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 2026]

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.

 

[coolcow1289]

We are humans, and we are omnivores. We are a part of the food pyramid. We are designed to eat meat.

We are not "above" Mother Nature. We coexist with it. It's important that humans know their place in nature and the world.

I don't hate vegans or vegetarians who do it for moral reasons - their heart is in the right place. But it's misguided and an over application of pro-life moralism.

 

[E4syW3y0u7]

It taste good.

Gives big muscles.

Some of the stuff i eat will eat me too.

 

[tan9284673]

I don't think non-human animals have any consciousness—or at least not 99% of them; maybe dolphins do, or orangutans.

 

[TheBag]

I've been struggling with this for most of my life. I am a lazy vegetarian. I try to avoid animal products as far as possible. At the same time, I don't want to put too much effort or money in food and cooking. So I sometimes take tv dinners which of course, have some meat in them. But this is mostly due to my own laziness. And I can tell you that it never feels quit right.

When it comes to principles, I strongly believe in the following.

Meat usually IS murder. There is no real way to rationalize it. An animal that does NOT want to die is being killed. While with the current, very tasty, vegan alternatives there is simply no real need to kill animals any longer (at least not in the western world).

That being said (and here lies my problem), vegan tv dinner alternatives are virtually nonexistent. So those like me, who very often want to have a quick bite, without any real cooking involved have a problem. I think the food industry has a moral obligation to change this ASAP.

Whether or not eating meat is natural is a completely moot point for us humans. We have a simple choice. We either inflict (gruesome - depending on the slaughtering method) suffering, or we don't.

 

[N@te]

I don't care, but even if I wasn't selfish I would still eat meat because the negative impact is negligible. If I did care, I would use my time and energy on something more impactful. No point in counting pennies

 

[Set Real Goul]

It's so sad but it's SO DAMN DELICIOUS...

 

[Chili]

Maybe I should feel bad for eating meat, but it tastes too good for me to stop

 

[Argent]

I don't love it. I don't eat red meat but will have the occasional fish and chicken

Main reason is how it makes my body feel when I don't have any for an extended period of time. Not enough protein can lead to a slew of other problems.

Leader of two evils is to moderate consumption of it, which I'm sure also has some health benefits to it too.

 

[infinitanocte]

There was actually a time when I ate vegetarian for a while! Like a few years or something? But I think when I don't eat some kind of meat or fish, it's quite difficult for me to be full, even eating other proteins like tofu or drinking soymilk. That's why I still eat mostly chicken and fish. I don't eat as much red meat (but if I have a lack of options or want to eat something specific then I still do so, just it happens only occasionally). I eat less meat and fish when I can cook for myself, though, and more when I have to eat out since there are less options. When I'm active, I get hungry quite easily, so I even have to eat extra food (but I eat more like two meals a day).

I agree with a lot of people raising the point of how it's awful how most commercially bred animals are treated before killed for their meat. It would be great if there were more ethical standards for how they were treated and also if, like other people mentioned about indigenous peoples using all parts of the animal, every part was used and none left to waste.

That's why I generally follow a policy of as little waste as possible. Whatever I can eat, whether I cooked or bought it, goes in my stomach, unless eating it will make me sick for one reason or another. Or if it really tastes THAT bad. When I see food, I don't just think of it as something that goes in my stomach. I think of all the effort it took to get to my hands and my table, the nutrients that fed the crops from the earth, all the people who grew and harvested crops, the people who transported and sold them, sometimes also the people who cooked them, and what a waste it would be to discard such perfectly fine food. In the modern world, your ingredients may have traveled across the country or even the ocean as well to get to your local store or restaurant. Plus, there are plenty of people who are not as privileged as I am to be able to eat or even choose what to eat. Of course, not everyone has the privilege of having the health to do the same, but since I do, I try to finish what's on my plate as much as possible.

I try to live in accordance to my values to the extent I think I am able to, although in this modern world, I often find myself compromising them, which makes me quite sad. I would like it if they made more lab-grown meat or more cheaper and accessible meat alternatives aside from what we already have. Suffering is not required for the meat and fish I want to eat. I admire the people who are able to and do stay true to their principles and refrain from eating unethically butchered animals.