[vegetarianism].

i wrote this persuasive speech for my speech class. the assignment required us to use monroe's motivated sequence [basically, a sales pitch] in order to convince people to take some certain action. here is my finished product, written in order to provoke someone to turn vegetarian. i thought it would be an interesting way to start a new topic, so feel free to discuss:

How would you feel waking up every day in to a world in which global warming is rapidly progressing? Or what about waking up in to a world in which you are forced to breathe polluted air and drink dirty water? Or perhaps a world where senseless mass killings occur each and every day? Well I am here to tell you that not only are you living in this world, you, personally, are contributing to it simply by eating meat, and it is time to stop allowing yourself to be cruel, unhealthy, and ecologically damaging.

Each and every year, over 27 billion animals are brutally and senselessly slaughtered for food. Chickens, turkeys, and pigs raised for food spend the entirety of their miserable lives cramped in cages which are located in large, dark warehouses. They are often so squished that the birds are unable to spread even one lethargic wing. Furthermore, animals raised on factory farms are bred, drugged, and fed so many hormones that they grow to sizes too proportionally large for their weakened legs to support. As a result, many animals die within mere inches of their own food and water sources simply because they are physically incapable of reaching them. And as if this is not torture enough, these animals are not even given an opportunity to feel sunshine on their feeble bodies or breathe fresh air into their lungs until they are heartlessly directed onto trucks (on which they are provided with no food or water) and are ultimately directed through harsh weather conditions to the slaughterhouse. Many of these innocent creatures die during transport due to these inhumane conditions or become too weakened to even walk off of the truck on their own. For those animals unfortunate enough to survive, they are hung upside down, entirely conscious, and their throats are slit. Some even remain alive as they are skinned, chopped apart, or burned in defeathering tanks. And all of this torture occurs so that you can enjoy a supposedly tasty piece of another living creature's body at dinner time.

While this may seem like quite the horrid consequence as a result of your selfish actions, I assure you that this is only the beginning. Making the conscious decision to eat meat is also absolutely dreadful for the environment. Half of all of our potable water goes to either the animals raised on factory farms or to producing the crops which are fed to them. These creatures consume an astounding 70% of the corn, wheat, and grains grown in our country every year, in addition to 1/3 of all of our raw materials and fossil fuels. Animals also create 130 times the waste that humans do. This results in waste polluting our waterways as well as gases poisoning our air and contributing significantly to global warming. Furthermore, a myriad of forests are bulldozed each year to lend space to factory farms and the agricultural farms used to raise the food which is given to them. This results in erosion, extinction of species, and habitat loss.

And if hurting innocent creatures and contributing to the poor state of our environment is not enough to weigh you down, perhaps the unhealthy state which results from eating meat will be. Meat eating is directly related to many infamous diseases which include (but are not limited to): strokes, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, allergies, and food poisoning. Most notably, it is connected to heart disease, which is recognized as the number one killer of people in the United States. This condition is due to a build-up up of cholesterol and saturated fat in the arteries which comes straight from animal products. Also, people who consume meat are 1/9 more likely to be, at some point in their lives, obese. Moreover, research has shown that cancer rates increase by 40% with the consumption of meat.

So what can you do to prevent this futile killing spree? What can you do to save our limited natural resources? And what can you do to improve your health? I am ecstatic to tell you that you can do a lot! All you have to do is make the decision to go vegetarian. By choosing to eliminate all meat products from your diet, you will be making a statement to the factory farmers that you do not support their cruelty. In addition, you will promote healthful resources being available to humans, significantly reduce the effects of global warming, reduce your risk of cancer by 40%, and greatly decrease your risk of heart attack. Though many people may argue that one person cannot make a difference in the number of animals killed per year, it has been shown that the cost of one single individual going vegetarian provides the benefit of the lives of 100 animals being spared. By becoming vegetarian, you have the power to support a harmonious world free of cruelty and environmental issues, as well as to promote your own personal health. Without this solution, you will not only encourage the declining morals of society but also promote a rapid downward spiral in your health and in our environment.

Duh, haven't you ever read Animal Farm? Sorry, I'm an ass. I can't help it. It was too easy.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

i stopped being interested in what you had to say right here (wasn't that interested to begin with, believe it or not). at least you aren't making people suffer through the whole thing before insulting them.

sales pitch? hardly.

It's been awhile myself. I was actually thinking about re-reading it today which is kinda funny given this article and your comment. If I remember correctly, it's about the Russian Revolution.

