Meat Eating

[Harlequin]

I like eating meat. It's probably a bit unethical to eat the remains of slaughtered animals but to be perfectly frank I don't care. Pigs embody my thinking on this: they're the perfect animals. Cute, friendly and intelligent - and you can eat them, and they taste amazing.

Plus whoever had a vegetable-something to cure a hangover?

I eat meat because I like to do it. Occasionally I think of the moral and ethical ramifications of my meat-eating ("it kills animals," "third world people sell their food grain to make money instead of eating it" etc) but then I remember that I like meat and that I really can't imagine a life without it.

I like fruit and vegetables as much as the next guy, but take away meat and I've lost a substantial portion of my diet. I'm not ready to do that.

I'd probably feel worse about it if, you know, the other animals cared. At the end of the day that's what most of them are for. We wouldn't have cows, chickens, geese, ducks and a whole host of animals if we hadn't bred them to eat them. The environmental aspect of the argument is certainly interesting but uh, where did you get your clothes?

We spend so much time shipping other luxuries and expending tons of C02 and energy getting them here that I don't really see the problem with meat specifically.

Also I kind of like to buy local produce. Generally it tastes nicer and I can be sure of quality stuff. <3 my butcher.

 

[Tarvos]

I don't understand what environmental ramifications eating meat has. Raising animals on a large scale, perhaps. But not eating meat. Explain?

It's very simple environmentally.

The amount of energy used to produce meat is insane. You need to use a lot of feed to feed your animals. You need to grow tons and tons and tons of crops just to feed your animals. Your animals grow bigger, but eventually you only use part of them - basically you've grown a lot of crops just to use 10% of them because you like the taste of meat. That is energy inefficient. It's the process to make meat that is an outright disaster for the environment.

You need TEN TIMES THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY to get the same mass amount of meat as you need to make bread. This is not even including the amount of extra crops that you need to feed your cattle, chicken, goats, whatever. The CO2 emissions don't come from eating the meat itself, obviously. It is not the meat eating itself that is the problem, it is the energy it needs to be produced that is. Hence my decision to ask my parents to lower their meat consumption rate for dinner to four times a week instead of every day. It's also why I am starting to eat humus instead of meat on my sandwiches. I really like humus and I didn't know it existed until my gf showed it to me so.

Also, you not eating meat isn't going to keep the meat industry from filling our atmosphere with animal gas so I don't understand that point.

It is, actually. If people eat less meat, there will be less demand for the bio-industry to produce it. Their production will go down, and as such they won't need to herd cattle or chicken anymore. Lowering the demand of meat serves two good purposes: one, it reduces their CO2 emissions and two - you prevent the meat on the farm being produced inhumanely. That's killing two birds with one stone.

Totally respect your decision though. I was a vegetarian for like two months then was like "okay this is too much trouble as a sixteen year old living with his parents".

My parents are actually supportive, haha.

Either way, I don't know what percentage of greenhouse gases are caused by the meat industry, but it can't be that much, right? I mean, today it's almost like anything and everything is contributing to global warming. But it would require a massive change in the zeitgeist for everyone in America, much less the whole world, to stop eating meat, and therefore it seems like it would be a much more productive use of environmental activists' time to attempt to get big corporations to cut down on their carbon emissions, or get everyone to buy a hybrid car, or something. In fact, we only adopted cars like 120 years ago, it seems like it would be more productive to rally against cars themselves than to rally against the meat industry!

It's not either/or. It's both. You also need to rally against car pollution (personally I don't own my licence yet. I plan to get it sometime soon, but I don't plan to buy a car unless it's a full on hydrogen car, complete with green energy sources for electricity.)

Because almost all practices contribute to global warming, it is important that we focus on changing our lifestyle, and rally against all causes of global warming.

 

[Zuu]

Watershed: I see. Well, I think once I'm in college I'm going to try to go veggie again. :O It was fun seeing people's faces when I had to repeat "Yeah, no meat, just veggies".

 

[departuresong]

Vegetarian doesn't mean "just veggies." I'd die if it did. Most vegetables are disgusting.

 

[Zuu]

I realise this. But I usually don't put fruit on my Subway sandwiches. :P

 

[Yarnchu]

I don't get how eating meat is ethically wrong. Saying eating meat is evil is being a bit extreme, don't you think?

Besides environmental issues, the only thing I can see wrong with meat eating is the hypocrisy that exists because of it. I'm willing to admit that I'll eat fish and keep a gold fish as a pet(well...used to, anyways). I eat chicken and we have pet birds. This is a very touchy issue when it comes to animal rights...obviously, I shouldn't be in support of saving cats and dogs if I'm willing to consume mass-produced chicken at Burger King, yet I am. That is simply because it's easier to feel sympathy for cats and dogs when they are regularly keeped for pets compared to a chicken which I rarely ever see outside of lunch/dinner.

