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To take it to the extreme, we can't know for sure that carrots don't experience suffering due to our raising them for food. We have canines for a reason; meat
by lukifer 13y ago
To take it to the extreme, we can't know for sure that carrots don't experience suffering due to our raising them for food.
We have canines for a reason; meat is part of our evolutionary heritage. I respect the moral decision not to eat animals, and the fact that we do not raise livestock more humanely is unforgivable; but eschewing all animal proteins is extremely detrimental to one's health (the poster child being Steve Jobs in his last ten years of life).
Given that consciousness is a spectrum and not purely binary, I think the proper middle ground is to eat primarily fish (whose nervous systems are probably closer to carrots than to cows) and by-products such as eggs and cheese (from animals who are well-cared-for). If one does choose to eat red meat, it should at least come from pasture farms where the animal has a real life before it is slaughtered.
- jessaustin 13y agoWe have canines for a reason; meat is part of our evolutionary heritage. I'm sure that's why horses have canines, as well, but they don't eat much meat! Of course I agree with the overall point; in fact I shot a delicious young deer a few weeks ago. I sometimes wonder whether the meat-is-murder trolls aren't really just cannibals hoping to mainstream their own predilections.
- tspiteri 13y agoHorses had canines for fighting, not for eating.
- jessaustin 13y agoReally? Any cite for that? Kipling doesn't count! I've seen lots of horse fights, among individuals with and without wolf-teeth. In few of those were the bites even deep enough along the mandible to engage the canines, and in no case did the bite come from the side to emphasize the canine.
- tspiteri 13y agoI found it here: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/horse-care/horse-care-tips/canine-teeth-in-horses/ http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/horse-care/horse-care-tips/ca... The relevant part follows: Originally “fighting teeth”, they have no occlusal contact, i.e. the opposing upper and lower canines do not meet, so they are of no benefit in the eating process.
- jessaustin 13y agoSomewhere, Steven Jay Gould is very disappointed.
- asciimo 13y agoAre you saying that Steve Jobs died of a plant-based diet? Citation, please.
- lukifer 13y agoI'm saying it was a drag coefficient on his general health. http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/29/steve-jobs-fruitarian-diet-lands-ashton-kutcher-in-the-hospital/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/01/29/steve-jobs-fruitarian-di...
- hedning 13y agoSteve Jobs had cancer for the most of those 10 years. It seems he tried a vegan diet to treat it among other things, that was silly. That does not make him a poster child for vegans, it seems like he wasn't even vegan before the cancer.
- lukifer 13y agoHe tried to treat it with specific subsets of veganism, such as fruit-only and nut-only diets. My understanding is that he was vegetarian/vegan for most of his adult life; please correct me if I'm wrong.
- hedning 13y agoMight be. I was just going off wikipedia, which only noted anything about veganism as a treatment for the cancer. But it sounds like you know more about it than me.
- arsenerei 13y ago> We have canines for a reason; meat is part of our evolutionary heritage. Gorillas also have canines[0]; they're herbivores. > by-products such as eggs and cheese (from animals who are well-cared-for). In some sense, eating eggs and cheese is actually worse than eating meat. 0 - http://www.igorilla.org/assets/images/who/mgsilverteethcu.jpg http://www.igorilla.org/assets/images/who/mgsilverteethcu.jp...