I encouraged my daughter to write a comment after the recent email on a contest with the New York Times on eating meat. Go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magazine/tell-us-why-its-ethical-to-eat-meat-a-contest.html.

My daughter took the challenge on with the contest on eating meat. I want to share with you her article and why we need more people in the industry just like her.. I would hope for their own benefit (panel) they don't try to debate her.. She has raised cattle, worked and showed them and doctored those that needed it and eaten great USA BEEF. She is very knowledgeable and informed by listening and reading and I will attest that she can debate anyone.

A proud father,

Mike Schultz

With veganism and vegetarianism becoming ever more popular, one might begin to believe eating meat is indeed cruel and unethical, and that all the nutrients found in meat are available through other sources. Those who eat meat are not only feasting on the tissues of poor, helpless animals; they’re also making an uneducated choice by continuing their carnivorous habits. If all of these statements are true, why bother eating meat at all?

As humans, we are genetically predisposed to eating meat. At around 16 months of age, all humans develop what are known as “canine” teeth. These pointy, tissue-tearing teeth are found in all carnivores. The purpose of these teeth: to rip through meat for easier chewing. Humans can acquire valuable vitamins and nutrients from meat that are incredibly hard to find elsewhere. A lean cut of red meat is low in fat content, has moderate cholesterol and is one of the richest sources of protein available. It has been argued that all of the nutrients found in meat can be acquired from vitamin supplements, or by eating a very well-balanced vegan full of vitamin-rich foods. Unfortunately, proteins are not created equally. Animal proteins (those found in meat) are high-quality complete proteins that contain all the essential amino acids the body requires to stay healthy. Plant proteins such as nuts, grains and seeds are incomplete proteins and do not provide the body with those essential amino acids. When meat is such a great provider of essential vitamins and nutrients, not taking advantage of such a plentiful source seems not only wasteful, but uneducated.

Aside from the health benefits of eating meat, the bigger issue in debating the ethics of eating meat is thinking about what would happen if everyone decided to simply stop carnivorous behaviors and turned strictly to a vegan diet. Cattle, for example, are raised purely for purposes of food. They don’t provide companionship, and if they weren’t edible or didn’t provide milk they would be considered a nuisance simply because they take up a great amount of space and serve no other purpose. Just like in the animal kingdom, predators are necessary to keep animal populations in control. If humans didn’t eat the meat, the animals being produced for their meat would have to be killed for not reason other than to make sure the population was in control. It’s far more ethical to kill and animal for food purposes than to just kill it and burn the bodies or let them decay in a pit for number control purposes.

Around the United States, the topic of frequent debate is how farming affects the land’s natural beauty by tilling into the soil. If the entire world’s food supply had to come from crops, the land that is now being left relatively untouched, used for grazing, would be stripped to cropland. Trees in the middle of pastures that animals use for shade would be taken down so the field’s potential could be maximized. Raising animals for food consumption allows farmers to leave the land in a relatively untouched state—such would not be the case with increased crop production. Millions of farmers in the United States rely on their livestock’s meat production to make a living. According to year-end statistics released by USDA, red meat exports set new records across the board in 2011, and demand for U.S. red meat has never been higher. What seems more unethical to you: using livestock as a food source or completely avoiding meat and leaving millions of farm families and meat packing plant workers without income?