You are what you eat!

In chapter 17 of The Omnivore's Dilemma, we run head-first into the ever-sophisticated dilemma: whether or not one should eat meat.
An obvious opposition to this habit is that we shouldn't due to the fact that animals are cruelly killed just so we can fill our bellies up. Animal activists believe that animals are organisms capable of experiencing pain and thus, should be spared a torturous (and short) life. As philosopher Peter Singer argues, animals have just as much right to live as do mentally-ill people or babies.

Although I do not support the maltreatment of animals, I'm a believer of the fact that it is not as easy for some people to convert to be a vegan as others. From a biological and evolutionary standpoint, we were built as meat-eating machines and thus, it may not be as easy for some to just abandon the mindset of eating meat. Yes, some people become disgusted with what they see in a slaughterhouse and can easily recall this image whenever seeing a steak to stop themselves but for others, this simply isn't as easy as a memory-trick. As a matter of fact, eating meat for some can even possibly be called an addiction, which takes a long painful time to adjust.

Thus, in my opinion, whether or not to eat meat is a complex social issue on many different levels.
2 particularly interesting questions which I have on this issue is:

- what would happen to the economy if more and more people ate meat?
- can vegetables/fruits be grown at a fast enough pace to fulfill the population's dietary needs?