Eat More Meat

Why Veganism is Killing You and the Planet

If you are vegan, thinking about becoming vegan or even eating vegan foods, this article is for you! If none of those relate to you and you eat a healthy, well-balanced mix of whole, unprocessed foods, well this article is also for you so that you aren’t swayed to the dark side by the vegan propaganda that is pushed nowadays

Have you ever heard the saying, “Never play chess with a pigeon? The pigeon just knocks all the pieces over, shits all over the board then struts around acting like it won.” Playing chess with a pigeon is a lot like debating a vegan who honestly thinks veganism is better for them and for the planet. It’s usually not worth it, BUT we do need to know how to debate against the vegan hordes because never before has a diet been so politicized and pushed by those in power. That combination is dangerous. Especially when we have some wealthy computer geek who thinks he’s a doctor/farmer/health savior pushing the thought that actual meat should be done away with.

We need to arm ourselves with the knowledge to combat this growing threat to ourselves and our planet. So, here are my favorite quick gut punches to the Pro-Vegan argument.

“We Didn’t Evolve to Eat Animals”

This one is very strange to me. Ironically, people who tend to be vegan are the same ones who will shout “follow the science” for just about everything except this. If we look back, the reason humans evolved to have bigger brains than our ape relatives is because of our consumption of animal fat and meat (I linked two studies here but there are dozens you can find on this topic). You NEED fat and protein to survive even in the present day, so for humans to evolve to the point we are now, we NEEDED fat and protein from animals that were hunted.

Every civilization prior to us has eaten animals of some kind. In fact, the one time in human history that animal protein was not that commonplace was Medieval Europe. During this time, people were arguably worse off than at any other point in our history! In those times, most people were serfs, meaning they worked a plot of land for their “lord” and everything they ate came from what they grew on the lord’s land - mostly grains. The lords and wealthy folk had the lion’s share of meat. It’s called the Dark Ages for a reason!

My last point of this... If we didn't evolve to eat meat, why do we crave the taste of it so much so, that these vegan companies spend millions of dollars trying to replicate its flavor? Food for thought :)

I believe this quote from one of my favorite people in the industry sums it up well:

“Maybe stalking the woods is as vital to the human condition as playing music or putting words to paper. Maybe hunting has as much of a claim on our civilized selves as anything else. After all, the earliest forms of representational art reflect hunters and prey. While the arts were making us spiritually viable, hunting did the heavy lifting of not only keeping us alive but inspiring us. To abhor hunting is to hate the place from which you came, which is akin to hating yourself in some distant, abstract way.” ― Steven Rinella, Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter

“Red Meat and High Protein Diets are Not Healthy / Red Meat is Bad for the Planet”

Red meat, on the whole, is not unhealthy, nor is it bad for our planet. The former argument is tied to the “fat is bad for you” days which by now has been thoroughly debunked. The latter stems from the idea that somehow cow farts are warming our planet and melting the ice caps. That argument is countered when you consider at one point, just on the North American continent, there were 60 million bison, 45 million antelope, 40 million white-tailed deer, 10 million mule deer, 10 million elk, 2 million bighorn sheep, 1 million moose, and 1 million wolves. Today, there are approximately 94 million cattle - in other words, it’s not the animals causing the issues. But red meat CAN be bad for you and the planet, so it’s essential when debating this point, you are informed of the specifics. Let’s dive in here.

Grass-Fed & Grass-Finished aka 100% Grassfed:

This means that the meat was raised on grass for its entire life. It grazed using regenerative agricultural techniques on rotating pastures. This type of meat is usually a bit more expensive because it requires more space, and more time to let the cow grow before slaughter. THIS is the best meat for you. Grass-fed beef is leaner than the grain-fed alternative and has higher levels of the fats you want, omega-3s. Grass-fed animals also contain considerably more vitamins and minerals such as beta-carotene and vitamin E.

This meat is better for the environment than corn and soy, the very products vegan food is made out of. Grass-fed cows are grazed on pastures that do not need to be maintained with any fertilizers or pesticides, including nitrates (which are a major source of harmful carbon emissions) that vegan products need to be produced.

The growing of soy and corn (aka grain) for vegan products and for feed for industrial feedlot animals comes from another type of industrial agriculture, monocropping. Monocropping is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land. This practice depletes the soil of nutrients (making the soil less productive over time), reduces organic matter in the soil, and can cause significant erosion. So, NOT good for the planet!

When debating a vegan, make sure it’s clear that you are on the same team when it comes to wanting to shut down industrial feedlots for a more regenerative option. See my recommendations for places to buy from at the end of the article.

Processed Food

What is the one thing that MOST diet zealots would agree on? Processed food is bad for you, right? Right. So, why is vegan processed food good?? Well, it’s not. Go take a look at a fake meat food label - How many ingredients are on there? How many do you know? Was this product grown in a field or made in a lab? That should tell you all you need to know. To make matters worse, vegan products are usually made with highly processed industrial oil such as canola oil. These oils are made using a high-heat extraction process, increasing the inflammatory free radicals in the oil. It’s not good for you. I don’t care if it’s got a “heart-healthy” logo on the front - it’s anything but! I’ll write more in-depth on this topic in another article.

Vegan Meat and Vegan Products Can be Patented

This last point should scare everyone the most. The fact that FOOD can be patented by a company and sold for profit is what nightmares are made of. It’s taking away power from the common person from being able to grow and raise their own whole natural foods and transferring that power to a corporation that cares more about cutting costs for its stockholders and making money. They don’t care about your health and they don’t care about you. Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, Wild Earth, dog food that somehow make the claim that dogs (you know the things that descend from FREAKIN WOLVES) shouldn’t eat meat - None of them care about you or your health, only about making money.

Final Thoughts

Listen, I know there are some out there that are vegan simply because they don’t want to be involved in the death of an animal… That’s all well and good, as long as they aren’t making the argument that it’s better for their health. Follow any vegan influencer long enough and you’ll find that they always come back to meat “for their health”. It’s also important for those people to know, to have life, there must be death. There is not system on this earth that doesn’t in some way rely on the natural cycle of life and death to support other creatures and ecosystems.

In sum, I don’t care what cherry-picked science you were bombarded with in a Netflix documentary about how good it is for you or for the planet. I don’t care that the latest vegan food company got another billionish dollar valuation. I don’t care that celebrities are all endorsing vegan/plant-based diets (by the way if celebrities tell you to do something you should probably do the opposite because they are a scourge on this earth and have the brains of goldfish, and that’s being generous). Vegan food is not better for you and it is not better for the planet. I think people should eat more whole foods, including fruits and vegetables, but not at the expense of properly raised, 100% grass-fed meat and hunted game meat. If it’s processed, patented, or endorsed by a celebrity in their ivory tower, don’t buy it. We as consumers can “vote” with our dollar and decide what we want to see in the marketplace. It’s about time we start voting for the right things.

Take action: Buy meat from places that support your values. Local farmers and ranchers or companies that ship nationwide and invite people to see their ranches like Force of Nature or White Oak Pastures.

-Sebastian