Vegetarianism

There's an interesting comment thread over at Kim's place. He ran across a story of a child whose parents failed to provide proper nutrition, leaving her with rickets, a malformed spine, and several fractured bones. The parents kept her on a strict meat- and milk-free diet.

The general tone of the comment thread is that vegetarianism is prima facie evidence of child abuse. I must respectfully dissent. Here's what I wrote as my comment on the thread:

I grew up in Alaska, raised by my Seventh-day Adventist church pastor father and my registered nurse mother. Since birth I have eaten an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet. At 40 years old I still stick to that diet, through inertia more than anything else.

Just finished eating my standard breakfast of orange juice, Grape-Nuts with 2% milk, flax seed meal, multi-grain toast with butter, almond butter, and spreadable fruit. This breakfast will hold me all day; all I have to do is drink water until supper time. Last night my supper was a cup of brown rice (cooked) with half a can of Nalley’s vegetarian chili.

When I was a kid my family did a little set-net subsistence salmon fishing. Mom cooked the fish with oatmeal in pie pans, freezing them as a weekly dietary supplement for the dog. He loved it! To pay for my schooling I worked in the fishing industry, both out on the boats and in the fish processing plants. Vegetarianism is a choice we made for our health, not out of some belief in the inherent dignity of fish.

I’m convinced that I grew up just fine on an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet. Even in rural Alaska we ate plenty of milk, cheese, soy-based vegetable protein, grains, fruits and vegetables. I’m a knowledge worker and compete very nicely with my colleagues. This morning before breakfast I walked the dog for over 3 miles in less than an hour.

As a Seventh-day Adventist I believe my body is the temple of God, and that an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet rich in vegetables, nuts and fruits is the best diet to maintain that temple. However, if I accidentally scoop the beef-based spaghetti sauce onto my plate at the buffet I’ll go ahead and eat it. It’s a question of long-term choices, not doctrinaire absolutes.

Totalitarians and ethical vegetarians are two sides of the same coin. They both fail to properly appreciate the unique value of individual human lives. Totalitarians are wiling to sacrifice individuals to the greater good (see also Communism, Nazism, Environmentalism). Ethical vegetarians believe animals should be treated with the same respect as humans, which puts animals and humans at the same level. Many environmentalists believe humanity is a curse to the planet, and the fewer of us the better--putting human life below that of animal life.

How many pro-life vegan environmentalists do you know?