 

[Tarvos]

I don't get how eating meat is ethically wrong. Saying eating meat is evil is being a bit extreme, don't you think?

You killed another animal just because you liked its meat...

I don't think it's ethically wrong either but I don't think animal rights activists are that far off the mark tbh

Besides environmental issues, the only thing I can see wrong with meat eating is the hypocrisy that exists because of it. I'm willing to admit that I'll eat fish and keep a gold fish as a pet(well...used to, anyways). I eat chicken and we have pet birds. This is a very touchy issue when it comes to animal rights...obviously, I shouldn't be in support of saving cats and dogs if I'm willing to consume mass-produced chicken at Burger King, yet I am. That is simply because it's easier to feel sympathy for cats and dogs when they are regularly kept for pets compared to a chicken which I rarely ever see outside of lunch/dinner.

yes humans are selective and will save a cuddly polar bear but not 10 breeds of insects

Vegetarian doesn't mean "just veggies." I'd die if it did. Most vegetables are disgusting.

I love most vegetables, so for me this isn't an issue. The things I will never eat are: raw tomatoes, mushrooms, courgette. I hate all of those with a passion. Most other veggies are fine by me.

 

[Lars The Turtwig]

You killed another animal just because you liked its meat...

Im an animal friend and hate the fact that animals are being killed. That's why im halfway veggie. the problem is my family eats meat almost every week, but only once in a week.

I don't think it's ethically wrong either but I don't think animal rights activists are that far off the mark tbh

...Dunno how to answer that.

yes humans are selective and will save a cuddly polar bear but not 10 breeds of insects

Yep. Way too many people think insects are plagues and should be destroyed. The worst about it: some are nessecery. I mean, while i can understand that some people hate bugs(and I do so badly since the day a swarm of flies tried to enter my mouth(but not all bugs!)), they aren't all that bad.

I love most vegetables, so for me this isn't an issue. The things I will never eat are: raw tomatoes, mushrooms, courgette. I hate all of those with a passion. Most other veggies are fine by me.

Well, I love all vergtables. Almost. Anyway, I remember there were times I would eat exclusively pickles(or how it's called) and tomatoes for around 2 weeks. Together with some other stuff, anyway. Still, I myself hate eating meat, but I have no problem with stuff like milk. And another thing is- The reasons I don't eat meat are:
1) It tastes like gummy.
2) Its hard.
3) You need to kill animals for it.

 

[Shiva64]

I'm not a huge debater as I used to be... but hey, just posting my own two cents on this.

I was raised to eat meat, but also to eat a wide variety of fruits and veggies, and everything in between. So, I guess I'm just one of those that don't really care in what I eat or don't eat, all because of my upbringing. But now that I've developed an allergic reaction to fruits and some veggies, it kinda makes it hard to avoid meat altogether.

However, I also don't care if someone is a vegetarian or not, or what they consider as being vegetarian (as some won't eat eggs, but others will). Just a personal preference and I respect it.

I don't see either route as wrong, but that might be because of how I was raised. However, I do find it wrong when people go out and kill cats for consumption, or tigers for tiger penis soup, or sharks just to have shark fin soup and have the rest of the animal rot, and not use them for anything else. That is something I can not stand. If you're gonna kill it, use every part of the animal (or at least as much as possible). Not just one part or a few and have the rest rot away. Or in another case... eating something such as "balot". That's just well.. gross.

I'm trying to lean more towards Japanese cuisine though, seafood and yummy veggies. Oh, and miso soup. Miso soup is just plain awesome. :o

 

[Harlequin]

yes humans are selective and will save a cuddly polar bear but not 10 breeds of insects.

I want to save ten species of insects as well as the polar bears :(

polar bears are cuter though, give them that at least.

 

[Shiva64]

But some insects can be just as cute as polar bears! D:

Like click beetles... and pseudoscorpions, and.. and.. and.. D:

(I am not weird, I swear!)

 

[M&F]

I don't really care about who eats what, but, I find it funny how no one ever notices that, if meat is comparable to torture and murder, vegetarianism is comparable to genocide.

Plantlife is life as well, you know. Just because it's not animal doesn't mean it's worth being ignored the way it is.

 

[Butterfree]

As it happens I live in Iceland, where... all the environmental concerns raised here are void. We eat almost exclusively Icelandic meat, so there's very little transport involved; Icelandic livestock (particularly sheep) generally eats mostly grass, so there is no land growing crops for animal consumption instead of human (in the winter, it tends to be powdered fish, which sounds gross but is actually quite healthy since it results in a higher omega-3 fattyacid content for the meat when we eventually eat it); all energy we use is green; and since it's a small country, our farms aren't of the kind of size that has a significant effect on greenhouse emissions. Additionally, as far as I've heard anywhere, they generally tend to be treated decently.

