Alec Slocum’s “On the Morality of Deer Hunting” (Nov. 17) left out one huge and important fact about hunting: hunters eat the game they harvest. While there are many personal reasons for why people hunt, I will stick to just this one.
Today, hunting is unnecessary in terms of nutritional demand. This is the result of the globalization of the food market, the knowledge in nutritional requirements and contents of foods, and a growing industry of dietary supplements and substitutes. However, are these morally and ethically better alternatives? We can fulfill our nutritional needs without eating meat, but often times it requires something more extreme, such as the importation of foods from areas that have nutrient-rich soils or extended growing seasons or the input of synthetically produced vitamins. The former requires the development of industrial agriculture and roadways to transport the produce, and the latter has been under scrutiny for some time over its effectiveness in absorption. Michael Pollan makes an agreeable statement regarding this issue saying, “The vegetarian utopia would make us even more dependent than we already are on an industrialized national food chain. That food chain would in turn be even more dependent than it already is on fossil fuels and chemical fertilizer, since food would need to travel farther and manure would be in short supply.” Ruminants, like deer and cattle, are able to digest plant matter that humans cannot. In areas where conditions are not suitable for agriculture, these herbivores turn the vast amounts of unpalatable food into a nutritious form that humans can digest. Their existence and success is essential if humans are to eat locally and nutritiously.
I feel that hunting plays a crucial role in protecting the environment, in conservation, and in sustainability. With the exception of foraging or growing home gardens, hunting is the simplest means of obtaining food with the smallest environmental impact. No other food resource can be produced locally without altering the habitat. At the very least, hunting deserves to be regarded by the public as the most ethical means of obtaining meat. Through hunting, I have displaced my consumption of industrially produced meats and completely cut pork and beef from my grocery list. As far as meat goes, I eat almost entirely venison and fish that I harvest. The meat comes from the natural environment without the input of fertilizer, hormones, pesticides, or herbicides. In addition, all this occurs within fifteen to thirty minutes from my house. I do not believe there is a more ethical or environmentally friendly alternative.”
Matt Weber
Junior in Civil and Environmental Engineering
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