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Time to End Factory Farming?

quillette.com

21–30 of 154 posts

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#21
post #2

How can you be against cruelty to animals and still regularly consume meat? This question I ask sincerely. There are other equally ethical considerations: global warming, land use, energy/water use, etc. I feel that any one of these should give most people pause.

Wilful ignorance and indulging in the illusion presented by supermarkets and their suppliers. Such people dislike vegetarians and vegans because they are worried that they might remind them about the illusion.

This is all covered in The Matrix.

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#22
post #2

How can you be against cruelty to animals and still regularly consume meat? This question I ask sincerely. There are other equally ethical considerations: global warming, land use, energy/water use, etc. I feel that any one of these should give most people pause.

I'm not against cruelty to animals.

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#23
post #2

How can you be against cruelty to animals and still regularly consume meat? This question I ask sincerely. There are other equally ethical considerations: global warming, land use, energy/water use, etc. I feel that any one of these should give most people pause.

It's a cloud. Life implies eating things around. Cultures had this problem long ago (I remember reading that jewish kosher food was partly due to a spiritual respect toward the lives you end to keep your own, not confirmed but interesting).

The thing is, we became somehow gross/decadent in how we live, too many animals living in dark tiny space only to be butchered en masse to be wasted by unhappy consumers (30% waste was often quoted for the last years). This is where we cross a line between ~moral animal eating and "cruelty".

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#24
About three months ago I decided to stop purchasing factory-farmed meat. It's been pretty difficult for a few reasons.

The biggest reason, by far, is access to information. Roughly, I would like to purchase only meat from animals that lived a "happy" life and had a relatively short death. Animals that lived outdoors, basically. But there are no credible labels or certifications for this, which means buying meat at the grocery store is pretty much impossible.

So I have to buy meat from a farmer. Recently I've been using crowdcow.com, but even there, the messaging seems to be all around _flavor_ and not _welfare_. Farmers will tell you what they feed the livestock, not how they treat them. So the best you can do is research the farm and hope their website isn't lying.

Another difficulty has been flavor and texture--pasture raised meat tastes more gamey and is much tougher than "normal" grocery store meat. I've actually found that I prefer the flavor of "humane" pork and chicken but not beef.

Lastly there's price. It's about 2/3x more expensive. This isn't that big of a problem, because we simply spend the same amount as a household and just eat less, substituting for vegetables. It does mean that I buy a lot more of the "cheaper" cuts, which require more skill in preparation. I haven't yet bought a pasture-raised ribeye--it's simply too expensive.

As for eating out, it's basically impossible. No restaurant I know where I live (Chicago) credibly serves only ethically sourced meat, as far as I know. To be honest I still eat "normal" meat when I eat out, although I have reduced my consumption somewhat. There are, unfortunately, some products of dubious ethical provenance that simply have no substitute, like fine cheeses and cured meats.

It seems to me like a huge opportunity. I would gladly pay 2/3 times for meat if I knew it was raised more ethically. In fact, that's what I think meat _should_ cost (and _all_ meat be ethically raised).

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#25
Recently I do feel a global feeling of tiredness. The things we held as progress don't work, abundance feels void it seems now. Jobs aren't giving you a lot of money and even if so, it can't bring you much; we're all very high in material comfort. What we lack is appreciation and sharing.

Maybe people will enjoy farming more, and doing things more because what we used to avoid to pursue ~higher jobs is now seen as both healthy and joyful activities that aren't so stupid when compared to the mass of idiotic ~jobs we're seeing these days.

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#26
post #24

About three months ago I decided to stop purchasing factory-farmed meat. It's been pretty difficult for a few reasons. The biggest reason, by far, is access to information. Roughly, I would like to purchase only meat from animals that lived a "happy" life and had a relatively short death. Animals that lived outdoors, basically. But there are no credible labels or certifications for this, which means buying meat at th…

There may be a few farms in your state that can do deliveries within the state. It's a bit harder when trying to deliver across state lines as the regulations are much higher.

As for eating out, the best you could do is ask or just avoid it (meat) all together (including fish) when eating.

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#27
post #2

How can you be against cruelty to animals and still regularly consume meat? This question I ask sincerely. There are other equally ethical considerations: global warming, land use, energy/water use, etc. I feel that any one of these should give most people pause.

It is disingenuous to assume that all meat is produced cruelly. I'm sure we share a dislike of factory farming, but just that the majority of meat is created via this method does not mean there aren't alternatives.

It is disingenuous to talk about how not all meat is produced cruelly, when in fact almost all of it is.

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#28
post #2

How can you be against cruelty to animals and still regularly consume meat? This question I ask sincerely. There are other equally ethical considerations: global warming, land use, energy/water use, etc. I feel that any one of these should give most people pause.

To add to this:

If you don't eat meat because of ethical & environmental reasons, but still consume fish I ask you to take a good long look into the impact we've had on global fisheries.

Re: Time to End Factory Farming?

#29
post #24

About three months ago I decided to stop purchasing factory-farmed meat. It's been pretty difficult for a few reasons. The biggest reason, by far, is access to information. Roughly, I would like to purchase only meat from animals that lived a "happy" life and had a relatively short death. Animals that lived outdoors, basically. But there are no credible labels or certifications for this, which means buying meat at th…

My dad was a cowboy and studied meat science in grad school. He learned cows were fed processed cow indirectly and called bullshit on the excuses of why that was supposedly safe and, sure enough, he followed the relevant journals closely as mad cow disease and the prion were discovered. One of his first veterinary jobs was at a stockyard and I don't think he lasted a month before quitting rather than doing something illegal and unethical. He kept raising such a small herd as a hobby so he could know everything the beef was fed and injected with.
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