My two bits on the morality of eating meat...
1.) Supposedly eating strictly vegetarian removes more habitat from
the
ecosystem than eating only meat. The logic being
that a wheat/corn/etc field is denuded of other plants
so bunny rabbits can't live there and are killed if they try
to live there. A cow pasture is shared by a lot more than
cows. E.g bunnies, deer, etc. One can argue that
if you kill all the animals in a square mile field, that
is mean, but after that there are no more animals dying.
So you get into the argument wether the goal is
"do not kill" or the goal is "foster life". If it is
to not kill, then the best thing you could do is kill your
self so there is only one death caused by you. If it
is foster life, then the best would be to have an all-natural
farm and raise your own food in a manner that maximizes
the ecological richness per square acre. You then become
a master gardener/farmer and foster life, creating
a "garden of Eden". Better yet, foster a better society
that maximizes the smart use of resources.
2.) There is the fear of death that humans have due to their
amazing ability to predict and foresee the future. No other
animal seems to have such foresight that they fear death.
Most simply avoid death when it is the immediate future
with a typical foresight of about a minute or less.
Thus, farm animals spend MUCH less time avoiding
or "worrying" about death than wild animals do.
Still, ever acre of farm is an acre less that predators
can use, so I guess the predators have to worry
about starving. No win here.
My children often make comments like, "are lions
bad?" and I answer, animals are neither good nor bad,
they simply are. Some animals may be dangerous
or not dangerous to humans. The entire moral
compass that people follow does not apply to
animals. (Brings to mind an article about someone
who performed marriage ceremonies for their dogs
before they mated so the dogs would not be
immoral.)
3.) There is the simple fact that all living things need to
live by eating something. To be more exact,
Humans must kill to eat, whether directly
to eat meat, or indirectly to eat plants. In fact
eating plants requires a lot of insects to be killed
either with pesticides, or organic means.
4.) Then there are the religious aspects.
In Christian theology, God gave us all of the
animals to eat (or most of them) and so we "own"
the Earth and all it's resources. What an interesting
concept. All the other animals are simply here and
have no concept of ownership. Does a deer hate
the cougar that kills it? Does the cougar have a right
to kill the deer? Such concepts are uniquely human.
(Ok, maybe we'll communicate with whales some day
and they may be capable of understanding such concepts,
or may not.)
Most all other ancient theologies have a similar moral code
in regards to animals, except Bhudism. Notice I say ancient here,
some modern "I just made it up" theologies such as New Age
dictate vegan, but they have not yet stood the test of time.
(I may not be exactly correct here about which philosophies
espouse vegan.)
5.) There is the issue of wasting resources which is very
serious. One should not waste food.
R. Keene
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