![\"kidhotdog\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/220\/2015\/07\/kidhotdog.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOur family eats meat\u2026 and a lot of it. I put a pencil to paper for this post and figured out that we eat approximately<\/em> 3\u00a0deer, 1 side of beef, 1 lamb, 1 pig, 15 pheasants, 5 turkeys, 15 salmon, who knows how many shrimp, and about 160 chicken breasts each year. I make no apologies for this formidable\u00a0protein intake. Not only is the human\u00a0digestive system well equipped to use, and benefit from, the fats, proteins, and nutrients found in meat, meat-eaters are helping plant eaters have food to eat. If all people were vegetarians, we would eventually run out of plants to eat.\u00a0All plants need fertilizer in some form in order to grow and complete their life cycles. In nature, plants will most often acquire nutrients through organic matter that decomposes in the soil, but to raise the amount of plants needed to feed the world, farming operations need to collect waste from livestock in order to provide the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) that crops require\u2026 so if we didn\u2019t have livestock, and ways to collect waste, we wouldn\u2019t have the nutrients\u00a0necessary to raise crops at the degree needed to feed the world.<\/p>\n So\u2026 there is\u00a0nothing wrong with eating meat, and there\u2019s no wrong way to do it\u2026 even if you need to apply\u00a0the 5-second rule to a baseball stadium hotdog like this little Angels fan:<\/p>\n