Integritus Prime

In the final episode of our Beyond Medicine series, Eat Your Way to a Better World, we address the relationship between the meat and dairy industries, and gender. In previous posts, we have already raised awareness on how eating our way to a better world impacts our health, animals, climate change and biodiversity.

Let’s see how meat and dairy affect gender issues.

1. If we choose to consume conventional animal products, then we are supporting abuse of females in factory farms. Looking at animal agriculture, especially the dairy industry, we find that there’s a lot of abuse to cows. It is the cow that is repeatedly raped and artificially inseminated to make her pregnant, so she can give birth and produce milk. As soon as the calf is born, the baby is taken away from the mother and the milk is used for human consumption.
2. The male calves also are not treated well. They are sold to be killed for veal or reared for sperm, or shot dead. The females are reared to undergo the same fate as the mother cow. Once the cows are too old to get pregnant or produce enough milk they are then sold for their skin (to make leather) and meat.
3. Men who work in the meat and dairy industry are known to abuse animals – it is an accepted norm. This translates to more crimes, in particular, sexual offenses, outside of the slaughterhouse.
4. Men are also taught that eating meat is a manly and eating vegetables is lame. Aggression is touted as the right of men, and is glorified in peer groups, through mainstream movies and online games. Making women submit to men’s desire and demands is seen as a man’s right. This contributes to domestic violence, intimate partner violence, rapes and assaults. The reality is that eating processed red meat and all the saturated fat it contains is linked to erectile dysfunction.

The abuse culture in the animal agriculture translates to how these men behave in the society as well. So the question is, do we want to support violence and injustice?

Abuse and violence runs across our social fabric and our food systems. We can stop this cycle starting with our own food choices. Simply put, we can stop ingesting violence. We can choose to avoid meat and dairy and take a plant-based approach to health and wellness, while simultaneously cultivating compassion for animals, supporting biodiversity, and reducing our contribution to climate change.

All living beings have the right to live on this earth in peace and harmony. It is through the protection (not the violation) of the feminine that we can achieve more peace. Let’s start with what’s on our plates.

Share with us your thoughts on food choices and gender issues.