One of the required essays to get into the honors college that I am applying too! Could use all the help I can get! THANK YOU!!
Question: Describe an instance in which you changed your mind about a previously held belief. What led you to hold this belief in the first place and how did you come to change your view?
As a child, animal based food products had a large presence in our household. Being a part of a family with a strong eastern European influence, foods such as cheese and salami where an additional food group all on their own. Without a doubt, every meal my mother prepared for us contained multiple animal based products. Having a dish without meat was a rare. My sister and I drank milk with almost every single meal. My parents where strong advocated for milk consumption within growing children. They strongly believed that the calcium source within cow's milk was vital for proper growth and development. Growing up I do recall questioning the moral correctness of consuming another animal. I specifically recall one instance in particular where I had questioned the rationality of consuming a slow roasted rabbit that my mother had prepared for dinner one evening. My mother assured me that the animals that we consumed never felt any pain, had no perception of what was to become of them, and that most importantly that we as humans needed to consume animals in order to maintain balance on Earth and to keep animals from over populating. Although I am mindful that it was never my parents' intention to ever cause harm, I have now come to learn after doing much research that my parents views and practice of consuming animal based food products is harmful to the human body, the planet, and a contributor to the loss of billions of innocent lives each year. After becoming educated on the magnitude of effects consuming animals has, my views on a lifestyle consisting of animal products have become completely altered. Through my research and enlightenment on the detrimental effects, I adopted a lifestyle consisting of solely plant based foods, or more commonly known as a vegan lifestyle.
Aside from the few occasions where I questioned the moral correctness of eating something that was once able to think and feel for itself, I thought nothing wrong with the way of life I was living. It was not until I was browsing Netflix one Friday night looking for something to watch that I had stumbled across a documentary called Vegucated. Now, I have no idea what compelled me to want to watch a documentary, let alone a documentary on veganism, but I was intrigued. As I watched this film, I started to make connections in my mind. I experienced an array of mixed emotions from anger, disgust, condemnation, and wretchedness as the film revealed the truth behind the treatment of the animals that we derive our food from. I learned what the true meaning behind the labels on our food products such as "free-range" and "grass fed". I was exposed to the truth. No cows or chickens or pigs or any animal is treated as it should be within our meat and dairy industry.
After being uncovered with the information from the film Vegucated, I sought to learn more. This led me to binge watch multiple documentaries of the same topic. Forks over Knives, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, Food Inc., and Cowspercay all contributed to the expansion of my education on the meat and dairy industry. Aside from the cruel treatment of the animals, I learned how consuming animal products is harmful to the planet and humans. One film, Forks over Knives, had a particularly strong focus on the effects of animal based food products had on the body. The film went in depth on the research performed by Dr. Colin Campbell, a nutritional scientist and not to mention a Penn State Alumni. Dr.Campbell's research on the effects that consuming creatine (main protein found in meat) had on the growth and development of tumor cells within the liver of lab rats concluded that the higher the consumption of creatine, the more rapid the growth of cancer within the liver. Given this information, Campbell was able to conclude that consuming meat greatly increases the growth of cancer. Essentially, we as a society are taking away the life of innocent animals to consume products that are severely toxic to our own bodies. Where is the logic in that? It was also concluded through various studies that the consumption of red meat has had a strong correlation in the development of prostate cancer and the consumption of dairy has linked to breast cancer. So what I struggle to understand is why would someone purposefully put something in their body with the knowledge that it is not only harming the innocent lives of over ten billion animals in the United States alone each year, but could also lead to various diseases and cancers that have the ability to significantly lower a person's life.
As if having the knowledge of the cruelty and harmful health effects are not enough to skew someone opinion, the meat and dairy industry is a huge contributor to global warming and Earth's rising climate. In total, the amount of oil needed to transport the cattle, meat, dairy, and operate machinery within the eat and dairy industry sums up to be larger of a contributor to the depletion of the Earth's atmosphere than the entire global transportation system. And to make matters worse, farm animals give off large amounts of methane which is extremely detrimental to the atmosphere. I was shocked to learn that each year the average cow produces enough methane per year to do the same greenhouse damage as four tons of carbon dioxide.
So my question is why do we continue to do this? Why do we continue to consume animal products when humans can derive all of their nutritional needs from whole plant based foods? Why do people continue to consume products that destroy the plant? Why do people ingest foods that have the power to kill? Why do people eat animals that some people keep as pets? I used to be someone who loved to eat chicken nuggets and ice cream, but my views have changed. I am no longer capable of eat meat and dairy because of my expose to the truth behind the corrupt practices that so many people are blind of within the meat and dairy industry. Today I am proud to say that I am living a plant-based vegan lifestyle. Not only have I become loads healthier but I am also saving hundreds of lives a year and leaving behind a smaller carbon footprint for myself and future generations. Although some people do not agree with my views and do not agree with a vegan lifestyle, no one will be able to alter my opinion. I have hope that we as a society can fix the damage we have done to ourselves and the Earth. I strongly believe a strong education is what we need in order to open up people's minds to making a change, just as it did for me. In the end, everything has a weird way of working themselves out. It may take time, but I am hopeful as a society we will be able to make steps to change and improvement to our planet.
Kat, I read and tried to understand your argument in this particular belief and honestly, you did great
in making sure that you have inputs in all sides of the topic.
You were able to cover the questions as to, what is that belief that you got used to, what intrigued
you to try and explore this particular belief and what led you to make necessary action that led to changing your
belief. As I proof read your essay, I also felt great that you were able to write it in such a way that
your reader is able to understand it and the logical construction of your essay made it even better.
Nevertheless, it's a well written essay! For future reference though, I suggest that you make a little space
on your paragraphs in order for the essay not to look too crowded and try to go straight to the point, this way
you will have more time and space for your argument and not on the process that led such action.
I hope my insights helped and should you need further assistance do let us know and were here to help.
