Vegan Land: Cows and Pigs Shouldn’t Be Eaten by Humans

Cows and pigs should not be eaten by humans. Although I agree, this conclusion is not mine, but that of children ages four to seven. If children have this perception, could they not be, from an early age, central agents in the fight against climate change?

That was the question that guided a recent study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology by Elsevier, one of the largest publishers of scientific publications in the world. The study analyzed the knowledge that children have about the plant or animal origin of what they eat, as well as the ability to identify what is edible and what is not.

In the historical moment in which we live the paradox between the increased consumption of animal products and the scientific consensus that it is necessary to move towards plant-based nutrition to slow down the escalation of global warming, children appear as a possible hope of reversing the climate catastrophe announced for the coming decades.

When I read the study, I immediately felt uncomfortable: how to place the heroic responsibility of saving the world on the children’s account? How do you want them to make the choice that we adults didn’t?

The fact that the majority (84%) of children do not associate cows with food reveals more than a mere disassociation between what is eaten and its origin. It is true that children living in urban centers have no contact with animals raised for human consumption, and therefore are not able to associate the cow with the hamburger. But it is also true that this disassociation reveals a discomfort in feeding on a living being.

Children are able to feel, from an early age, a certain discomfort in eating animals when they are able to associate, for example, bacon with a pig that once had a heartbeat.

This malaise is not exclusive to children, and, throughout life, each one of us is supported by arguments to continue eating (and killing) animals. “We humans are at the top of the food chain. It’s part of human evolution. Cows, pigs, fish, chickens and oxen don’t feel and don’t suffer like we do, or like our dogs and cats.”

Adults who guide their food choices by these beliefs are not necessarily cruel or insensitive people to animals. They are the vast majority, who grew up eating meat from animal exploitation, and treating their pets compassionately, a central contradiction of the so-called meat paradox described by Peter Singer in Animal Liberation (1975). There is a tension between eating meat and the belief that animals should not be mistreated.

Adults have more internal resources to deal with this tension than children, who seem to eat meat without knowing its origins. It does not seem to me, however, that they should be seen as a window of opportunity to establish in individuals, from an early age, a diet centered exclusively on vegetables, as the study suggests.

Reducing the consumption of animal products is urgent not only for animal welfare, but for the survival of our own species. Choosing a 100% vegetable diet is the most effective individual measure we can take in combating climate change.

If every adult could connect with the child they once were, and who would refuse to eat bacon that was extracted from a cruelly bred and slaughtered pig, perhaps they could take responsibility for doing their part to save the planet with the hands themselves.

Legislation banning the use of idyllic images of grazing cows in the milk carton, smiling chickens in egg cartons, and happy pigs at the entrance to the steakhouse would help cut through the anesthesia that keeps us in a deep sleep over animal suffering .

These images are, after all, as false as the healthy cowboy smoking one Marlboro after another, with the loss of the product being sold impacting not just the health of the eaters, but that of their entire ecosystem.

Cows and pigs should not be eaten by humans. If children can come to this conclusion, why can’t we adults?