h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Don't know about you but in my mouth I have Incisors, Canines Premolars and Molars. We *do* have teeth for eating meat *and* for eating vegetables, we are naturally omnivorous.
The Plain Sioux indians would have had a hard time surviving if they weren't adapted to eat meat seeing as they vurtually subsisted off the Buffalo.

I, too have incisors. They are quite helpful if I want to bite from an apple.

But I agree with you in part: we are omnivores.
We are also rather adaptable - that's why in nearly every part of the world man has managed to survive.

Still - there may have been cannibalistic peoples, to which eating their enemies, was the normal thing to do - People today set themselves limits: some won't eat dogs, cats or horses, some won't eat snakes or insects - I for my part wouldn't feel comfortable anymore, if I had to eat an animal (it wasn't always so).
And I'm sure, in the long run the peoples of the world will become vegetarians!

"The Plain Sioux indians would have had a hard time surviving if they weren't adapted to eat meat..."

Did they survive?

For around 10000 years or so I believe but I think them being massacred and starved into submission by the white settlers may have more to do with their demise than meat eating.

The whole world being vegetarian sounds very idealistic to me, maybe one day, but I for one will never do it. Sorry but that's the way I am.
I am happy to talk about it though

"...starved into submission..." - But that's the point. If they hadn't relied to much on the buffalo, their chances would have been better.

If YOU feel comfortable eating meat - that's OK. Maybe your children or grandchildren will think different.
I don't wan't the whole world to change into vegetarians over night (they probably would eat all the plants, so the animal-kingdom would have to starve - it's also about balance)

Why on earth would you want to convert the world to vegetarianism? Is this some sort of new religion or cult?

Man is perfectly designed to hunt and kill animals for food. Their hands work better than a bear's tools for catching fish. And while many animals lay clever traps for prey, man makes use of better ones. With their innate tool-making skills (something no other animal possesses) they can make hunting weapons far superior to the natural ones of other predators. Eating meat is entirely natural for man, as is killing for food.

BTW... cannibalism had nothing to do with dietary practices. It was entirely religious. The idea was that by eating the flesh of their enemies, they gained insight into their minds and absorbed their power.

Yes, to me it is indeed some sort of religion.
And there are many good reasons to 'turn' mankind into vegetarians.
For example: if man wouldn't grow animal-food for the animals which will be eaten by men, but instead would grow food for the people, the effective outcome of food for thepeople would be much higher (short food-chain)!
Thus, as world population grows, it won't be possible to nourish everybody, if there are too many carnivours on earth.

I would like to add that we do not have to hunt and gather these days people have choice and choose not to eat something that has been force feed antibiotics and intensively reared. People do not eat meat for health reasons, political or religious. We are harming the resources and the animales that we share the planet with, this is something i choose not to be a part of. If people do what to eat meat that their choice. <{{><

Everywhere else in the natural world there are just a few big predators at the top of the food chain. We're big, we're at the top of the food chain and there are ever so many of us. I can't help wondering if the situation will be sustainable in the long term.

I've been considered becoming a vegetarian but not because eating meat or hunting is unnatural to our species. If we all had to hunt to eat, we would eat far less meat. The reason I will give it up is that modern intensive farming methods appal me. The fact that, because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease, getting on for 2.5 million sheep, cattle and pigs (mostly healthy ones) have been slaughtered and their bodies burned or buried in Britain in the past couple of months to keep meat exporters happy, has also appalled me. That event alone is probably going to clinch the decision for me.

We damage the ecosystem by growing crops, too. We clear out forests and drain wetlands, wiping out entire ecosystems. We cover them with toxins that damage our health, our water supply, and kill unintended targets. There's even a genetically modified corn that is an alleged hazard to the population of monarch butterflies.

If the industrialized world stopped feeding animals, that wouldn't make world hunger go away. They would stop growing so much corn, because the market value would plummet. And you can't give it away as simply as some unrealistic idealists would like to think. It still costs money to ship it. The Third World could better afford to grow it themselves than pay the shipping costs. Even if the industrialized countries united forces in the largest act of selflessness ever recorded and paid the shipping themselves, people would still starve. Distribution of that food would still be mishandled by local governments, which is why current NGO charity efforts don't work. And beyond all of that, people want to take care of themselves. When you simply hand people everything, their sense of self-worth diminishes to almost nothing. All we have to do is look into our own back yards at the failure of our welfare systems to see that global welfare would be an absolute catastrophe.

So today at lunch, I'm doing my part to help the global economy. It'll be covered in steak sauce.

*agrees with Colonel Sellers*

Sorry to disrupt the crusade, but some people's digestive systems require meat-based proteins, and some simply cannot cope with them.

The Delai Lama eats meat, because if he does not he gets hepatitis.

Sorry dudes, but the reason I eat meat is that with an allergy to wheat and an allergy to dairy products and a job which requires horrendous amounts of travelling I ain't got no choice.

As it is I regularly eat nothing but a slice of ham and a piece of lettuce on aeroplanes.

Take the ham away...? Thanks a bunch.

a picky-eater called Ben

I agree with you that it is not so simple to make world hunger go away, because it is a matter of economical interests.
Still, in my Utopia, mankind won't slaughter anything. To me it seems barbaric.

So you´re saying potatoes can´t feel because they don´t have a nervous system. Well, if you cut them they know. How do you explain that?

If we stopped eating cows there would be a whole lot of grass going to waste. And it´s true. One of the things that has killed most animals was when humans burned down forests in order to have ground for crops.

Human teeth are made for both vegetarian and animalistic food. And the reason we don´t have claws is probably because a long time ago some animal started climbing the trees and eating fruits. That became the monkey. Then one monkey climbed out of the trees and started eating meat again, and that became the human. But this meat eating started many years ago, so we have adapted to eating meat.

BTW do you know just how much B12 there is in yeast? It could be it has so little you need to eat unrealistic amounts.

In what sense does a potato know that it's been cut?

I did mention (post 38) that 4 grams of Marmite (yeast extract) provides 16.6% RDA of B12. That's quite a lot.

But who wants to eat 32 grams of Marmite every day? Some people can't stand even one.

32 grams would give you more than you need. I don't know who would want to eat that much. I'm just passing on the information.

But in presenting that information, you are arguing that meat is unnecessary for B12 supply, since it can be gained from marmite. But you only get approximately 1/6th of your daily supply from a serving (my calculation was based on 1/8th, sorry). So that tells me that, in order to get my daily supply, I'd have to eat 6 marmite sandwiches. And that's just to get my B12 supply... what other horrible things would I have to endure to get my protein?

How much of the shelve beef sees grass???
If we had managed more land for growing food(political) we might stand a chance, insteed of the industrial developments, there is life after marmite that is not the only source of vit b 12. I do not comdemn eating meat,diffrent strokes for diffent folks. The whole vit 12 argument is maddening, i've not got a deficency because i eat well balanced foods that my body responds to better. I understand the allergies situation if i cut out wheat as well as meat and dairy i would be stuck eating fruit and veg for life haven't got the hang of smilies yet! But can do fish <{{><

I'm not trying to convert you Colonel. Fat chance, wouldn't you say?

There do seem to be plenty of people who live quite happily on a vegan diet. I expect Gwennie would've been over here telling you how easy it is, only she's off looking after her ma in law just now. My mother used to make soups, stews and gravy with Marmite and you can also make it into a hot drink. Fortunately for me, I liked all those things.

As for protein - a good mix of grains and pulses should provide all the amino acids a body needs. If you regard everything other than flesh as horrible though, I guess there's no substitute for you.