Wed, Sep 24, 2008 Permanent linkI have been a vegetarian for about three years now, and can contest that I actually feel a lot healthier since. I also get some pretty ridiculous arguments against vegetarianism, the main one being that we cannot be healthy without it, or we need to work extra hard to do so. It's actually really easy! And I find that you not only eat healthier in the process, but more diversely. When you take out the main course of meat, a meal is no longer "meat and its surroundings" but a more balanced meal made up a wider range of foods.
We have gotten so used to animals being killed for our own sake that people just don't find animal suffering as a reason to stop eating meat. Although I do agree with decreasing violence, I didn't stop eating meat for the animals' sake either, but for the fact that it is just not a feasible reality for us to do so any more. When discussing vegetarianism with carnivores I often explain the simple fact that land and resources are either used to grow food for animals who also take land and resources, for food for us, or they are used to grow food to feed us directly, there's not much of a question of which is more efficient. This they understand and almost %100 of the time the person will go "Oh, yeah, I guess that makes sense" (not that that actually stops their meat eating).
We have built a system where emotion is invalid and logic is reasonable, so people may not be willing to accept that something is wrong based on an animal's suffering, but they can understand based on logical facts.
At this point, education is the biggest step we can take. A lot of people just don't even consider not eating meat. Why would they? It's all they have known.
Wed, Sep 24, 2008 Permanent linkI also wanted to add that I don't know if 'growing meat' is really necessary. It is an interesting idea, and I suppose it might help us transition away from the current meat industry so it's not a bad thing. I have tried a number of 'meat-replacement' products and there are a few that are actually really good and a lot less greasy than real meat. I recently switched from dairy cheese to veggie cheese and milk to soy, both of which I actually prefer to the real thing. Even better though is simply discovering the vegetables that will give you the proteins you need. There are a hell of a lot more bean varieties than you might think ;)
Thu, Sep 25, 2008 Permanent linksome data to extend the knowledge base:
Meat Production Continues to Rise:In 2007, meat production remained steady at an estimated 275 million tons; in 2008, output is expected to top 280 million tons.1 (See Figure 1.) Experts predict that by 2050 nearly twice as much meat will be produced as today, for a projected total of more than 465 million tons.2 For more than a decade, the strongest increases in production have been in the developing world-in 1995 more meat and dairy products were produced in developing than in industrial countries for the first time, and this trend has continued ever since.3 In fact, in 2007 at least 60 percent of meat was produced in developing nations.4
Consumption of meat and other animal products also continues to grow. Currently nearly 42 kilograms of meat is produced per person worldwide, but meat consumption varies greatly by region and socioeconomic status.5 In the developing world, people eat about 30 kilograms of meat a year.6 But consumers in the industrial world eat more than 80 kilograms per person each year.7 (See Figure 2.)
*My main point and issue concerns sustainability, it appears that food consumption in the old traditional manners will not work in the future, and solutions need to be found, not only for preserving the ecology, sustaining the world population, not slaughtering animals or health but also for the creation of a new kind of humanity and human behavior
Tue, Sep 30, 2008 Permanent linkAs the offspring of multiple generations of vegetarians, pacifists, social anarchists and proponents of free love I even have a hard time to kill ant invasions and most insects, although I draw the line at mosquitoes. I used to be very much taken by the book Animal Liberation of the Australian philosopher Peter Singer and I once read a rant by an author whose name I have forgotten who held forth about the karmic ramifications of eating “tortured flesh,” which as a concept made an impression on me. Here is another scathing opinion about our behavior towards “lower lifeforms” by Douglas Mulhall. Writing about the evolution of Super Intelligence on the Kurzweil AI blog, he observes that
our behavior as guardians of less intelligent species, which we know feel pain and suffering, has been and continues to be atrocious.
If this is our attitude toward less intelligent species, why would the attitude of superior intelligence toward us be different? It would be foolish to assume that a more advanced intelligence than our own, whether advanced in all or in only some ways, will behave benevolently toward us once it sees how we treat other species.
