Meat-Eating Debate (Relocated Thread)

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by KarmaContestant

Just wanted to throw something out there regarding the whole meat or no-meat debate. As a side note, I eat meat, but in very small quantites. I'd wager that I eat as much meat in one year as the average American eats in three days, and the bulk of that is on pizza that I didn't order. Americans eat too much meat - it's hardly an essential part of our diets in the quantites in which it is consumed, and should be treated as a luxury item, in my opinion.

Anyway, I recently read the book Eating Animals (a GREAT book by the way, and I'd recommend it to vegans, carnivores and vegetarians). The author made a very good point regarding factory farming and the barbaric methods with which animals are treated in a modern world supposedly so concerned with compassion and the humane treatment of all life forms; I don't rememebr the exact words but basically he said "If you eat chicken, and you recognize the suffering and brutality that this animal endured, and you can live with that sitting on your conscience, so be it. However, if you eat chicken simply because it tastes good, then you are part of the problem."

The 'problem' of course is obesity, mad cow disease, SARS, H1N1 and the incredibly unethical methods used to satisfy America's demand for flesh. Most people would be truly horrified if they knew the truth, if they witnessed the reality behind the shiny, sanitary packaging in the grocery store. In 2000, Americans ate an average of 195 pounds (boneless) of flesh annually - 57 more pounds per person than in 1950, and we eat more meat per capita than any other nation on Earth.

Regarding the topic of fur and leather: on the surface I don't have an issue with the byproducts of the meat industry being used for other materials and goods - it only makes sense that the skin of slaughtered cattle and pigs should be turned into shoes, but ultimately I would prefer that the demand didn't exist in the first place to justify the supply all of that leather. I do wear leather shoes - which may be hypocritical on my part, but it is what it is until an equally sturdy, resilient and affordable alternative becomes available. I have made peace with the issue.

The industrial production of animals exclusively for fur products is repugnant. If you're not going to eat it, there is no justification for killing it unless your survival is called into question, and to the best of my knowledge none of my local grocery stores are selling mink and fox in their meat cases.

http://www.eatinganimals.com/

Thanks for the book idea... I shall add it to my list of reading material. The statistics on increased meat consumption cannot be easily extricated from the increased incidence of obesity and related illnesses over the same period of time. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how/why this all came to be, but I would wager a good guess that it is largely due to the U.S. system of corn subsidies, which makes animal feed dirt cheap- to the point where cattle are raised completely on corn, despite the fact that they are grass-eating animals. Accordingly, meat is much cheaper at the store than its true, embodied value. I think the only way to alter the landscape is to eliminate this subsidy and force the price of meat to rise to its actual value while subsidizing the production of fruits and vegetables for the end consumer, not for the food refineries. It drives me crazy that two fresh tomatoes at the grocery store can cost more than a can of tomatoes or a jar of tomato sauce. Low income people really have no choice to but to consume unhealthy meat- and corn-based products because they are invariably the most affordable options that offer the most calories per dollar. And in NYC and many other cities, the poorest neighborhoods are also the neighborhoods that are the least likely to have a convenient source for fresh produce while being the most likely to have the highest per capita fast food establishments.

There is so much wrong with this system- food, health, environment, economics, politics... that it drives me crazy when people go around spouting untruths about the situation. Again, eating meat is a personal choice. But at least be willing to consider the consequences of your choices at face value without trying to cloud it with some kind of irrelevant conservative talking points.