Meat&Morality

                                                   

Is it moral to eat meat? Is “factory farming" moral? Are those the same questions? Yes, no, and no. In which order am I answering these questions? In which order do you think I am? Many people would disagree with my answers regardless of the order. When it comes to eating meat, factory farming is always mentioned, as if the same thing. The means of production though are different than the product. “factory farming” is the modern means of production for meat, the product. Lets rethink my first questions. Is it moral to wear Adidas? Is child slavery moral? And, are those the same questions?

Veganism is a diet, and lifestyle philosophy. Originally it was about not exploiting animals. Today that means eat no animal products, and use none either. So what’s wrong with this? Nothing as long as you take supplements, being that if you don’t, then serious health problems become a serious risk. If you want to be able to be healthy without taking supplements (that may or may not work) then I recommend not going vegan. In 1944 Donald Watson founded the vegan society, the oldest in the world, thus coining the term veganism. Though various forms of “hard vegetarianism” have existed for a lot longer.

Vegan arguments are mostly, if not entirely flawed. Even when they make good points their conclusion does not follow. For instance they argue non human animals can experience pain to the same extent as humans, and that the only missing trait if you will is intelligence, and that's not enough to kill. Now this is mostly true, and putting aside my temptation for a red herring to ask about ownership, which I may only do to establish constancy, but I'm a proudhonian, so that hardly matters anyway. I’m more interested in pointing out a couple of things. Like how it is completely reasonable to expect a species to think in Contributionist terms relative to it’s own species. In other words we should expect humans to think about humans first, as we would expect a wolf to think of wolves first or a cow to think of cows first. It also rejects intention. Cows, modern farm cows were bred through artificial selection for, well, meat (and milk). Now I think it is reasonable to use something for it’s purpose. Now generally animals in nature were not created for a purpose. However humans changed that. We created cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and even certain breeds of dogs. Nureongi for instance is a Korean breed primarily bred and farmed as food. Great Danes on the other hand were originally bred as companions, and are still raised as so to this day (with less boar hunting). Now I think this is reasonable and the intelligence that allowed us to create them benefited us as-well as them, they exist, feed, reproduce and survive because of us, and likely couldn’t without us, at-least not nearly as well. This is essentially a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one. And as for pain, well, that is less now than it once was, and will hopefully continue to lessen. So would I eat a dog? Depends on the breed, a Great Dane? Fuck no, a Nureongi? Maybe, why not? They are livestock, and livestock is killed for food, like the vegetables Vegans eat. That’s right I gotta say as a consistent pro-lifer, Vegans are just as much murderers as any “meat eater”. If you really want to not kill your food veganism isn't far enough, you gotta go fruitarian. But don’t cause then you are almost certain to experience major health problems.

The environment also seems to be a major talking point. Vegans will point out that “it would be better for the environment if we all went vegan”. And, yes that is true, however unnecessarily far. Just regular ol’ vegetarianism would do that, and veganism would get no more of an environmental edge if you will, than vegetarianism. That being said, both those stances are impractical. Like boycotts in general. And that is one of my main complaints about veganism. It’s basically just a large boycott, and boycotts don’t work, at least not on any macro system, they’re to big to fail. And the meat industry is to big to fail, like Adidas, oh yes were bringing it around.

Now I am a utilitarian, so I wish to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Eating meat brings me (and other humans and non-humans alike) pleasure. Wearing Adidas also brings me (and others) pleasure. Now it is true to say that the way these products are produced increases pain. However it is also fair to say that it use to be a lot worse, and therefore reasonable to assume it could get better. Now boycotts don’t work, they haven't since the first multi-national became to big to fail. Now outrage can provide an incentive and regulation, as well as technological advancement, is likely what made factory farming better than when it first got big, and that is likely what will make it even better in the future. Not boycotts. Lab grown meat is almost certainly the future. And people are working on it, and have been for a long time, and it just keeps getting better. Now questions for vegans, “would eating lab-grown meat be murder? Or animal cruelty? If no then you have granted my first point, and if yes, then whatever don’t eat meat, I will though.

In summation I’d like to say just do what you want, live for pleasure. If you don’t like eating meat, then don’t. But don’t stop doing something that brings you pleasure because there is pain involved in it’s production. Not eating meat will not end factory farming, just as not wearing Adidas will not end child slavery, if it would, I would, but it won’t, so I won’t.