I don't in principle like the idea of breeding animals for human consumption, strongly advocate the ethical treatment of all food animals, and would take up meat substitutes in a heartbeat if I thought they actually convincingly tasted and felt like real meat, but if there are any such meat substitutes, I've never had them. :/ And seeing as I otherwise have a very small and peculiar range of food I can eat more than a few bites of, and as far as I can tell I'm at least personally not doing much of a disservice to the world by eating meat, I'm just going to keep doing it.

In general, I think a lot of the arguments against eating meat tend to be arguments against something else that incidentally happens somewhere in the process of meat production but is not itself directly related to eating meat at all. If meat is currently produced in an unethical way, it means meat should be produced in an ethical way, not that meat shouldn't be produced at all.

 

[spaekle]

In general, I think a lot of the arguments against eating meat tend to be arguments against something else that incidentally happens somewhere in the process of meat production but is not itself directly related to eating meat at all. If meat is currently produced in an unethical way, it means meat should be produced in an ethical way, not that meat shouldn't be produced at all.

Definitely agreeing with this.

To be honest, I think that, like most environmental concerns, this can be traced back to overpopulation and/or consumerist society. There are a) too many people to feed and b) too much of a demand for meat; so in order to meet that demand, the meat industry had to resort to mass-breeding animals, shoving them into stalls they can't even turn around in, and loading them with growth hormones. It's no different from mass-producing iPods or video games or Twilight merchandise, only this time things that can actually feel pain are involved. And that's not a good thing by any means; it becomes even more pathetic when you consider that we've resorted to this shit even as an outrageous percentage of the human population is starving. I think that really says something.

I'm currently not a vegetarian, but I definitely understand why people would choose to be. Like other people have said, I was raised to eat meat and currently have no control over what I have for dinner on a daily basis. I like the way meat tastes and it does make up a large part of my diet, but I do realize that the way those animals are forced to live is something that really doesn't need to happen at all. I would like to start living more green in general once I'm out on my own; food-wise, I'm definitely going to look into eating less processed crap and more organic stuff, and I guess it wouldn't matter if I ate meat or not if I found a substitute that tasted enough like it. Dunno if I'd ever give up meat entirely, but I'm sure eventually they'll perfect in vitro meat and then it won't matter any more either way. :v

A question for people who eat a lot of organic/vegetarian/synthetic meat/etc products - does that food cost a whole lot more? That unfortunately is an issue I could see with going that route. I'm a cheapass. :[

 

[departuresong]

A question for people who eat a lot of organic/vegetarian/synthetic meat/etc products - does that food cost a whole lot more? That unfortunately is an issue I could see with going that route. I'm a cheapass. :[

Unfortunately, yes. But if you learn to cook things yourself it will be so much easier and a lot cheaper, too.

 

[Harlequin]

I would take up synthetic meat products tomorrow if they were actually convincing. As yet that hasn't happened, but I can see it happening in the future very easily.

It's not essential that my meat comes from an actual animal. As long as it tastes, feels and smells like the meat I love then I'm fine with that. I could deal. As it is I can't find it, so I'm just going to eat meat.

PLUS Welsh meat is absolutely delicious. <3

 

[Tarvos]

Most of it yes, but the energy consumption of biologically produced meat is still more than regular crops.

 

[Butterfree]

Well, "energy consumption" is a pretty silly concept without context about what energy it is exactly. If you've got sheep feeding on wild grass in Icelandic mountains all summer, for instance, they're just harvesting energy that would otherwise be completely useless to human beings; there would be no way to grow food crops there anyway, and the sheep are a convenient way of bringing some portion of that otherwise unused energy back to us.

 

[Tarvos]

The problem is, even then, that not all the energy the sheep get from feeding on the grass is turned into meat that humans eat. Only part of the animal is consumed. That's the problem. It's a whole lot more than in bio-industry, plus that you are not actually growing grass crops, which makes it a fuckload more efficient, but in general when you are feeding cattle people grow specialised feedstocks from crops which are then given to animals to eat - this is a net energy loss because the biology of the animal ensures that not all of the crop energy is turned into meat. That's my point.

That being said if all meat were produced biologically it'd be a gigantic gain of energy and less CO2 emissions so I'm all in favour of it. My point is that animal biology wastes energy by definition. It's less if you do it properly like in Iceland, but it'll always exist.

 

[rysworld]

I eat meat, and I eat as many parts of the animal as they sell. I see vegetarianism's points, but I don't need to stop eating meat to stay healthy, nor do I care, as cruel as this sounds, about how the animals are killed. I see your point too, Watershed, and I agree with it. If animals were eaten more efficiently, with more of the animal consumed, it would better for the planet and for us as a species.