Moral issues aside, I’ve come to the conclusion that I only eat what my taste tells me is healthy (a sensitivity that in all likelihood was once shared by many people, including meat eaters, before their taste buds were beaten into submission by the food industry).
Just be aware that a vegetarian diet is not without complications, especially when it comes to protein sources. There is one Space Collective member who can tell us all about this. I hereby urge him to join this discussion, to which there are many aspects.
One of them being the issue of the excessive food and space requirements to grow the world's meat on the hoof, a potential solution for which is illustrated by some images of Dutch architect Winny Maas’ pig city:
I'm looking forward to further contributions on this subject.
Thu, Oct 2, 2008 Permanent linkClimate Change Report Calls for Mandatory Meat Rationing:
Calls for government to set consumption targets for meat, dairy, alcohol, and other food products.
The average person eats 21 meals a week. According to a new plan to combat climate change, 17 of those will be government-mandated as meat-free. Targets set by the plan would limit weekly consumption of beef would be limited to 1/4 pound. Chicken and ham would be similarly limited, with four modest servings of meat available throughout a week.
The report, sponsored by the University of Surrey, U.K., called for a return to old-fashioned cooking and shopping habits, such as walking to stores, buying only local produce, eating leftovers, and cooking in bulk, so that several meals can be prepared at once. More controversially, the report suggests people should "accept different notions of quality" in regards to food consumption, so that foods we now discard or use for animal feed can instead be directed to human consumption.
Drastic reductions in consumption of alcohol, dairy products, and sweets were also part of the plan.
Mon, Jan 12, 2009 Permanent linkEven though apparently global meat consumption is growing at a rate of 2% a year, this is an encouraging stat: more American kids than ever are turning away from meat: one in 200, in fact.
as a lifelong vegetarian, i think this is not just something that merits exploration, but requires it. many have heard of the statistics about how much energy it takes to produce one pound of meat, and how much food could be produced with that energy. there's a growing population who are becoming aware of energy issues, etc., but this is one thing that many still do not relate to the environment.
And as the world has learned a little about Monsanto and the like, the meats and dairy products (at least in the united states) are so full of hormones, that it can't be good for us.
I've discussed vegetarianism with many people, and there's not a small amount who stick to several arguments.
Many quote the Bible and the use the statement that God gave us dominion over animals as reason that we should eat them. well, there's some debate as to the definition of 'dominion', or rather, if the idea of 'dominion' gives us the right to exploit that which we have dominion over, or rather we have dominion because we are entrusted to protect it.
The other is that, well, humans are carnivores, and we need meat to live. There's some debate over this. Check out the physiological evidence that human beings are not necessarily carnivores.
http://www.goveg.com/naturalhumandiet_physiology.asp
and this quote:
And I myself am living proof that humans don't need to eat meat to be healthy.
Some also say that well, our ancestors ate meat. They wouldn't have survived without it. Well, that may be true. But the ability to eat meat only came when we started making tools and using them to kill animals, slice chunks off, and eat it. So what was there before that? Well, they could have eaten animals that had recently died, but those must have been in many cases disease-ridden and caused sickness.
But there's one more thing that's troublesome. Most youth who grow up in cities do not even know what they're getting fed. They've never had to slaughter the animal themselves, or even seen it. It sickens many when confronted for the first time. I had more respect for it when it had to be done themselves. Now there's not even really any more respect - like the respect the American Indians had for the buffalo.
Lastly, the double standard in our contemporary existence that it's okay to eat a cow, but its not okay to eat your dog, or your cat (well, except for parts of mexico and asia) is just silly to me. Get some principles.
On a personal note, i believe anything that decreases violence, in general, in the world, is necessary. How can we ever attain peace when so many animals are being killed violently each day?
I, for one, am for these future foods, but it requires a major change in thinking for most of the world's population, as well as access to it. I'm not against eating meat if you have nothing else, but what's great is to make that something else much, much more widely available.