I think part of the issue is that as a society we moved too far away from what we are. I was raised on a farm. I saw chicken heads cut off and sheep slaughtered, but it was all done in.. what is the word I am looking for here.. in a non-industrial manner. You knew you were taking a life and you tried not to make it ( edit: unnecessarily ) painful and not a pointless sacrifice ( in western society anyway some ethos definitely developed over time ).
But buying a mcnugget at mcdonalds removes that clear connection between life and death.
<< It feels like a distraction from thinking about fixing the way the hens get treated through their miserable lives.
It is a distraction, but I believe it is a valid related point nonetheless.
In general, we're protected from the true costs of our decisions. It's not just consumption of animal products, but negative externalities generally. We're willing to accept terrible things when divorced from the consequences of our actions and, even when made aware of these consequences, we dismiss them to protect our conceptualization of ourselves as "good" people.
Not only is it much easier to raise animals in a more humane manner than is done industrially, when people live closer to their food source they understand the sheer amount of resources -- land, water, deforestaton -- that goes into every kilogram of meat. I think people would eat a more reasonable (i.e. a lot less, and healthier) amount of meat if they saw and experienced the impacts of meat farming first-hand, from cutting down trees to create land, treating the land for farming enough food for the animals to grow before you can kill them for meat -- rather than selecting "beef" on a food delivery app without thinking about anything.
Comments
I think part of the issue is that as a society we moved too far away from what we are. I was raised on a farm. I saw chicken heads cut off and sheep slaughtered, but it was all done in.. what is the word I am looking for here.. in a non-industrial manner. You knew you were taking a life and you tried not to make it ( edit: unnecessarily ) painful and not a pointless sacrifice ( in western society anyway some ethos definitely developed over time ).
But buying a mcnugget at mcdonalds removes that clear connection between life and death.
<< It feels like a distraction from thinking about fixing the way the hens get treated through their miserable lives.
It is a distraction, but I believe it is a valid related point nonetheless.
In general, we're protected from the true costs of our decisions. It's not just consumption of animal products, but negative externalities generally. We're willing to accept terrible things when divorced from the consequences of our actions and, even when made aware of these consequences, we dismiss them to protect our conceptualization of ourselves as "good" people.
Yes, so much this.
Not only is it much easier to raise animals in a more humane manner than is done industrially, when people live closer to their food source they understand the sheer amount of resources -- land, water, deforestaton -- that goes into every kilogram of meat. I think people would eat a more reasonable (i.e. a lot less, and healthier) amount of meat if they saw and experienced the impacts of meat farming first-hand, from cutting down trees to create land, treating the land for farming enough food for the animals to grow before you can kill them for meat -- rather than selecting "beef" on a food delivery app without thinking about anything.