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When somebody asks why you're a vegan
(lemmy.sdf.org)
An online space for the vegans of Lemmy.
Rules and miscellaneous:
I'll stop eating meat when you convince every other omnivore on the planet to stop it. To pretend we are some how more more elevated than any other animal on the planet is arrogant. If we were were any better than a virus we would realise te are fucking ourselves over the need for the abstract concept of stock price go up.
I have seen how animals are killed hell caravan park I holidayed In as a kid was next door to an abattoir which I walked passed eating a burger.
I also grew up in the country helping my farmer friends on cow rearing farms.
Plants and mushrooms are living entities too with growing evidence that they too react and warn their kind when under stress pr attack. As we learn more about the plant and mycelium world the arguments fall apart.
Life cannot exist without death in the end all we can do is minimise the suffering. Something we can't seem to manage for our own species never mind others.
I say this as someone with mostly vegan wife and who where it doesn't suck will pick the non meat option.
E typo I'm sure I missed some
Animals in farms are usually treated horrendously, don't think we could torture plants at all really. That sign doesn't apply to hunting or humane farming practices, which is a much more ethical optiona that most farms
If that were true the sign would be for ethical sourcing which I agree with. We should punish all who don't out of existence not just cost of business fines.
On plants it's fascinating looking at what they have found. Sending chemical signals to warn others of their species about impending danger when attacked as 1 example.
Obviously there a long way to go before they can answer the question 1 way or the other. But it's not as clear cut as its as ethical as eating a rock like some make out.
Animals eat plants. If plants are sentient, the animals you eat still eat the plants. If your goal is to reduce suffering, eating animals means more animals eating more plants -- more plants than you could eat yourself. Therefore eating the plants directly would reduce harm.
Do you have a plan for those animals that ear other animals?
Humans in developed countries are in a position where we can reduce our harm to others. I believe that if you're in a position to be safely and reasonably able to, that you should do your best to reduce the harm you cause. I would argue that reducing harm includes reducing the amount of animals that I eat.
However, none of this really applies to animals. They don't really get the same privileges that humans do in modern society, nor do they have the conscious ability to consider their harm on the world. Furthermore, obligate carnivores don't really have a choice but to eat meat, so they wouldn't be able to safely reduce the harm they cause regardless.
While I agree with your sentiment and am quite happy for us to move to a vegan diet it needs to be a generational project.
Say you get your dream and we switch to a vegan diet tomorrow as a species what happens to all that live stock? Through centuries of selectve breading they are incapable of living in the wild. Do we just genocide them out of existence? So we let them suffer on their own? With rhe added benefit of throwing countless invasive species to knock everything out of balance further. Nether of these options sit right with me for a lot of reasons.
On top of that look at the impact of palm oil plantations are having on the environment do you think that will be an isolated instance when we 100%
The truth of the matter is the human species is just bad for everything including other humans.
The chase needed is impossible in a short amount of time (but I don't think its impossible)
Those screaming in people's faces do more to harm that progress.
I saw something saying Americans (I'm not one) are now buying more non dairy milk than dairy now