Food and Ethics - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Someone presented to me that they object to eating meat for ethical reasons, asserting that it is ethically wrong to exploit food animals. I have heard this sentiment before and I take exception to it regarding ethics.

Human dentition tells the story. We have incisors and molars to facilitate the ingestion of leafy plants (the incisors) and grains (the molars), both of which are botanical food sources. We also have canines and bicuspids, both of which facilitate the ingestion of meat. To abstain from either is to deny oneself a biologically vital resource and thereby create a significant risk of doing oneself medical harm.   

For a case in point about such resultant harm, please see:

https://licn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2021/10/food-and-nutrition-john-dunn-consultant-ambertec-pe-pc.html

Unless one is beset by medical exigencies which require avoidance of certain foods, I would put forth that one has the ethical obligation to eat both animal and vegetable food products to keep oneself healthy and well enough to render needed assistance(s) at any time to someone else who may be in need of such assistance.

I do not believe that the man who ate only grains and fruits would have been capable of responding successfully to such an occasion, such was his debilitation.

I have three times transported an ill individual to an emergency room. In the first incident, which took place many years ago, I was later told that the person whom I brought in, had there been even a half-hour delay, would very likely have died.

How would I have justified a failure on my part had that occurred?

For me, there would have then been no rationalization of personal failure based on any concept of ethics.

That person lived.

Comments

[John Dunn]

Just to elaborate a little, the nearly fatal incident above was appendicitis in 1966. The appendix burst during surgery. If it had burst earlier, survival was unlikely.

The second incident was in 1988 when a co-worker suffered a very severe hand injury. I took that person to an ER too. The word back later was that without immediate medical intervention, the hand functionality would have been reduced to that of "a chimpanzee".

The third incident was of a food poisoning just this past month.