"A Carnivore's Credo" by Roger Scruton

This essay, by Roger Scruton, ranks as one of the most enlightening essays that I have read thus far in AP Composition. In said essay, Scruton devises an argument for the persuasion of non-meat eaters to eat meat. First, he makes many observations such as to the causes for the vegetarian movement of the past fifty years. He blames this movement primarily on the growth in the fast-food industry and on the decline in eating as a family pastime. Also, he states that eating has switched from a moral encompassing ritual, bringing families together in thanks for their food, to a savage affair that often separates family members. To bring this back to his point on why people have moved towards vegetarianism is that the current generation yearns for some sort of ethical basis in their lives, so they eat vegetables as a direct connection with mother earth; this movement has also shown up in the recent "Green" movement.

In order to tie these points into persuasion, he brings out the ethical argument near the end of the essay. First, he talks about how it is the duty of the people that recognize the need for animal appreciation, primarily the vegetarians, to eat meet so that they can bring that appreciation back into the process and not leave its future to burger-gobbling pigs. Finally, he makes a point that if we treat the consuming of meat with more respect, then the procurement of said meat and the treatment of the animals will in turn improve.

I completely agree with most of what Roger said. He brought up a lot of good observations surrounding the argument of carnivorism from both sides of the issue and I thought that his theory for the causes of the vegetarian movement was spot on. The only thing that I found a little weak in his paper was his overgeneralizing in describing the raising of cows in particular. While he recognizes the pig battery farms, he generalized the raising of cows to be positive in all cases; by this he says that most farmers treat cows with utmost admiration, taking care of them and feeding them well before they are slaughtered, and at the time of slaughter it is humane and virtually pain-free.