The world is going to hell in a handbasket at the moment and one of the single biggest contributors to environmental destruction (land clearing, emissions, disease, etc.) is the meat industry. What’s more the meat lobby gets away without having to pay for a cent of the damage caused. I don’t think anyone can argue that we wouldn’t be better off eating less meat (and if you think you can I’m all ears).
For the moment I would never advocate making meat or animal product consumption illegal. There is too much nannying going on in this country already. However instead of encouraging people to eat less meat, and particularly factory farmed meat the Government has actually gone the other way and sided with the meat lobby by leaving them out of the emissions trading scheme. If agriculture was factored into the ETS then I would be a lot happier, because at least you’d almost be paying your fair share for the environmental destruction you’re causing.* Instead when I watch you all slam down that steak I know that we’re accelerating faster and faster towards one giant cluster fuck.
I’m not deluded enough to think that me not eating meat or dairy has any measured impact in a whole world sense, or that we won’t be fucked anyway, I know I’m a small cog in a massive machine. But I want to be able to look my grandkids in the eye in 50 years and say “I tried” not “well we we’re all fucked anyway so I just plodded along mindlessly towards the cliff and besides I like the taste of beef”.
Does this explain some of the angst? Maybe it might be similar to how people here feel when you overhear someone saying: “I was stuck behind this cyclist the other day, they’re so self-righteous those cyclists, they don’t even pay rego you know…”
Consider if smokers didn’t pay tax. Is it fair that non-smokers pick up the health tab for all of those smoking related health complications even thought the smokers knew what they were doing was harmful?
I understand what your saying, but i think not eating meat is just a band-aid solution. The reality is, we need to lose about 1/3 of the world population. We need to stop breeding, or reduce breeding to 1 child per person, thats the reality.
It doesn’t matter whether you eat meat or not, the fact is, were all still fucked.
If you really want to help, Kill yourself.
(My girlfriend is vegetarian and one of my best friends is vegan, so its nothing against you guys)
OMG, I just spat my screen from extreme lol motion again.
I’m sure Shortsie meant this in the context of the general population and nobody in particular.
Oh, and I fail to see how my family eating meat that they’ve bred and killed has any detrimental effect on the environment. I see them more as hunters and gatherers.
I agree with the essence of what you’re saying here- industrialised farming practices are a problem both environmentally AND ethically. Battery chicken and pig farming is about as far away from ‘hunting and gathering’ as it gets. I think you’d have to be ignorant to say that ‘it’s fine’.
I know I’m going to sound like one of the crazies here, but it would probably be a good idea if I ate less meat, not only for what I’ve said previously, but also for my general health… meat, why are you so delicious?
