Myth #31: “But the Eskimos need to eat meat to survive.”
(also heard as “But what about the poor people in the 3rd World?”)
Actually, you might want to reconsider this myth in light of the following:
* FACT – Members of the Maasai tribe in Kenya, one of the few cultures that sustains itself on a diet that is primarily animal-based, currently have the worst life expectancy in the world.
* FACT — Inuit Greenlanders, who historically have had limited access to fruits and vegetables, have the worst longevity statistics in North America.
* FACT — In Ethiopia, over 40 percent of the population is either hungry or starving — even though that country one of the largest populations of cattle in the world; a massive herd that happens to be unnecessarily consuming large amounts of direly needed food, water and farm-able land. Indeed, instead of inefficiently focusing their resources on livestock, the Ethiopians could easily meet all their sustenance needs by using all that land and energy and topsoil and water to grow and harvest Teff — an ancient, highly-nutritious, protein-laden & calcium-rich grain that has been regularly grown in that region for the past 25,000 years.
* FACT — Most importantly of all, YOU are not living under even remotely similar circumstances to these people – and as such you might want to consider the flagrantly obvious fact that YOU ARE NOT A THIRD WORLD CITIZEN, and as such, cannot use this excuse to justify your own fully unnecessary consumption of animals &/or their secretions.
My dear Friends, one person’s need cannot ever excuse another person’s greed. If a battered woman shoots her husband to defend her children, are we all allowed to go forth and gun down whomever we please? If we an impoverished father steals medication for his sick child, is it then also acceptable for us all to go forth each day and forcibly take whatever catches our fancy? If it is OK for a child to tell a lie in order to keep a friend safe from harm, does that make it morally permissible for the rest of us to speak falsehoods whenever it benefits us?
Of course not!
Similarly, extremely rare instances of 3rd World communities that truly do need to eat animals in order to survive in no way justify the vast majority of us living in far more food-rich environments doing so.
Current status of this Myth: Unmasked
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE
“We now know that greatly increasing the consumption of vegetables, legumes, fruits, and raw nuts and seeds (and greatly decreasing the consumption of animal products) offers profound increased longevity potential, due in large part to a broad symphony of life-extending phytochemical nutrients that the vegetable-based diet contains. By taking advantage of the year-round availability of high-quality plant foods, we have a unique opportunity to live both healthier and longer than ever before in human history.” ~ Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
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