How do you justify eating meat?

[Smiles & Giggles]

Certain types of hunting would be humane for an individual to perform if you're just putting the animal out of it's suffering, although farming and the meat industry are incredibly evil and supporting it is cruelty to animals. People who support these industries are either ignorant (possibly willfully) to the suffering of these other beings, or they simply do not care about them.

 

[ironrain]

Mass produced meat is bad. But if a cow or piggie had a good life running around and eating grass and having fun with their buddies then why not? Predators eat meat and they do it in way more creal way than what a human can do.
Mass produced meat is bad. But if a cow or piggie had a good life running around and eating grass and having fun with their buddies then why not? Predators eat meat and they do it in way more creal way than what a human can do.

 

[byec560]

I was vegan for four years, but I eventually quit because I think humanity is too selfish to give up meat. It would be more moral if I quit again as a statement, but it's hard to be passionate about something that won't ever change.

 

[Hvergelmir]

...it's hard to be passionate about something that won't ever change.

There has been tremendous progress over the past 100 years, starting with protection of endangered species and laws against cruelty.
Over the past 20 years that I've seen personally, there has been plenty of cultural and consumer facing progress.
There's little opposition to veganism nowadays - it's much more accepted. It's also easier to find vegan food. The quality is better, and the selection is much more varied.

I think the movement direction has been clear, and widely supported. I personally believe that artificial, lab grown meat is the future.

 

[LilGhost]

I eat meat and don't justify myself at all, it's pretty amazing what a human can do when they move through life with minimal consciousness and care towards anything. Explains a lot of human history.

Damn
I used to eat meat, but as I started to gain consciousness over how much suffering is on my plate, I still continued cause I had low iron (8, where anything below 50 considered low), so even with vitamins I had to get iron through my diet and most of plant sourced iron rich products were either disgusting as taste or I couldnt stand the texture. I ended up just saying fuck it for my health just because seeing meat makes me go sick after everything i know about it

 

[Serena fuga]

I eat meat, preferably white meat, but I try not to think about slaughter, because it would make it difficult to eat... but even in nature there are carnivorous animals that would eat you or me without hesitation... Jesus ate fish and lamb (just an example, since I'm currently an atheist), so everything's fine... just so you know, I love animals!!

 

[Isolatedloner]

I am a hypocrite is how. I justify it for stupid reasons. I wish there was more humane treatment to animals. Hopefully fake meat can get impossible to tell apart and we accept it and no longer hurt any living being.

 

[Dejected 55]

The thing of it is... plants are alive too, and there is more than anecdotal evidence that plants are "aware" of their surroundings and react to certain stimuli. I'm not saying they are the same as animals, but. you could argue that our genetic manipulation and pesticides are abuse of a form to plants not entirely unlike what farms do to livestock.

I think it's easier to make the case for the times when people had to hunt for themselves. Where we find it difficult is when we don't or don't want to do it, but then we disagree with the inhumane way many animals are treated. I think it's fair to eat meat even if you aren't 100% in league with the way it gets to your plate. I think it's also okay to not eat meat too. I just caution people to press pause on trying to lord moral superiority over meat-eaters as some are want to do.

I would like to think there is a future in meat substitutes or the lab-grown meats. Until we get there, we have what we have.

 

[Hvergelmir]

The thing of it is... plants are alive too, and there is more than anecdotal evidence that plants are "aware" of their surroundings and react to certain stimuli. I'm not saying they are the same as animals, but. you could argue that our genetic manipulation and pesticides are abuse of a form to plants not entirely unlike what farms do to livestock.

Plant communication and plant awareness is super interesting, but it's also a regurgitated nonsense argument, from people who don't care about either animals or plants.

The argument is that if we don't care about plant suffering, we don't have to care about animal suffering. Animal abusers are as bad as plant abusers, etc. (But for whatever reason we should still care about human suffering.)
There's no logic link.

Correct me if I'm wrong; but your position does not stem from compassion for plants? I've never seen that position held sincerely.

Pesticides are to protect plants. I don't know enough to tell if a particular pesticide is a good idea, but it's conceptually no different from anti-tick solutions for dogs, or antibiotics for cattle.
Genetic manipulation is an attempt at creating better plants. There's surely issues with it, especially combined with American patent laws, but associating it with plant suffering is a far stretch.

I think it's easier to make the case for the times when people had to hunt for themselves.

It's not like impaling an animals neck with a sharpened stick was more humane.
I think most can sympathize with hunting out of necessity, but that's not what's generally talked about.