I was talking to a friend today about meat consumption in our culture and how prevalent it is even in the poorest of socioeconomic circles in America. TV is flooded with advertisements for Arby’s, Chik-Fil-A and pizza companies. The strangest part of humans consuming meat is that they don’t ever consider the source of their meal. To meet demand, supply must be incredible and for the way that commercials are peddling meat you would think that it grows on trees – like plant products do. Did you know that there is a sinister fact behind all of meat consumption: 52% of all carbon emissions come from animal husbandry and consumption.
In order to get people to understand the severity of the situation I propose that commodities be saddled with a carbon tax. If you think it’s so important to eat a burger, I propose that you pay the real price of that burger. If people knew that it takes 660 gallons of water to produce one burger patty and then their cost would express that expense, so few people would want to remain carnivores. When I go to the store and buy sixteen ounces of water, I expect to pay about a dollar for that. If people’s burger cost would reflect the cost of 660 gallons of water, few people would want to pay for a burger.
I’ve heard people say that veggie burgers are actually more flavorful than meat burgers. I don’t care what you think about a veggie patty, you are not some being that is superior to all creation that you should be able to extinguish life in order for you to fill your belly because you are insistent on your right to kill. What if all creation were as cutthroat against the human species as the human species is cutthroat to creation?
The need to kill is fear-based. It is not necessary. In the case of human food consumption the need to kill is superfluous. Plant life is abundant on this planet. Why would you raze the Amazon in order to create pasture for eventual bovine meat products? It is so sick to think that you would destroy the lungs of the earth (rainforests) to replace them with carbon dioxide and methane producing hamburger patties. Do people even realize that we require oxygen to sustain even human life on this planet?
Anything that is capable of feeling love and expressing love should mot be slaughtered for human consumption. I am sickened by the Bible story of Cain and Abel and just to remind you of the story, Abel sacrifices one of his beloved flock for God’s altar and Cain brings vegetables to the altar. I think that it is so sick to think that whatever God is that he or she would require bloodshed to make him/her happy because as the story goes, Cain wasn’t favored for his sacrifice of vegetables and he got so mad he killed Abel. God should have specified what kind of sacrifice he wanted and if he was bloodthirsty he or she is not divine.
I want to know who is behind force feeding Americans meat? I mean, it is practically shoved down our throat. Is there a vegetable or grain shortage? This bloodthirsty country is unsustainable. The Bible says “Do not kill.” What is so hard to understand? It doesn’t say “do not kill people,” as if humans were of some higher order. We will never reach the rest we seek unless we start to consider other lives valuable intrinsically. For that reason I propose that we place a carbon tax on everything that people consume or purchase. Let us pay what things are worth.
Also we need to invest in more HUD housing instead of forcing people off their land with exorbitant real estate prices so that big companies can bankroll off our sacrifice. Also, let the big companies pay their share in taxes so that we can invest in infrastructure endeavors like mass transportation so that we don’t have to burn so much fossil fuels which add to the global warming crisis.
