Cultural Gadfly

Gadflies-
I am unashamedly using certain school assignments to double as posts on the rather silent site of late. I used to do history segments, now I am doing literary critique and opinion peices. Where did I go wrong. Horatius, Romulus, where are you!

The following is a analysis of the argument proffered by a fitness expert and frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, Kathy Freston.
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“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”
– G.K. Chesterton

I think that it is being more than generous to say that Kathy Freston’s argument in her blog-post article “Vegetarian Is the New Prius” is about as seaworthy as a boat made entirely of Swiss cheese. But before I descend into a full blown “ad hominem” assault on Ms. Freston, a course that would be fruitless and irrelevant, let us take a breath and gauge her argument on its own merits, not the opinions of an admittedly biased and hostile reviewer. I will attempt to expose her utter failure in all stages of the game, so that even a reader who is supportive of the author’s viewpoints will have to concede that the argument is a political and intellectual piñata: the more I hit it, the more delicious treats spill forth. And I might even give one of the other party guests a black eye!

A large portion of Ms. Freston’s argument hinges on a report issued by the UN concerning the impact of the livestock industry on the environment. She quotes the publication (without citing it, I might add) as stating that “the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems” (and since she didn’t cite the work, I can’t either). The author, of course, is writing with the apparent impression that global warming is a proven fact, not, as it really is, a theory of cause and effect. But even if the reader is inclined to agree with the author, does this statement not sound a little vague to you? Freston is arguing that if we really want to be green and responsible stewards of Mother Gaia, we should become vegetarian. She again alludes to this mysterious article when saying that over one fifth of the world’s carbon emissions come from livestock. At a very basic level, the first questions against this logic should be “What are the other top contributors?” and even a far simpler “Where did you get these statistics?”.

She attempts to shore up her argument by adding the somewhat more concrete argument that researchers at the University of Chicago conducted studies which indicate that in addition to the natural gasses cows, pigs, chickens, etc, emit while alive, it is the cost in fossil fuels injected into our atmosphere by their transport after their demise that really makes the farm animal a planet-killer. Therefore, switching to a non-meat diet will make you a better conservator. On the surface of it, this makes a degree of sense. But what about the farmers who rely on the raising and butchering and selling of said livestock to support their families? And if these enterprising horticulturalists switch to vegetable production, would not the same fossil-fuel problem be present?

I must also add that since Ms. Freston made no attempt to cite the U of Chicago research project, how are we to know that it even took place? Research scientists the University of Andorra recently conducted experiments that indicate one of the top causes of global warming is methane emissions from humans eating to many soy beans and tofu. See, I can do it too!

There is one paragraph in the article that I must attend to, briefly, before we reach the cannons-and-fireworks portion of the program. It is found in the middle of the article, and reads as follows:
“What we’re seeing is just the beginning, too. Meat consumption has increased five-fold in the past fifty years, and is expected to double again in the next fifty.” (802)

Has anyone suggested to the author that perhaps this is because the population of the earth has doubled in the past fifty years, and will further increase in the next fifty? According to the United Nations official census# , in 1960 the global population was at 3.093 billion, and today it hovers around 6.7 billion. Add to this the fact that the population lives an average of twenty years longer than in 1950 (up from 45 to 65). This, of course is due to advances in technology, lifestyle, medicine and (ahem) diet, such as much higher protein intake due to increased meat ( and, admittedly, bean) consumption. Raise your hand if you think that might possible have anything to do with that ominous hike in meat consumption.

Her nightmarish depiction of vast fields of cow dung destroying our planet later in the article is positively laughable. Evidently she does not realize that cow manure is, in fact, used to fertilize and revitalize the earth and the plants growing on it. But this faux pas is nothing compared to the blunder she makes next. Having realized, perhaps, that she has failed to make a logical argument, failed to toy with our emotions, and failed “epically” to endorse herself as an ethical billboard, she invokes the expertise of…two actors, a musician, and a comedian.
“Vegetarian foods have…garnered the support of celebrities such as Bill Maher, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and of course Leonardo DiCaprio” (803)

And?

If I wanted an expert opinion on acting, I might ask DiCaprio (definitely not Baldwin). If I wanted to know how to right a song about LSD, I would ask McCartney. If I wanted to know how to be a political parrot and atheist, I might consider asking Maher. Maybe. But since when are any of these people experts on biology, chemistry, thermodynamics, livestock, or even vegetables?

How is one supposed to take an author seriously when she resorts to the celebrities-do-it-so-it-must-be-cool tactic? It is plain that she is reaching for a reason that everyone should be vegetarian. How is a website considered credible when it publishes such atrociously aborted logic? I don’t know. But what I do know is that I ate a hamburger tonight. With cheese. And it was tasty.

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CITED WORKS

– Freston, Kathy. “Vegetarian Is the New Prius.” The Huffington Post Jan. 2007. Rpt. in Everything’s an Argument. 5th ed. Andrea A. Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. 800-803. Print.
– The World at Six Billion”, United Nations Population Division, 1999

Categories: Comedy, Global Warming, Literature, Main Stream Media, Politics, Science \\ Tags: G.K. Chesterton, Huffington Post, Kathy Freston, Literary Critique, Livestock Sector