Are Humans Herbivores?

I found this interesting article on a site that I'm finding more and more useful: Are Humans Carnivores or Herbivores? It turns out that we're anatomically herbivores. Interesting.

I'm just finding more and more reasons to go vegan, or vegetarian at the least. Let me see if I can list them. First off, you all know my "level of complexity of the nervous system" theory. The nervous system of an organism more or less determines the amount of consciousness that organism exhibits. For example, a carrot has no nervous system, and therefore has little to no consciousness, as consciousness is classicly defined. A cow, however, has a rather complex nervous system, with both a reptilian and a mammalian brain. This puts them very close to us, except we have the benefit of the neo-mammalian brain. I'm not adding human characteristics to animals (anthropomorphizing them). It's a scientific fact that all mammals have at least a two part brain, and therefore they share many emotions with humans.

Or, to put it simply, a cow screams louder than a carrot when you kill one, therefore it's better to eat a carrot. :)

Then there's the whole herbivore thing. I mean, this is just one resource, so I don't really know how much I can rely on this guy. But really, that's just sort of the icing on the cake for me.

A third reason is the fact that cattle raising, at least in the industrialized, non-"organic" fashion most corporations employ, is very harmful to the environment and just plain inefficient. If you want to feed the world, you're not going to do it with beef. You're much better off with wheat and other plant-based foods.

Fourth reason? I honestly don't really like the taste of meat. I find that when I make a sandwich, that's the part I enjoy the least. I just sort of eat it out of custom. Which is really rather dumb.

I'm not saying that everyone should become a vegan or a vegetarian. I realize that humans have a long history of eating meat. In fact, some anthropologists attribute our large brains on our anscestors consumption of protein rich meat. I'm just saying that for me, in the the 21st century, eating meat doesn't make that much sense. It's sort of an argumentum ad antiquitum. "We've been doing it for forever, so keep doing it!" And that's not how I roll.

But I don't think there's anything wrong with killing animals, to a certain extent. That's how nature works. You don't find many vegetarians out there, at least by choices. You're not going to find a lion that eats lettuce, or a cheetah that eats brocoli. It's just not going to happen. Those animals do what they must to survive. I'm most certainly not going to second guess Nature. She's been around the block a few more times than me.

Now, all I have to do is figure out how to phase meat out of my diet. That'll be the fun part. :)... :(

Am I a crazy-liberal-pinko-pansy-treehugging hippie? Maybe. But it just makes sense to me.

Namaste.

(PS - Here's more stats on meat eating. Admittedly, it's from a place called AnimalSuffering.com. Don't know how reliable that is. I don't much like PETA, so if they're in any way related, phewy on them!)