Pesci-Vegetarianism is beneficial

I urge you to put aside your bias, as hard as that may be, and enjoy the arguments that are about to be presented to you. They will be broken down into 5 different sections: • Introduction • On Health • On Environmentalism • On Burden • and Conclusion ____________________ Introduction: My opponent makes his stance very clear, he is in favor of pesci-vegetarianism because it is beneficial. The word beneficial is where the conflict lies. Beneficial, according to dictionary.com, is defined as producing or promoting a favorable result; advantageous. Throughout my rebuttal, I will prove to you that there lacks an inherent advantage in pesci-vegetarianism. Meaning, pesci-vegetarianism is not the most favorable way of eating comparatively. ____________________ On Health: The advantageous aspect of pesci-vegetarianism may appear clear to most people, the first thing that comes to mind is a healthy person. BUT being a pesci-vegetarian, does not mean you are a healthy person per say. A pesci-vegetarian would lack, proper amounts of protein, iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin B-12, vital nutrients that a healthy person would need. My opponent tries to preempt this point by stating that he can obtain a sufficient amount of iron and protein. I would argue that different types of proteins are made up of different permutations of amino acid chains. In order to create a "complete protein" or a protein that can be assimilated into the human body as tissue, you must consume foods that contain complementary chains of amino acids. The only way that you can achieve this complementarity is through the consumption of certain meats that are prohibited by a pesci-vegetarian diet. Unfortunately, most, if not all of the foods that my opponent lists, lose most of there protein during the digestion process, thus they are considered "incomplete proteins", in that they fail to provide a sufficient amount of nutrients because they cannot be assimilated into the human body as tissue. Most importantly, being a pesci-vegetarian does not inherently make you a healthier person, my opponent has yet to prove the contrary. Furthermore, if my opponent feels as if this is an inadequate justification, I reserve the right to add new arguments in my next speech. ____________________ On environmentalism: I do not believe that this a benefit of pesci-vegetarianism. I would argue that the ideology of pesci-vegetarianism, points towards a pre-vegetarian state. Meaning, the initial purpose of pesci-vegetarianism was to serve as a way for omnivores to have a smooth transition from cows and pigs, down into just fish and eventually into no meat, pesci-vegetarianism being the mid-way point. Pyramid: ______________________*____________________ ___________________-Vegans-___________________ _________________--Vegetarians--___________________ _______________-Pesci-Vegetarians-____________________ _____________--------Omnivores--------_____________________ ___________------------Carnivores----------____________________ ______________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ This is intended to be a very simple pyramid used to chart out the different "stages" of [I guess you wold call it] "feeding preferences", please do not feel offended if your "denomination" is not mentioned, and as a reminder, this is not in order of supremacy, carnivores are not greater than vegans and vice versa. My point being, as shown by the chart above, pesci-vegetarianism is a state of pre-vegetarianism, a step that most omnivores might want to take before becoming full fledged vegetarians. The intention behind pesci-vegetarianism is not to save the environment, nor should that be our primary concern. Furthermore, pesci-vegetarianism, as a practice, does not stop any over grazing or calf-raising inherently. Despite whether or not I am a vegetarian, billions of other people around the world will continue to slaughter animals and animal meat will always be in high-demand simply because it is cheaper than its alternative and needs less care. Most importantly, we must consider how many jobs would be lost from this action. This includes the producers [farmers] to the vendors [Grocery stores and restaurants] and even to the common working class citizens [waiters, cashiers, restaurant owners etc.]. We also must recognize the negative impact this would make in regards to the financial stability of our country, whether you live in Australia, the US, or England, everyone worldwide would be affected by this movement of shutting down all, or most, animal farms. The consequence of our action would led to a revolt from farmers, business owners, and working class citizens, whom would quickly fall below the poverty line, all around the world. They would become impoverished simply so that we could please a few extreme environmentalist. Therefore I purpose that we ought to value human life over cropland "overuse". Another perspective: Say we do away with all animal farms, what do we have remaining? Easy. We would have tons of wild animals, doing what you ask? Grazing on the cropland. So either way, animals are going to procreate, therefore in order to prevent this from going out of control, we ought to limit this growth through consumption, at the very least. To put this into perspective, imagine if all the sharks decided to only eat seaweed, the negative impact would be the immense overpopulation of fish. ____________________ On Burden: By the definition of "beneficial", my opponent must offer a substantial and unique benefit that you gain from pesci-vegetarianism. In that my opponent has yet to provide you with said benefit, you must default CON. ____________________ Conclusion: My opponent's points have been properly refuted within this rebuttal. His arguments have either been shown as invalid or pragmatically unsound. Therefore, in interest of the overall well being of society and of the human body, I urge you to vote in my favor. ____________________ Post Script: I reserve the right to bring up any new arguments. Thanks for your time, - Protagoras of Abdera