Animal Liberation By Singer Analysis

What is the purpose of eating? Is it to enjoy the umami of the food? Is it to become morally correct? Or is it just to satisfy the basic body needs to survive? Singer’s “Animal Liberation” seeks to end the discrimination of nonhuman animals, especially the consumption of them, based on the vegan ideal that advocates a diet with no animal suffering and cruelty. Pace to Singer’s belief, Kathryn Paxton George, in her article “Discrimination and Bias in the Vegan Ideal”, argues that the vegan ideal discriminates those who are not in the “male physiological norm” (21). Indeed, human consumption of nonhuman animals undoubtedly causes animal suffering and cruelty, however, labeling humans as moral or immoral based on their food choice is discriminatory …show more content…
Individuals in different stages of life have more limited food sources that further forbid them from being moral. Those individuals consume nonhuman animals not because they want to be cruel or immoral, but rather just to satisfy what their body needs in order to survive and develop. Some could argue that humans can choose to be morally correct, survive, and maintain a healthy body by becoming vegans, however, only a relative group of “adult, middle-class males living in industrialized countries” is suitable for those diets (Singer 8, George 19). Singer has claimed that cultivating soybeans “can produce far more protein per acre,” thus eliminate those physical and economic obstacles (8). While Singer’s claim is debatable, he seems to be neglecting the fact that humans also need other types of nutrient to survive and develop. The vegan ideal would hinder “women, children, the aged, and others” who “have substantially different nutritional requirements” physically (George 19). The Human Energy Requirements lists the different nutrients needed to survive and develop for people in different stages of life; some stages, such as infancy, require more certain nutrients than adults. As a matter of fact, vegan infants and toddler often lack essential nutrients for body development, such as “vitamins D and vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and zinc” (qtd. in George 25). This …show more content…
Animals, including humans, extract energy from food to supply its body with the nutrients to survive and function. While individuals with different body types can find the vegan ideal extremely difficult, those living in some developing countries might not even have the option to be vegan due to limits on food resource, technology, and economy. No matter what diet a person chooses to have, the final goal for the person should be to consume whatever is available that can satisfy his or her nutritional needs in order to survive and