“Meat is Murder”
By Adhyaan Balaji
In the cut and thrust of talk about food, one principle of veganism stands
supreme—meat is undoubtedly murder. However, veganism doesn’t stop there. Even
products like cheese, which most people can’t live without, are made from milk,
the nutritious sustenance meant for a mother to give her newborn calf. So many
throughout the world claim to love animals truly, but if this is the deeper and
darker truth behind the diets of 72% of the world’s population (the percentage
of individuals who eat both meat and animal products), why don’t we stop the
consumption of animal products for good? What if we all pulled our forks and
knives out of our steaks and became vegan? What if we found our reason to say
no to a juicy burger, a fluffy omelet, or a cheesy pizza?
Once considered to be a radical dietary choice, veganism has become
increasingly mainstream throughout the world, providing benefits not only to
our health but also to the planet. More than a quarter of all greenhouse gas
emissions can be traced back to animal food. Cows bear the biggest
responsibility, leaving an annual carbon footprint equivalent to CO₂ emissions
from every train, ship, car, and aircraft. Now, of course, the large majority
of us don’t immediately think of cows as a catalyst for global warming. Still,
as it turns out, the one and a half billion cows in the world produce 150
kilograms of methane on average per year, a compound that, concerning the
negative effects of CO₂ on climate change, proves to be 23 times worse.
Additionally, about two-thirds of all the agricultural land on the planet is
occupied by cattle alone. If everyone were to go vegan, we would use most of
this pasture land to restore forests and grasslands to reduce the level of CO₂
in the air. We could start harvesting more crops to help fill the hotels in our
food supply. Additionally, livestock-related greenhouse gas emissions would
drop by nearly 70%. Veganism is often argued to be for the animals, but also
‘for the people’ but the outlook after a global conversion to veganism isn’t
all sunshine and rainbows. Veganism represents a sustainable option for feeding
a family and slows down the global heating process of our planet. It’s often
described as a way for the poorest people in our world, who often fall ill from
the lack of quality in meats and animal products that they consume. However,
it’s these more impoverished rural areas that would be hit the hardest. Your
local butcher, as well as millions of farmers worldwide, would suddenly be
jobless. They could try to grow and supply us with more crops, but on a larger
scale, rural communities that were once able to provide people with milk, eggs,
and meat would face severe amounts of unemployment. Jobs that were once the
very core of our societies satience would vanish overnight.
This doesn’t just end on a local scale. What about society as a whole? Dozens
of countries worldwide, dependent on agribusiness and animal-related
commodities as exports, would face huge economic disruption as the demand for
something as simple as a glass of milk would be next to zero. The dependence on
a single animal-based commodity for these developing countries would completely
halt the progress of their society. On the bright side, though, everybody would
be a little bit healthier, but would we? Despite the ongoing slur of potential
benefits that a vegan diet may offer, some of which include lowering the risk
of certain cancers and heart diseases, and almost eliminating the probability
of type 2 diabetes, vegans often miss out on several important nutrients.
Calcium and especially vitamin B12, both present in milk, would be incredibly
hard to come by. And while the Omega 3 fatty acids from salmon could be
substituted with walnuts, shortcuts like this could actually lead to weight
gain as walnuts, despite being a good source of Omega 3 for vegetarians, are
also known to be incredibly calorie-dense. Due to various animal meats no
longer being available as a source of complete protein, vegans would have to
mix and match various foods such as soy, beans, and lentils in order to ensure
they receive all the necessary amino acids for proper bodily function. However,
with a proper diet, we as a population could celebrate lower levels of obesity
and lower global mortality rates. This would contribute to nearly 1 trillion
dollars saved on healthcare and more than 8 million saved lives.
A global shift from one diet to another wouldn’t just impact the health of
billions of people around the world, it would cause global shifts in the
economy, profound changes in the job market, fluctuations in national
economies, and greatly impact the healthcare sector. While making the switch
from our current eating habits to veganism, we would undoubtably benefit from
the healthier living and surplus of energy, so long as we maintain a diet
enriched with the proper nutrients. On top of our health, we would be creating
a healthier planet for the future of humankind. We wouldn’t need animal
products to satiate ourselves any longer, after all meat is murder. But the
consequences would be catastrophic for the monumental developments that we as
people have been able to bring the world thus far. Economies all across the
globe would be in shambles and global trade would see drastic changes. Millions
of people all over the world would become jobless overnight, and poverty-stricken
communities would become increasingly poorer. The farm animals would be safe
though. Except for the estimated 20 billion chickens who have, since their
early days of living in the wild, evolved too far to ever be able to live
outside of human care. Even animals such as horses and goats who seem to be
much more capable of the rugged wilderness would be preyed on as most of these
animals were bred in captivity making it difficult to transition back into the
wild. Of course, there are good arguments for both sides, but it really begs
the question—does meat truly mean murder? Or is meat what moves humankind?
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Adhyaan Balaji is a budding writer and rising high school junior with a
profound passion for sports, medicine, and dietetics. As a semi-professional
student athlete and a nationally ranked badminton player, he understands
nutrition and health’s critical role in promoting efficiency and performance in
all aspects of life. His interest in optimizing physical and mental potential
stemming from his pursuits in junior professional sports has led him to explore
plant-based nutrition and its role in fulfilling the nutritional standards of
animal products and its implications on endurance, recovery, and long-term
well-being. He considers sport, nutrition, and healthcare as disciplines with
interconnected principles that work to shape the way the body can perform at
its highest level.
Copyright©2025 by Adhyaan Balaji. All Rights Reserved. Image by Asompoch from Pixabay.
