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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion letters

LETTER: Go vegan

In the weekend section Thursday, Sept. 21, “A Slice of Life,” the story discusses the pros and cons of different diets, without taking any obviously apparent position about which diet is best. Interestingly, it leaves the best diet — a vegan diet — for last. While I am a relative newcomer to a vegan diet — I started in September of last year after some experimentation with vegetarianism — I have long recognized its merits. 

Chief among these is ethics. A vegan diet is not only the most most moral diet, but, morality in fact, demands it. The essential reason why murder and slavery are wrong is that humans have feelings and desires, and they care about what happens to them. 

Humans generally want to continue living and with as little suffering as possible. The same is also true of pigs, chickens, cows and fish. Confining these animals to small spaces and killing them, even if they are “free range,” is wrong for essentially the same reasons it would be wrong to do the same to humans. 

As the article also mentions, eating meat can be bad for the environment. According to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization study, animal agriculture accounts for up to 18 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Other studies have found the percentage to be higher. Finally, eating meat can be bad for your health.   

The main reasons I postponed taking on a vegan diet were laziness and the idea that it would be difficult. After getting started, I realized this is just not the case. Your IU Health Fee entitles you to one 60-minute nutrition consultation per semester at the IU Health Center. 

Campus organizations, such as VegIU, and the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, are here to provide community and support. And Bloomington offers numerous  options for ethical dining out, including consciously vegan establishments such as the Owlery and Rainbow Bakery, as well as a host of international restaurants with menus that mostly consist of plant-based foods.

The answer to the question “How are you supposed to decide what diet to choose?" is easy. Just do the right thing. Go vegan.     

James Schultz

Bloomington, IN

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