In August of 2012, I ran one of my first kosher slaughter workshops at the Urban Adamah educational farm in Berkeley. I explained the kosher process and demonstrated live slaughter and processing on a few of their spent laying hens. Several participants cried during the slaughter and while some were inspired to eat better meat afterwards, others said they wanted to become vegetarians or vegans as a result of the experience. The class not only facilitated a tremendous amount of dialogue, growth and learning for all involved, it also provided a highly nutritious and tasty heritage chicken soup for farm visitors. This past Sunday, Urban Adamah had once again set up a workshop where they were slated to slaughter the remaining 15 hens of their laying flock. Things were going very smoothly until animal rights activists found out about the event and began to organize a mass protest. Their threat eventually caused the farm’s landlord to request a cancellation and despite holding strong until that point, farm founder Adam Berman was forced to scrub the workshop in the face of this large and disruptive demonstration.

I support people who want to be vegans or vegetarians %100 but I don’t support the claim that meat consumption is inherently immoral. So I've decided to share my top 3 reasons why meat consumption is not only moral but an important piece of who we are.

3.       Meat is Healthy
Growing up many of us were told that meat is unhealthy, it makes people fat and will clog your arteries. Luckily, in recent years the studies which were thought to prove this have been largely debunked* and most all health professionals maintain that animal flesh is actually highly nutritious.* Meat contains high levels of protein, good fats and large amounts of vitamins B3, B6, A, D, K, Iron, Zinc, and Selenium just to name a few.* But by far the most important nutrient to be gotten from animal products is B12 which cannot be found in any vegetable source. B12 is so important that low levels can cause intense fatigue, mental depression, irreparable nerve damage and a myriad of other serious and debilitating symptoms.* So I ask you, how can something necessary for maintaining basic human health be essentially immoral?

I’m sick and tired of vegetarians thinking they are somehow doing animals a favor by not eating their flesh. Now I’ve got no beef, pun intended, with vegans. You’ve got to respect people who are able to abstain from all animal products, and as long as they can do it in a healthy manner, I see it as a positive way to fully and truly avoid the cruelties of commercial animal production. For that matter, I have no problem with people becoming vegetarians because of personal preference, health, or environmental concerns. While I do think that meat production done right can in many instances help the environment,* and that meat is very healthy when consumed as part of a balanced diet,* I can still respect people choosing to abstain from it for legitimate considerations. What I absolutely cannot stand is when someone becomes a vegetarian because of animal welfare. The fantasy that simply going veg helps animals is a lie, it hurts animals, it harms society, and I will not keep quiet about it any longer.