That’s the problem with your assumptions then. You assume people only eat meat because of joy. Not because it’s cheap and highly nutritious part of the diet. It’s significantly easier to be a soy latte sipping hipster in first world country living in temperate climate where due to good economy choice is abundant. Try moving more north where growing seasons as short or non-existent. Or living in a third world country where choice of food is not as rich.
Geography is a very strong influence on local diet. In northern places where farming is limited people breed sheep and mutton is a staple food. Go south and fruits and vegetables become more dominant. You can’t go to Mongolia and tell them not to eat meat when their entire country consists of dirt covered rock barely enough deep to grow grass.
Yeah, where I live, pork and beef are the dominant meats because pigs and cows consume parts of the plants humans don’t eat, be it corn or wheat stalks. It’s cheap way to produce more food without requiring any more land. Without animals, we’d have to burn that remainder and throw it away.
As for stopping exploitation of animals, that will never happen. It’s wishful thinking. Abuse should be abolished and punished by all means, but exploitation is here to stay. You can try and reduce your dependency on it, but never get rid of it. We are higher in the food chain and pretty much everyone, and I literally mean everyone, would rather some animal testing goes on if it means saving their ass sometime in the future. Claiming anything otherwise means being a hypocrite because at the end of the day we all care about ourselves the most.
I am not expecting every person on earth to stop consuming meat immediately. If some people in Mongolia have some cows and sheep on their farm, sure, that is already so much better than factory farming. Factory farming makes up about 90% percent of worldwide meat production, and that is the main thing people are talking about when discussing meat production. Factory farming is responsible for massive ecological damage due to animal waste, ie their shit and cows farting methane, on top of being extremely cruel. And then there is the overabundance of antibiotics used to keep the animals somewhat healthy (“healthy” is really a stretch here), which helps diseases build immunities to those antibiotics.
As for cost, meat is heavily subsidized (at least where I live), so we are all paying part of the cost for it through taxes. It is not as cheap as you might think when seeing it in a supermarket.
As for stopping exploitation of animals, that will never happen. It’s wishful thinking.
That’s just baseless conjecture, just because you lack the imagination to think of a world without or at the very least way less exploitation does not mean it cannot be achieved. And I’d rather have little exploitation than a lot, it’s not a binary choice between “changing nothing” and “completely removing exploitation, which is impossible, so let’s just do nothing”.
Again you’re being factually incorrect about agriculture. The plants and plant parts that humans can’t eat are important sources of nutrients for composting and building soil fertility. And animals do have a place in agriculture, and that place is a free-living association where humans and animals mutually benefit from each other.
What would I know, being born in a family who works in agriculture, especially compared to someone who probably never held farm utensil in their hands. Ever heard of bales of hay? You think those are left on the land for composting? Haha.
That’s the problem with your assumptions then. You assume people only eat meat because of joy. Not because it’s cheap and highly nutritious part of the diet. It’s significantly easier to be a soy latte sipping hipster in first world country living in temperate climate where due to good economy choice is abundant. Try moving more north where growing seasons as short or non-existent. Or living in a third world country where choice of food is not as rich.
Geography is a very strong influence on local diet. In northern places where farming is limited people breed sheep and mutton is a staple food. Go south and fruits and vegetables become more dominant. You can’t go to Mongolia and tell them not to eat meat when their entire country consists of dirt covered rock barely enough deep to grow grass.
Yeah, where I live, pork and beef are the dominant meats because pigs and cows consume parts of the plants humans don’t eat, be it corn or wheat stalks. It’s cheap way to produce more food without requiring any more land. Without animals, we’d have to burn that remainder and throw it away.
As for stopping exploitation of animals, that will never happen. It’s wishful thinking. Abuse should be abolished and punished by all means, but exploitation is here to stay. You can try and reduce your dependency on it, but never get rid of it. We are higher in the food chain and pretty much everyone, and I literally mean everyone, would rather some animal testing goes on if it means saving their ass sometime in the future. Claiming anything otherwise means being a hypocrite because at the end of the day we all care about ourselves the most.
I am not expecting every person on earth to stop consuming meat immediately. If some people in Mongolia have some cows and sheep on their farm, sure, that is already so much better than factory farming. Factory farming makes up about 90% percent of worldwide meat production, and that is the main thing people are talking about when discussing meat production. Factory farming is responsible for massive ecological damage due to animal waste, ie their shit and cows farting methane, on top of being extremely cruel. And then there is the overabundance of antibiotics used to keep the animals somewhat healthy (“healthy” is really a stretch here), which helps diseases build immunities to those antibiotics.
As for cost, meat is heavily subsidized (at least where I live), so we are all paying part of the cost for it through taxes. It is not as cheap as you might think when seeing it in a supermarket.
That’s just baseless conjecture, just because you lack the imagination to think of a world without or at the very least way less exploitation does not mean it cannot be achieved. And I’d rather have little exploitation than a lot, it’s not a binary choice between “changing nothing” and “completely removing exploitation, which is impossible, so let’s just do nothing”.
Again you’re being factually incorrect about agriculture. The plants and plant parts that humans can’t eat are important sources of nutrients for composting and building soil fertility. And animals do have a place in agriculture, and that place is a free-living association where humans and animals mutually benefit from each other.
https://goveganic.net/
What would I know, being born in a family who works in agriculture, especially compared to someone who probably never held farm utensil in their hands. Ever heard of bales of hay? You think those are left on the land for composting? Haha.
https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Permaculture/The_One_Straw_Revolution.pdf