations." The polls do not account for such non-dietary factors such as exercise, not smoking and the "abstinence of alcohol." It is unfair for the vegetarians on campus, including Mr. Benzaquen, to unfairly portray vegetarian lifestyles as healthier than omnivorous lifestyles.
A recent table set up in the Quad by community activists stated that diets containing meat always were higher in fat. This is simply not true. A recent poll of health-conscious vegetarians and non-vegetarian women aged 18-50 found no differences in their fat, energy or carbohydrate intakes or in their relative body weight. Maybe a diet composed completely of meat would lead to higher fat intake, but what meat-eater consumes solely meat? Most omnivorous humans include foods from all groups of the food pyramid in their diets.
The grave fallacy made by the activists in posting signs on one of their tables has misled countless numbers of students on campus. It is also important to consider that just because we eat meat, we don't promote cruelty to animals and the selling of furs and animal-wear. The hasty generalizations made by the vegetarian community at AU are not only ludicrous but also damaging.
The omnivores at AU do not actively pursue the destruction of our environment, as stated by Mr. Benzaquen. We simply believe that meat is a healthy and natural part of the human diet, as evidenced by the consistent eating of meat over the past 2,000 years of human history. We still fight for animal rights, we still volunteer at animal institutions, and we still believe in the conservation of our environment. The overenthusiasm of AU activists to jump on the vegetarian bandwagon is sickening. The vegetarians would have you believe that half the U.S. population is partaking in vegetarian diets. In fact, only 2.5 percent, or 4.8 million people, are active vegetarians in this country - not nearly a majority.
My simple appeal to the AU community in this letter is to please stop bashing us meat-eaters. We are not bad people, nor do we hate this Earth. We just have different beliefs than those of the vegetarian community at AU. I agree that vegetarianism is an option in today's society, but unlike the activist community at AU, I do not criticize the option to choose between the two lifestyles. I am sure the AU community shares my sense of disgust at the faulty arguments and condescending tones of the activist vegetarians at this University. Please, just let us meat-eaters be.
Craig Rodgers is a freshman in the School of International Service.
