Historical Lens: Inevitable Vegetarianism And Its Positive Effect On Society

“Earth’s carrying capacity is estimated to be between 8 and 16 billion,” was found in a 2012 United Nations Environment Programme discussion paper on the Rio+20 which lead to member states deciding to launch a process to develop a set of sustainable development goals that would be more environmentally friendly and would allow us to reach that carrying capacity. As the human race gets closer to this carrying capacity, people will have to start seriously considering ways to sustain an ever growing population. To support planet Earth’s carrying capacity, changes in the food industry will have to be made, namely, the scarcity or even complete elimination of meat. The real question is whether this will have a positive or negative effect on society. Since history is doomed to always repeat, it can be believed that the answer to the problem can be found in the past. Morals are improved due to vegetarianism, and those morals had a lot to do with religions that are still relevant today. Along with improved morals, there are cases of historical good health and extended lifespans that can also be traced back to vegetarianism. If the following of a vegetarian lifestyle by groups of people can happen once, it can happen again. Due to these conclusions based on historical evidence, the predicted scarcity of meat will positively affect today’s society.

People’s morals have always been a big part of what makes them who they are as individuals and together, as a society. A religious example of moral vegetarianism would be the Indus Valley civilization which practiced the Jainism religion. In Jainism, one of the five key principles they follow is ahimsa, or non-violence. They are a strictly vegetarian religion that believe in karma that the soul accumulates through its violent and evil actions. To cleanse the soul and be able to reach heaven, the Jainism religion must be followed. Those followers of Jainism tend to not even consume root vegetables, due to the plant and its various dependent micro-organisms being harmed in the process of getting the vegetable. This was discussed in an article for the international vegetarian union by Prof. Pushpendra K. Jain, Founder Chairman of the Vegetarian Society of Botswana and lifelong vegetarian and follower of the Jainism religion. The followers of Jainism prove that if society would accept vegetarianism, their morals would be improved.

People who do not believe in the moral wrongness of consuming animal flesh could perhaps be persuaded by the chemical imbalances of the brain that can be caused through the ingestion of meat. Acharya Mahapragya, tenth head of the Shwetambar religious sect of the order of Jainism, stated “Most emotional disturbances in modern society can be blamed on the use of intoxicants and non-vegetarian food, and these disturbances can cause unsuspected damage. ” in the fourth chapter ‘Nonviolence and Food’ of his book Non-violence and Its Many Facets. An example of this would be ratios of tyrosine to large neutral amino acids and tryptophan to large neutral amino acids decline after eating a protein-rich meal, which was found in an article for The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Tyrosine and Tryptophan are essential to the production to dopamine and serotonin respectively, which are the sleep and emotional reward neurotransmitters. According to a paper for the Aggression and Violent Behavior Journal by Dongju Seo and Christopher J. Patrick of the Department of Psychology of the University of Minnesota, and Patrick J. Kennealy of the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, “. . . serotonin hypofunction may represent a biochemical trait that predisposes individuals to impulsive aggression, with dopamine hyperfunction contributing in an additive fashion to the serotonergic deficit…”. An example of a diet containing a lot of meat was the ancient Romans, known for their brutality. Roel Lauwerier, a senior archaeozoologist and programme manager at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, studied the role of meat in the Roman diet by examining animal osteological remains from various Roman sites in and near Nijmegen, which was a densely populated region on the border of the Roman empire. He discusses the diet, in his paper on the subject, The Role of Meat in the Roman Diet. His findings are that the diets consisted of a large amount of pork, some chicken, cattle, crane, cormorant, long-eared owl, and thrush. The remains of geese, ducks, and pigeons were also found, but it was unclear whether these were farm animals or wild equivalents. Taking all of this into account, if society was to cut out such frequent intake of protein rich meals, there would be less examples of impulsive aggression, and as such the world would be more peaceful.

The Hunza people of the Himalayan Mountains live a chiefly vegetarian diet, only consuming tiny amounts of meat on a weekly basis. “Not only were the Hunza people immune to serious diseases they were also spared the discomfort of commonplace conditions such as the cold or the flu,” stated Dr. Lynn Hardy, a certified nutritional consultant who wrote an article on the study of the Hunza people conducted by Dr. Robert McCarrison, the Director of Nutrition Research in India. During the late 1920’s. Dr. McCarrison designed an experiment to find out how diet was related to the Hunza people’s good health and long life spans. Armed with 1189 rats, chosen for their genetic and biological similarity to humans, ate the Hunza diet for the human equivalent of 45 years, there were no diseases found in any of the bodies.

A major concern in developing countries of the world phasing out meat is that there would be a loss of jobs for the poor people in meat industry. Impoverished people in developing countries are in that industry due to a lack of other options. However, if meat was being phased out, it would become a luxury. “There is a way to have low productivity systems that are high in animal and environmental welfare – as well as profitable – because they’re producing meat as a treat rather than a daily staple,” stated Tim Benton, a food security expert at the University of Leeds states in an article for BBC News on what would happen if the world suddenly went vegetarian. The paper comes to the conclusion that moderation would be the world's best route, “In this situation, farmers get the exact same income. They’re just growing animals in a completely different way. ” If less meat would be needed by the international market, it would allow those farmers to grow meat aiming for quality rather than quantity. Despite this, they would make the same amount, if not more, money by producing a sought after indulgence. An example would be during the year of Quinoa, 2013, which was declared by the United Nations when Bolivian farmers experienced the Quinoa Boom. The abrupt growth in popularity has caused retail prices for some quinoa varieties to jump more than 600 per cent since 2000, and more than triple since 2007. The grain went from being consumed by local families three times a day, seven days a week, to being a luxury in Europe, the US and Canada. As stated in Bolivia's Ley De La Revolución Productiva Comunitaria Agropecuaria, (Law of the Agricultural Productive Community Revolution), quinoa is 'a strategic product for food security and a great export opportunity'.

Historically, people who have had little or no meat in their diet have reaped benefits. This is fortunately occuring again today. A poll commissioned by the Vancouver Humane Society in 2015 showed that 33 percent of Canadians, or almost 12 million, are either already vegetarian or are eating less meat. This way, as the global population continues to rise, the scarcity of meat due to limited resources will be a change for less of the population. The predicted scarcity of meat will positively affect society, which is proven through the Jainism’s peaceful morals, the brutal lifestyle of the Romans, and the Hunza peoples long lifespans.