The upcoming issue of National Review (subscription required) includes a thoughtful article about anti-meat activism in Europe and the United States. Author Jonah Goldberg aptly calls the activists “carnophobes,” and provides a valuable public service in making a positive case for eating meat: “No intelligent discussion of vegetarianism can ignore this simple fact: Cows taste good. As one friend puts it, if God didn’t want us to eat cows He wouldn’t have made them out of steak. This is not a trivial point. Cows, like other livestock, are in many ways man-made creatures designed over thousands of years of husbandry to provide a ready supply of meat. If vegetarians had their way and everyone ‘converted’ (their word) to a meatless lifestyle tomorrow, it wouldn’t be like Muppets walking home after a long day at the office; there is no ‘natural’ ecosystem for the millions of unemployed cows and chickens to return to.”
