RETRACTION-ish

Peta2’s contest for most vegetarian-friendly colleges is still going on!!! The list of winners I found was from 2007. Go to Vote Now for peta2’s Most Vegetarian-Friendly Colleges 2008 to vote for UT!! We are on the bracket.

Voting ends Nov. 6!

Should we all be vegetarians?

It may be from 2002, but I found this great front-page TIME Magazine story by Richard Cordliss about going vegetarian. The entire issue was dedicated to the question of if we should all be vegetarian Here’s how it starts:

FIVE REASONS TO EAT MEAT: 
1) It tastes good
2) It makes you feel good
3) It’s a great American tradition
4) It supports the nation’s farmers
5) Your parents did it
Oh, sorry … those are five reasons to smoke cigarettes. Meat is more complicated.

Hilarious! The article goes on to explain that young Americans have started cutting the meat and including the veggies in their diets, what with things like E. coli, unnecessary hormones and mad-cow disease the primary meat ingredients in America (in 2002). As I’ve been posting lately, being vegetarian is not just about not eating meat, it’s about eating smart and healthy. Cordliss cites the American Dietetic Association as proclaiming that “appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, are nutritionally adequate and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”

The five-page story online goes through various aspects (polls, interviews, etc) about being vegetarian. At the time the story was published, vegetarian food sales were at their highest and teenagers considered vegetarianism “cool.” It mentions health benefits, including positive effects on kidneys, and health problems, including lack of important nutrients.

The story is the most comprehensive I’ve read on vegetarianism, and I encourage everyone to check it out: Veggie Tales: Should We All Be Vegetarians?

Now, does it answer the question? Not exactly … but how could it? There’s no way of telling if we should all be vegetarians, so Cordliss ends with this: “The moral: there is no free lunch, not even if it’s vegetarian. For now, man is perched at the top of the food chain and must live with his choice to feed on the living things further down. … It may take a very long while. For most people, meat still does taste good. And can “America’s food” ever be tofu?”

I say it can.