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LÊo
#TOTD This is a question that a colleague asked me a couple years ago, and it just keeps coming back to me. If one becomes informed about the damage that our meat consumption is causing on the planet, does it become immoral for one to consume meat? Say, if you watch a couple documentaries on Netflix and continue consuming meat, does that make you a bad person? I don't really have an answer. I think about it every time I eat a burger.
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Lucian Marin
I gave up completely on meat since you started this thread. I don't regret it at all. Vegan burgers are tasty too. I still like cheese and it's just as healthy for protein and amino acids intake.
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Matthew Townsend
Given that some amount of meat is healthier than none, you'd probanly be fine reducing your consumption by an order of magnitude. What I'd argue would be immoral is continuing to eat meat while eschewing genetically modified vat meat when that becomes available. It's hard to say whether or not cutting consumption now will bring that to market any sooner.
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Milkman Riot
Eating meat isn't immoral. We damage the planet in countless ways, humanity is a burden on the planet. If your goal is planet preservation over all, the only real answer is extinction of humans.
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Mike V.
I don't think it makes you immoral. I just nowadays don't understand *why* anyone eats meat. Once upon a time it made sense - it was tastier, there wasn't much vegetarian food that was any good and we had little/no evidence about the env or health damage. Nowadays? It's *really* easy to be a vegetarian, it's incredibly tasty food *AND* you're doing so, so much good for pretty much everything: environment, your health, animal wellbeing, your weight, etc.
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Matthew Townsend
I'm looking forward to vat meat production colocated in cities, along with highly industrialized vertical farms.
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LÊo
Primates have very similar guts and eat mostly vegetables and fruits. Being omnivorous means that you can eat plant and/or meat. It doesn't mean that you must eat both. That said, I still eat meat. It tastes great! blogs.scientificam...
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Brandon Pittman
Instead of just using eating choice cuts, try eating nose to tail. Also, treat meat like it used to be treated--a luxury. Our ability to get meat any time without having to hunt it has screwed up a lot.
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Mr
Driving a car, flying on a plane, buying products that are shipped on boats overseas - all of these are destructive to the environment. Should you stop driving a car? Does it make you a bad person if you fly on a plane? Maybe. Alternately, some people see it as a challenge to do better - electric cars, more efficient planes, in this case... 3D printed or Lab grown meat. Maybe, it's not black and white.
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LÊo
I like your point of seeing it as a challenge to do better. To be fair, some people don't have the option to *not* drive to work. It's just part of what they need to do to survive. On the other hand, there are easy alternatives to meat that cost the same and keep you alive just as well. I think that's where the thought of immorality comes from.
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Mr
Hard to point fingers at meat when there are so many other industries and lifestyle changes we could change to save the earth. At some point we'll have to collectively say "this has to go" in the same way that we decided everyone needs to wear masks during COVID. The alternative is much better... Offering a suitable replacement or something better all together. Hopeful wish, I know.
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Mr
That's a very difficult question to answer. Do what you can. For some of us, that is making changes to your diet or buying more efficient vehicles. For others, it's building a company that will provide those services and products. If we're looking for someone to blame, we all share it. No sense in pointing fingers. You could regulate offenders out of existence, but it wont change the requirements to live a modern life. We need to invest, invent and change the game.
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Kenneth Jensen
I know what the meat industry does. It ain't good, but it's all about making that bottom dollar. I do my best to pick out meat and produce that is organic. Ethically produced pork & beef is beautiful! Fuck chickens, though. Actually being around big livestock farms/auctions and seeing the way they live in pens, eating and shitting on themselves is horrible. Stress does not make good food. Know your meat!
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Shruthi
The moralistic tone that this debate has taken I think had the positive effect of making a bunch of people vegan/vegetarian very quickly, but the (larger?) negative effect of paralyzing everyone unable to make that leap. I think the right way to look at this is that you now have some new information about the 'true' cost of per unit of meat you eat. It's up to you each time you consume to see if that consumption is worth the cost to you.
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Moroni
I still have to be convinced by one of those documentaries. Every time I watch one, I do some fact checking after, and I always find something pointing out that the documentary is not scientifically correct, is opinionated, is using wrong numbers, has an agenda...
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Mike V.
Totally agree (about the "cutting down" bit) - but I'm curious about what you find hard about being veggie? I suppose I've been doing it so long I don't notice any more - but I'm quite rare [see what I did there] in that I'm a vegetarian who once upon a time quite liked meat. I gave it up purely for the hell of it and haven't really ever looked back.
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Moroni
They are processed food anyway and they are not healthier than red meat. I'm adding more fresh vegetables to my meals, but I'm staying away from those plant based meats. :)