This is only true when it comes to the actual hunting of animals in the wild. Since we breed very week subspecies for food ourselfs (chickens that grow so fat in a couple of weeks that they can't stand on there legs anymore). Plus that if we would have to get all the meat we consume in total everyday on the planet from the wild, we would probably be out of animals within days. The eating of lifestock is a whole different story. As like many people here, I do not completely condem the eating of animals (since humans are omnivores) but I do oppose to the cruelty and the excessive decadent amount of meat that is consumed in the more wealthy countries (this last point having to do with the world food shortage and not with animals themselves).
What people eat is a very personal choice, so its best not to get into their face about it, whatever they decide. I wanted to stop eating meat throughout my childhood but my parents wouldn't allow it. I tried when I was 15 but then went to an alternative school where the only alternative to eating meat was having salad every day. I finally succeeded at 16 and was fought very hard on it by my family, but they finally relented and my mom took it as an occasion to learn some new recipes. I was successfully a vegitarian for ten years but then started eating meat again after sinking into a depression. But I have to say to all the meat eaters out there, when I was a vegitarian, I was hassled WAY more than I am now that I eat some meat. People would get up and eat at another table when they found out I was vegitarian. They would call me names and get into long conversations about meat and how wonderful it was....it was literally harrassing. Just my two cents...
no in a way it is survival of the fittest because we as humans are the most fit to survive...if animals were able to and had the resources and technology as humans did you can't tell me they wouldn't be doing the same thing.
I have to agree. We're all on this Earth with the same resources at hand. Humans are stronger, so we "harvest" animals. We've evolved and have become superior. It's the way life works, Chuck.
Oh no not another thread like this..theards like these never make it..to much hypocrisy..NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME AND SUCH... I eat meat, my choice, my life, move on... I use to be a vegetarian for about eight years...and then stopped.. and during those 8 years, I never spoke about it, or acted that I was better than anyone cause its not even the case.. No one can ever have a decent discussion about this topic cause bickering always happens.. All I say is you can do and believe what you want, but dont push it on other people..
Exactly. I don't eat cottage cheese, but I'm not telling everyone not to... I don't really care what others eat.
Hmm yeah...this is what I believe too...sorry everybody. But just because humans are stronger doesn't mean that we can control what was here before us. They were on the Planet first, and will be here after our species falls. We should respect the animals, not murder them.
I don't eat meat or any animal foods. They are not healthy! Cancer and heart disease were not the top 2 killers until the 1950's when the government began heavily subsidizing the animal food industry and fast foood started booming. A vegan diet has been shown to reverse heart disease and cancer. Second, meat consumption is hell on the enviroment. I really don't know how you all can call yourselves enviornmentalists and eat meat, it is such a gross waste of resources and pollutes air water and soil. Then there is the actual process of modern factory farming. The onmi-hippy anwser to this is - everything should be free range. Well, That does indeed sound better until you stop and think about all the forests that would have to be cleared in order to make room for all this free range animal farming. Please go veg for yourself, the earth and the animals!
No, that's because before the 1950's everyone was dying of teburculosis, influenza, pneumonia, etc. Heart disease and cancer were right behind all these diseases, so when treatments and cures were found for the former, naturally heart disease and cancer rose to the top. You CAN be healthy and a meat eater. It's all about moderation and exercise.
Halleluja sister! Like I said in a previous post.. I don't have a problem with meat eaters, I have a problem with the over abundence and decandency when it comes to eating it (like the enormous steaks you get served in Texas as extreme example). Every doctor will probably agree that eating a lot of meat everyday (esp. red meat) isn't healty, but there's nothing wrong with eating it 3 out of the 7 days a week or sth. If everyone would do this, less animals would have to be killed, there would therefor be less polution, more room on the fields to grow human-food (instead of animalfood) so it'll solve a part of the starvationproblems, people would be more healthy.. and you still get to eat meat! Everyone happy!
Elle you have missed the point and I can tell you havn't read the second paragraph of my statement which was the most important, interesting thought that you have said it hasn't been proved that plants feel pain so if it was found that they do and they suffered more than any other living organism what would be your view then? what if animals including humans for some reason couldn't feel pain would you see them as a viable food source? what I'm trying to do with this thread is lets discuss the positives of what we discriminate against as a food source the reason I posted my last two posts was to challenge negitive thinking with well thought out statements and questions to which I can see a lot are now responding positivly to this thread but others are still ignoring the challenge of my last two statements and repeating the same things like yourself so read everything I've said and come back with a proper challenge to what I've said and questioned so far lol
I eat meat, though I do hate the idea of animals being killed for our food. I've had bouts of "vegetarianism" (I still ate fish) but I'm just so lazy at cooking and looking after myself that I'm sure I constantly missed out on all the important nutrients. The habits did stick to some extent though. To this day I often take the vegetarian option when given a choice, hardly ever eat red meat, and I hate meat as a main course at restaurants. I also buy only free-range eggs.
Purplesage you have become the example of this thread saying how you feel on the issue without bagging others choice I know there have been others but I had to pick an example lol
I don't see why eating meat is non ethical for humans, and ethical for other species. I think it is more a result of humans emotional approach to things, than actual resoning. We usually love animals and we cannot look at them getting slaughtered, even by other animals. But it is the way of the nature. We must learn to respect it even though it triggers bad emotions in us. It is definitifley not wrong, it is neutral. It is the natural way of things. Humans see death in a different way. We feel it as a loss, we are usually never ready to die, and we mostly do not respect death. (specially in the western world) But death is there. If it was up to us who love animals, they would live for ever, and they would all be vegetarians and all. The only "right" or "wrong" in nature is balance and lack of balance. And death and eating other animals and plants brings balance in nature. And now back to us humans. It is not immoral to eat mean, as long as we respect the life of the animals we eat. But we do not do that of course, we slaughter cows in a very degrading and non ethical way. We treat them like shit. This is the problem. The image of eathing dead bodies is allso a problem of the western culture. Death and decomposition of bodies seems to us as a negative thing, as scairy, and disguisting and all. It is a very long tradition. We are afraid of our own dead bodies. The culture has taught us to be afraid of them. Some indians and other tribal cultures leave their dead on the air, and nobody is afraid of them they are not disguisting or anything to them. So eating dead bodies of other animals feels wrong when you say it that way, because we automaticly remember our own dead which seems like horror to us, taught horror. Respect is everything. As long as we do not kill animals if we do not have to, and as long as we respect them as equally important living beings, it is OK to eat meat. This is my point of view.
7-11 makes more money than wal-mart does per year. They really should. Their main seller is coffee and foods though.
What would be my view if "animals and humans for some reason couldnt feel pain?" ........Or if "plants suffered more than any other living organism?" Well if it were proven (hypothetical of course) that plants could suffer that way then I would probably look into becoming a fruitarian. But I highly highly doubt that one. And animals and humans do feel pain and are capable of suffering, so that question makes no sense to me. If you want to discuss the 'Positives" of what you discriminate against as your food source, ie animals, ok........ I dont in my opinion see anything positive about it, so what do want me to say? I only responded to a hypothetical comment about plants and pain which is something I as a veg hear all the time. So I still dont get your point about it, and I really dont get what your point is in general here....if Ive missed the point, oh well, I dont feel like reading that much into it, so whatever.
