Published Letters and Op-Eds from COK’s Writers Group

Eating ‘organic poultry’ still violates a life

Kennebec Journal
June 10, 2009

It's true that giving up animal products can help the planet, and that it is an exciting learning process both for individual and for community ("Eating less meat can help the planet").

It is a mistake, however, to suggest that helping the planet only includes helping humans and the plants and wildlife whose existence contributes, above all, to human advancement. This planet belongs not only to one species, but to all.

Seeing as our survival and well-being does not depend at all upon consuming animals, why consume a chicken or turkey any more than a dog or cat? The author of the article says she consumes "organic poultry" from time to time, which suggests that taking the lives of these human bred-and-raised birds is beneficial to the environment.

In fact, it would be even more beneficial to the environment to look for ecologically sustainable plant foods because it would not be unnecessarily violating the life of a sentient being already in existence.

The suffering that goes on in factory farms is truly bizarre and heart-rending, but I wonder if it will ever be mitigated by the continued consumption of animals that promotes the notion that we may only value them as objects of a human environment.

For more on ecologically sustainable plant-based diets, check out "Humans, Earth, and Animals Living Together Harmoniously" at Eco-Health.blogspot.com. I invite others interested in taking up such a diet to visit TryVeg.com.

Luella Garies
Washington, D.C.