Superiority of a Vegetable Diet (1909)
AUTHOR: Moore, J. Howard
PUBLICATION: “Superiority of a Vegetable Diet.” The Present Truth Vol. XXV, no. 43 (October 1909): 682.
https://adventistdigitallibrary.org/adl-403645/present-truth-october-28-1909
KEYWORDS: animals, food, vegetable diet
Allen, James Madison. Figs or Pigs? Fruit or Brute?
Clubb, Henry Stephens. “Summary of the Vegetarian System”
---. Thirty-Nine Reasons Why I am a Vegetarian
Freshel, M. R. L. “Some Reasons Against the Carnivorous Diet”
Kellogg, John Harvey. The Living Temple
---. The Natural Diet of Man
---. Shall We Slay to Eat?
Metcalfe, William. Bible Testimony, on Abstinence from the Flesh of Animals as Food
---. The New Ethics
---. “Stop Eating Meat and Help Stop the Killing”
---. The Universal Kinship
---. "Why I Am a Vegetarian"
Rumford, Isaac B.
Trine, Ralph Waldo. Every Living Creature
SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):
In this short article, Moore uses an analogy with the animal kingdom to explain the superiority of veganism. He argues for the superiority of a vegetable diet by noting that it is not true to claim that most animals are carnivorous. And even if this were the case, humans would not necessarily follow suit. Most species are, in fact, herbivorous. These species are “as a rule, superior intellectually, morally, and physically” (682). Moore presents a catalog of herbivorous animals and their superior characteristics. He mentions the horse, “whose strength rivals that of the engine,” the mighty ox, the elephant, “whose strength uproots the forest,” the camel, “the most enduring of man's slaves,” the reindeer, which “maintains a speed of ten miles an hour,” the gibbon, “the most remarkable of all animals for its agility,” and “the nimble squirrel” (682). These animals, he maintains, “are, as a class, far superior in character, strength, and intelligence to the carnivora.” Moore concludes: “Since a majority of the most powerful and splendid races of the earth derive their aliment from the plant, it is hard to see how there can be any question as to the fact that alimentary substances of the highest excellence are found abundantly in the vegetable kingdom” (682).