Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 236 posts

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#21

Post by SoftTalker »

stouset wrote: post #8
mock-possum wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God what an awful prospect. How about when you push the button it only removes the button pushers, so the rest of us are free to continue enjoying our existence.

The point is that continuing to enjoy your existence is inflicting a massive toll of suffering around the world, to both others humans as well as non-humans. I’m not saying I’d be one to push the button, but I think it’s worth trying to understand the mindset of someone who would. It’s very arguable that pushing it would be the ethical thing to do.

What if the suffering is the point?

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#23

Post by 1234letshaveatw »

bananalychee wrote: post #16
nekusar wrote: post #5

Farming practices are already absolutely terrible. And for reasons of arbitrary weight increase, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ractopamine is used in the USA. Doesnt degrade when cooked, so humans also get fat from it amongst other bad side effects. Banned in most countries, but not the USA. This is also why pork export is banned in most countries. I know 1 person who is "allergic to pork". But European pork is fine.…

Ractopamine is authorized in Canada per the article you linked.

Let's not let that pesky detail get in the way of the USA bad narrative he has going.

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#24

Post by HoldOnAMinute »

varispeed wrote: post #12
bayarearefugee wrote: post #3

Humanity is almost definitely going to wipe itself out in the not too distant future through an avoidable (if not for the selfish greed of many of us) climate change resource war Great Filter event. This used to really bother me, but lately I'm thinking it is probably for the best.

We live in a sandbox. Unless we decide to work together to escape it, then there is no point in humanity to exist. All we essentially do is produce rubbish, poo and suffering.

The suffering is mainly because of overcrowding

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#25

Post by jancsika »

mock-possum wrote: post #6
abound wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my favorite questions to ask people is something like: "Imagine a button appears in front of you. Pressing it will snap all human beings painlessly out of existence. Do you push the button?" Some people get caught in minutiae about downstream effects, I tell them it can go however they want (house pets are free or gone too, planes land harmlessly, etc) In my circles, I've found it's about 50/50 button pushers…

God what an awful prospect. How about when you push the button it only removes the button pushers, so the rest of us are free to continue enjoying our existence.

You should definitely watch the Black Mirror episode about the robot bees!

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#26

Post by bayarearefugee »

abound wrote: post #4
bayarearefugee wrote: post #3

Humanity is almost definitely going to wipe itself out in the not too distant future through an avoidable (if not for the selfish greed of many of us) climate change resource war Great Filter event. This used to really bother me, but lately I'm thinking it is probably for the best.

One of my favorite questions to ask people is something like: "Imagine a button appears in front of you. Pressing it will snap all human beings painlessly out of existence. Do you push the button?" Some people get caught in minutiae about downstream effects, I tell them it can go however they want (house pets are free or gone too, planes land harmlessly, etc) In my circles, I've found it's about 50/50 button pushers…

FWIW I wouldn't push the button.

I just think we are going to absolutely deserve the outcome as we collectively and metaphorically push that button... which we continue to do and are regressing on stopping ourselves from doing so a handful of super wealthy can watch gamified number go up.

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#28

Post by SunshineTheCat »

Does anyone else ever find it odd that in posts like this the person posts a sad picture of a pig instead of a screenshot of the page of the bill they're talking about?

I think "a provision that would condemn millions of pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates" is in fact horrific, however, outrage is the currency on places like X.

Posting a page number sounds specific, but then why not post the page (or quote it)? Particularly in any even remotely political environment where the default is "vote for (or oppose) this bill or you want [insert cute animal, baby, person, minority group] to die."

Just a tiny bit of source referencing could go a long way to help people better understand what you want them to support (or oppose).

Re: New farm bill would condemn pigs to a lifetime in gestation crates

#30

Post by Aurornis »

nekusar wrote: post #5

Farming practices are already absolutely terrible. And for reasons of arbitrary weight increase, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ractopamine is used in the USA. Doesnt degrade when cooked, so humans also get fat from it amongst other bad side effects. Banned in most countries, but not the USA. This is also why pork export is banned in most countries. I know 1 person who is "allergic to pork". But European pork is fine.…

> I know 1 person who is "allergic to pork". But European pork is fine. Even Canadian pork is fine. But what's different with US pork? Ractopamine.

Ractopamine is used in Canada.

This sounds like a possible case of the nocebo effect: Someone experiences symptoms based on a belief that an ingredient is bad for them. When they consume the same thing without the belief that the ingredient is present, the effects are absent even though the ingredient is present.

This happens with people who believe they have WiFi sensitivity disorders, too. If you put them next to a WiFi router with blinking lights they will experience the pain of their condition. If you turn off the lights on the router but leave the WiFi transmitting, they stop feeling the effects.

Post reply on HN