Annotated bibliography concepts and applications

Banerjee, Mandira. (2010). One Burger, Hold the Meat -- Being Vegetarian in America.

New American Media. Retrieved April 7, 2013, from http://news.newamericamedia.org.

Banerjee is a media specialist and she presents data in this article on how many

Americans are vegetarians. The bottom line is different from other research for this paper because it doesn't attack factory farming. Banerjee is interested more in numbers and explanations for why people turn to vegetarianism than in ethics and morality.

The value of this piece is that it presents data (7.3 million Americans are vegetarians and another 22.8 million are "inclined" towards vegetarianism). Interestingly, the number of people who embrace vegetarianism is not growing, but those in America interested in "eating more vegetarian meals, or who are vegetarian-inclined, is sky-rocketing" (Banerjee). The vegetarian culture in India is referenced (which is noted for its embrace of vegetarianism vis-a-vis Hinduism), as is the ghastly amount of water (390 gallons) needed to raise a pound of beef vs. only 25 gallons to produce a pound of wheat.

Devries, Juliana. (2012). Making Choices: Ethics and Vegetarianism. Dissent, 59(2), 39-41

In this piece Devries writes a personal journal about how she became a vegetarian.

She also relates to climate change, world hunger, food-borne illnesses and she is vigorously opposed to feeding vegetarian protein to cattle while millions go hungry.

While not an "expert" per se Devries clearly has done her homework and as a result her short piece is full of worthwhile, pertinent information for this project. She notes that: 18% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farming; meat consumption is "utterly unsuited to [a] sustainable future"; and that 43% of U.S. vegetarians are between the ages of 18-34. Since animals have the capacity to suffer they should have rights, she insists.

Henning, Brian G. (2011). Standing in Livestock's 'Long Shadow': The Ethics of Eating Meat

on a Small Planet. Ethics & The Environment, 16(2), 63-93.

Henning leaves nothing to the imagination in this worthy essay: he insists that the mass consumption of animals is responsible for problems from the human obesity epidemic to the heating up of the planet. He sounds the alarm regarding the world's shortage of fresh, clean water (and how factory farms use extraordinary quantities of it).

Henning is a very convincing author (and philosophy professor) whose books on ethics and the environmental impacts of livestock production give this article credibility. This article is extremely helpful in terms of researching the ethical issues surrounding the production of meat. Moreover, Henning links meat production and the slaughter of animals to a myriad of the world's most serious environmental and social problems.

It is shocking to read that 650 animals are slaughtered every second of every day, and that human resistance to antibiotics is caused by the antibiotics injected into cattle to prevent the inevitable sickness they will encounter by standing in their own feces.

Hussar, Karen M., and Harris, Paul L. (2009). Children Who Choose Not to Eat Meat: A Study

of Early Moral Decision-Making. Social Development, 19(3), 627-641

This article studied children that eschew meat-eating and yet they do not pass value judgment on those who do eat meat. The piece also investigates whether vegetarian children embrace other behaviors that reflect ethics apart from children that eat meat.

It is clear Hussar had conducted extensive research on the behavior of children and hence her work is credible. The welfare of animals is the top reason why children who prefer a vegetarian diet made that choice. The article is highly relevant to this study. The fact that a researcher would conduct empirical research on 48 young children and extract solid data on their moral choices is extraordinary.