Nut cutlets are not the only food - 10 reasons to eat meat

Okay, I confess. I'm not a vegetarian. I never have been and strongly suspect I never will be. Shockingly, I love eating meat. In today's increasingly environmentally-aware, er, environment it often seems that I'm expected to feel guilty about my carnivorous preferences. So what follows is a poorly-argued, shoddily-evidenced defence of meat-eating as part of an omnivorously-balanced diet.

1. Nature. Meat-eating has a long and noble tradition in nature that stretches all the way back to T. Rex and beyond. I for one have no intention of arguing with T. Rex. Yes, okay, this is a daft argument; cannibalism and incest also have long and noble traditions in nature. My very slightly serious point is that, at the least, meat-eating is a well established part of the ecological order and of the food chain. Come on, you know it's not green to mess with nature! :-) And God appears to sanction and uphold carnivorousness - Psalm 104 talks of lions seeking their food from God.

2. Human physiognomy and history. Humans are biologically omnivores - we're designed to eat both meat and veg, not just one or the other. And as far as we can tell, Homo has indeed been a hunter since he or she first became sapiens, and probably before. Again, this doesn't mean we have to eat meat - but I'd say it strongly argues that it's more natural for us to include some meat in our diet than to be entirely vegetarian.

3. Health. Vegetarians all die at a horribly young age. No, of course they don't really. But the idea that a vegetarian diet is inherently healthier than an omnivorous one and that vegetarians live longer is equally a groundless myth. And my entirely uneducated guess is that though it's perfectly possible to have a fully balanced diet as a vegetarian, it's probably easier as an omnivore.

4. Environment. Vegetarians fart more - it's an incontestable scientific fact. That's more harmful methane gas in the atmosphere, irresponsibly increasing the greenhouse effect and contributing to global warming, not to mention polluting the local atmosphere with foul smells.

A recent Cranfield Uni study also suggested that switching from local beef to imported tofu or Quorn could raise the risk of rainforest destruction. We're all aware that intensive livestock farming damages the environment - but so does intensive arable farming. The answer is not to stop growing crops or raising cattle but to find better ways of doing both.

5. Taste. It's a small and selfish thing, but to many of us veggie food is what the BFG would call 'revoltsome uckslush'. I'm not against the occasional nut cutlet, veggie burger or vegetable curry/lasagne, but for me an entirely non-meat diet would be like having to listen to only folk rock, or having to wear only corduroy. A small price to pay for saving animals and the planet, you might say, and maybe I'm just a big selfish baddie, but a lifetime without meat looks to me like a desert not a garden.

6. The Bible. The Bible is absolutely chock full of meat-eating. It's even a Levitical command, part of the prescribed Old Testament worship of Yahweh. Admittedly, right at the very start in Gen 1:29 God does prescribe a vegetarian - actually a vegan - diet. But within 9 chapters he's changed this decree and in Gen 9:4 he specifically gives humans every living creature as food (later restricting it to 'clean' animals). The only examples of vegetarianism I can think of in the Bible are the enforced manna diet of the desert wanderings, Daniel refusing the King's meat for reasons of purity from pagan sacrifice, and John the Baptist's famous locust-and-honey sandwiches.

7. The example of Jesus. Jesus ate meat - both fish and lamb for definite, and he even ate fish after his resurrection. He went as far as declaring all foods clean, and in Acts Peter has a heavenly vision commanding him to eat 'unclean' meats. (Of course this is symbolic but that shouldn't detract from its literal aspects.) Admittedly Jesus was not faced with issues such as battery farming and deforestation, but in principle he appeared to endorse the eating of meat. And symbolically of course, Jesus is our perfect Passover lamb, so the eating of meat (lamb at least) has an added theological and memorial dimension.

8. Moral well-being and freedom. In today's climate, being a vegetarian puts you firmly on the moral high ground and lays you open to the deadly spiritual danger of self-righteousness. For humility's sake, eat meat.

Slightly more seriously, unnecessary guilt is not spiritually or emotionally healthy. The apostle Paul enjoins us to 'Eat everything in the meat market without raising questions of conscience' (1 Cor 10:25). In other words, and taking the verse slightly out of context, we don't need to feel bad about eating particular foods. Most of us have more than enough guilt in our lives to be going on with; let's free ourselves of feelings of moral shame over meat-eating.

In some cultures, hunters thank the animal they've killed for providing them with meat and clothes. I rather like this idea - eating meat but with a sense of gratitude, even obligation, to the animal.

9. Animals are not humans. Animals are amazing, wonderful and fascinating and I love them. If I'd followed my teenage choice of career path, I'd be a nature reserve warden or a Bill Oddie. We have a duty of care to nature and animals in general. But let's not sentimentally anthropomorphise our furry friends. They are not human or equal to humans. Jesus said a person's life is worth that of many sparrows. Animals are not fully self-conscious, morally responsible beings. As already noted, they behave in some pretty horrendous ways. Animal populations do sometimes need to be controlled and culled. Some animals in some places are pests - rats for example. I don't believe that killing animals for food or to control populations is necessarily morally wrong, though it is of course unpleasant and should be done humanely.

 10. Most vegetarianism is partial and inconsistent. If we're to embrace vegetarianism because killing animals is wrong, full stop, then to be consistent we should follow the Jainist ways and never swat mosquitoes or wasps, never kill slugs on our plants, and perhaps even never take antibiotics. Of course, some do go to these lengths and I applaud their integrity. But most of us choose to draw the line somewhere; I just choose to draw it at a slightly different point to my vegetarian friends.

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Okay, okay. I'm not seriously saying that it's spiritually or environmentally better to eat meat. With all Christians I look forward to the day when the Kingdom comes, the lion lies down with the lamb without taking a bite first, and all pain and death finally ceases. In that day I suspect we won't eat meat, and perhaps neither will we wear clothes - another result of Adam's sin, according to Genesis. And in the meantime, if we do eat meat, we need to do so responsibly; by all means let's campaign for better living conditions for farm animals, more humane methods of slaughter, and less environmentally-damaging ways of farming.

But for now, I'll keep my clothes on and continue to 'eat anything sold in the meat market', with the possible exceptions of offal and giblets.