I found the article “Veggie Manifesto” by Jen Hirt interesting to say the least. I was wondering what she is so mad about.

She seems to be upset for some reason that you can go to a tailgate and light up the grill and have your favorite burger, hot dog or brat.

She says that you need to show some intelligence and watch what you’re eating.

The “Veggie Manifesto” left me hungry for more information on the point it was trying to make.

Just when a seemingly pertinent piece of information was given, there was no follow-up or reference to give the article some merit.

Let me see if I can get some answers to these open-ended statements.

In the second paragraph, she wants to be told about eyeteeth, how vegetarians lack protein and vitamins and how eating meat is a family tradition.

Yeah, so?

Don’t humans have eyeteeth? Do vegetarians lack protein and vitamins?

As far as I knew, vegetarians could get all the protein they needed from beans and tofu. And isn’t eating meat a tradition?

I couldn’t imagine sitting down to Thanksgiving and not having a turkey there, or a ham at Christmas.

But I am not sure why I should feel guilty about doing so.

Isn’t a healthy diet a balanced diet?

Eating only vegetables is a choice; eating meat is an instinct.

Later in the “Manifesto” she states that 200 million folks ate 56.6 million pounds of meat.

My calculations show that this is just over a quarter pound of meat in one day. I don’t see that as being excessive — am I wrong? Maybe Ms. Hirt is astonished at the numbers.

Are you upset that 56.6 million pounds of meat were eaten, or that there are 200 million people living in the U.S.?

Would you be just as upset if 200 people ate 56.6 pounds of meat at a family reunion?

There is a remark in the fifth paragraph that has really thrown me for a loop.

I don’t believe that I have ever met a person who has told me I HAVE to eat meat and worship one male God on one day for one hour.

Are you saying that you would eat meat if God was female? I didn’t know God had a gender.

Maybe a hamburger would sound good to you if you went to church on Wednesdays for 40 minutes. Who exactly are you mad at and why?

In the seventh paragraph you say that “when cattle (or pigs, or chickens, or turkeys, or whatever) are slaughtered,” the dead animal begins to fill up with toxins.

Does this include the fish that you say you eat? Fish have hearts that stop pumping blood as well.

And please educate me on this one. Since when does my body have enough trouble filtering out its own toxins?

What medical journal did you get this from?

Are my liver and kidneys pushed to the limit every single day?

And what does asbestos have to do with irradiating meat?

People have also said that seat belts are unsafe. Should I be concerned about those as well?

I am sorry that Ms. Hirt does not like meat. I cannot think of anything nicer than turkey at Thanksgiving or ham at Christmas.

I am not a meat-eating advocate or an anti-vegetarian.

I just wish Ms. Hirt would have written a more informative article.

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Doug Royer

Alumnus

Hach Company