I am not a vegetarian. I eat meat minimally because it is healthier not to consume it, and I disagree with the slaughter of animals. But why do we eat meat at all? A long time ago, it was mandatory for human survival. In the meantime, humans have learned to produce vegetarian foods which are capable of replacing meat. But people seldom do it because we have inherited a culture of meat consumption. Our culture made us believe that we are worth more than animals and that we have the right to slaughter them. Capitalism additionally encourages us to eat meat in huge quantities, demeaning animals as subjects of mass killing and profit. The fast-food industry convinces society that heavily processed meat products are the way to go, despite being unhealthy. Killing animals today is incredibly inhumane. It is a real genocide. Animals are sentient beings like humans. We are making a big mistake with animals and ourselves. As a result, we deteriorate our spiritual and physical well-being; even though we might not be aware of it, consuming meat makes us spiritually and physically less healthy.
We need to stop killing animals. To achieve this, we need to cultivate a culture of eating vegetarian food. Beginners need to understand that vegetarian food requires more than just a green salad in terms of nutrition. Otherwise, we would remain hungry. We also need to understand that vegetarian food can be tasty if well-prepared. We may find a surprisingly delicious vegetarian pizza that is also filling. And it could be improved. I have learned to cook a tasty meal using beans, carrots, onions, hot peppers, oil, and salt. I enjoy it so much. A good meal can be made simply by cooking onions, tomatoes, oil, and salt. Bread would help with satiation, and hot peppers would add a better taste, although taste varies by individual.
I still have issues with cooking a variety of vegetarian meals. This means that I am still not able to eliminate meat consumption. But I am willing to learn. We should all do it. Vegetarian production should also be encouraged by lower taxes and subsidies. We need to stimulate inventions and competitions in producing healthy, tasty, and highly nutritious vegetarian food. As we start to enjoy vegetarian food more, we will eat animals less. Then we will have healthier lives and live longer.
We also need to improve the protection of animals from senseless killing. We need to regulate animal rights by law. Killing animals for entertainment or sport must be banned and severely punished. We need to enforce high taxes on meat consumption. Lower meat demand will normally lower the slaughtering of animals. Our final goal should be the elimination of meat consumption.
Achieving all of that is not easy because changing our culture of meat consumption is a challenging task. Nor would it be easy to restrict the profits of the meat industry. However, we need to establish such a goal if we want to be human. We need to beautify the lives of animals. That would make us better human beings.