"An Open Letter From a Farmer to Angry Vegetarians"

To me, it has always been common sense that vegetarians and vegans chose their diet because of their compassion for animals and because diets like those save animal's lives. At least that's what I thought until reading Jenna Woginrich's article "An Open Letter From a Farmer to Angry Vegetarians." Woginrich brings up the point that. no matter what you eat, you are still taking lives, even if you are not eating animal products. Just because the taking of lives is much easier to see in a meat eating diet, that does not mean plant based diets are any different. She states that diets depending solely on plants take food and habitats away from the animals who need them, machines that harvest the crops kill animals living beneath them, and the many chemicals used on the crops poison and kill animals as well. As I said, I had never thought about a plant based diet being harmful to animals in anyway, but now that I have heard that side of the argument, I see the fact in it. Unfortunately, this also seems to mean there is little hope for humans to live in a way that we do not endanger our environment. I don't think I would have agreed with her point if she had not written her article in a way that applauds vegetarians and their choice of diet instead of attacking them for it the way many have done to her. If this had just been an angry response to people who insulted her, I would not have given her argument very much thought, so I'm glad she decided to write maturely.