I was a vegetarian for six years. Then I stopped caring; ate some beef jerky, had unprotected sex, and wore white after Labor Day. All the hormones I started ingesting gave me some luscious curves again, but my skin broke out really bad at first.

I got news for you hun, even if everyone becomes a vegan that's not going to stop animals from getting brutally slaughtered for food.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm confused as to why you opened this thread, though, if you are uninterested in the topic.

Have a nice night.

Also, to be constructive here I think it would be helpful to cite your sources. Saying "studies show" but not citing what study shows this doesn't lend much credence to your argument. Reading into meat consumption's correlation to cancer risk I found that the percentage was closer to 20-30% and that vegetarians were 40% less likely to develop cancer.

thats not very persuasivey.

That makes more sense given the books narrative--overthrow and subsequent reorganization.

I feel as though we're unintentionally detracting from missvon's thread.

please do. it was apparently too much to handle anyway. haha.

i wasn't trying to persuade you, personally. in fact, i don't really care whatsoever what you choose to do [or not do] after reading this. i was simply seeking to start an intelligent discussion. apparently that was not possible and i'm over it.

i'm sorry you have such a bitter attitude and/or have to aggresively display your supposed superiority to someone you don't even know online.

good night, to you. : )

Counterpoint: Animals are yummier than vegetables.

I eventually realized that attempting to force my [former] views on everyone was just as unnecessary as, say, a conservative Christian trying to convince me to be pro-life, ya mean? A decision such as becoming a vegetarian is something people are most likely going to make on their own without input from people around them.

i totally agree and honestly had no intention of condemning anyone with my post. this was a required assignment and i thought it would be a good discussion point, but obviously i was wrong. i do not expect everyone [or anyone, for that matter] to agree with me, but rather am curious to hear the intelligent positions of my opposition. it seems that everyone is eager to leave bitter comments but no one is eager to defend the position in which they are rooted.

That's usually how it goes. I don't think that in my six years as a vegetarian I encountered a stronger "anti-vegetarian" argument than "WELL ANIMALS TASTE GOOD SO I'M GONNA DO IT!" Obviously, there are plenty of great reasons NOT to be a vegetarian that require more research and thought than the afore mentioned one, but people usually just won't waste their time.

Maybe that is because they are not trying to convince someone else? If you're looking for a reason to do or not do something, do you continue looking for a reason after you've found one that sufficiently convinces you of the correct path for you? So, when posed with the question "meat or veggies?", I don't need to go any further than "meat is tastier" to convince myself which I should choose. So, why would I keep looking for more reasons?

Well, there are several non-consumptive uses for animals: love, entertainment, and protection (that's all I can come up with at the moment). So, it depends on how certain domestic animals can fit into these categories. Keep in mind, if we're examining this on a global scale and not solely the US, that different cultures "appropriate" animals for different uses. ANYWAY, pigs could be pets. They've proven to be intelligent and there is already a trend of people possessing them as pets. Cows, chickens, I dunno. I don't see them guarding anything. I could love a cow, but it'd be a damn expensive pet. Chickens, yeah, well, they're chickens.

Certainly, most of these animal populations would decline. Really, there'd be no need to keep them at current levels. Let them go wild? no, they're to lame, they'd become extinct in a decade (no doubt because of human influence).

So what's more ethical? Or is that even the question?

For the sake of argument? Fuck if I know, I was moreso relating my experiences to her, not simply throwing shit out there for people to chew up and spit out.

i guess its good that you're not condemning anyone for being cruel, selfish, immoral and unhealthy.

i thought that was the whole point of the whole thing.

You often do that in rhetoric type classes. I didn't necessarily read this thread as her trying to gain converts rather than "this is a persuasive argument I was required to make for a class." There's a definite (perhaps very large) difference in motive and intent. Just saying.

oh i understand that. im just saying that the speech does not succeed, mainly due to the insults. there are far better ways to persuade people to give more thought to what they eat.

Fair enough. That's what we like to refer to ad hominems, as I'm sure you're aware, and they don't make for sound logic. I'm just trying to give her a break, after all it's her first CE post, and she's not a troll--gotta give her something for that.

perhaps we are finally getting somewhere here. for this speech, i had to make three points for vegetarianism. my three points were 1. factory farming is cruel 2. factory farming is ecologically devestating and 3. eating meat is not generally healthful.

this was required to be written in such a way that people recognize they have a problem. i think these three points convey that message. i was then required to identify how these problems can be resolved. in this case, the solution was vegetarianism.

so please enlighten me here, and let's get to some constructive criticism. what three points would you suggest i should have used in convincing people of the problems with eating meat?