Source: www.guardian.co.uk
UNITED KINGDOM, December 22, 2009: In a personal piece that might voice the silent inner struggle of many, Neel Mukherjee expresses his inner doubts about eating meat, and a few enlightening milestones of his inquiry into the matter.
Having grown up in India in a family who could not afford to buy meat very often, meat eating was looked upon by the family as a privilege. However, after reading books written by Tristram Stuart, Peter Singer and JM Coetzee, Mukherjee was convinced that the single most important reason for abstaining from eating meat is “The unimpeachable moral argument against speciesism: because we are the most powerful animals in the animal kingdom, because all animals are at our mercy and we can choose to do whatever we want with them, it is our moral duty not to decimate, factory farm and eat them. It is an argument of such majesty and generosity that its force is almost emotional.” Other arguments such as the shocking description of the meat industry and the sentimental viewpoint of animals as lovable creatures add to the moral dilemma of abstaining from eating flesh. To read more of this essay, click on the link above.