Quote (bogie160 @ May 20 2010 12:52am)
Yes, stop the fishing industry and see what happens to world hunger, I suspect it'll improve. While we're at it we might as well get New Zealand, Ireland, all of those chaps, to stop animal husbandry on land specifically fit for it. When you don't have enough food to go around, making less is the best bet.
I'd also like a definition on "unnecessary",my lifestyle requires protein consumption on the level that a "no animal product" rule would make impossible. My quality (and longevity) of life would decline if animal products (specifically meat, fish, and milk) were removed from my diet.
For clarification, I believe, in our goodness, humanity may condescend to grant animals some measure of protection, but that protection may be abrogated at leisure and comes second to human concerns. Animals (excepting humans) don't have rights, I'll eat as many of them as I damn well please and as suits my diet and lifestyle expectations.
I would kill a thousand chimpanzees rather than let a single child die.
With all of the land and resources we use for animals we could use on ourselves. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make one pound of beef. In tracking food animal production from the feed through to the dinner table, the inefficiencies of meat, milk and egg production range from a 4:1 energy input to protein output ratio up to 54:1. [3] The result is that producing animal-based food is typically much less efficient than the harvesting of grains, vegetables, legumes, seeds and fruits for direct human consumption. [3] People are cutting down whole forests just for pasture for cattle when it could be used on farmland or even not cut down. Animals fed on grain need more water than grain crops. "According to a 2006 report by the Livestock, Environment And Development Initiative, the livestock industry is one of the largest contributors to environmental degradation worldwide, and modern practices of raising animals for food contributes on a "massive scale" to air and water pollution, land degradation, climate change, and loss of biodiversity. " In other words the whole livestock industry is a waste.
@ the bolded: There are many other sources of protein that don't have to do with meat. You just want to believe that meat is necessary when it's not. THe quality of your life will be just fine if you take the right supplements and get the right nutrition as anyone should do, eating meat or not.
You can do as you damn well please, but realize that you're unnecessarily taking lives of sentient beings, who are sentient just like you. You ever heard of the golden rule? I'm sure you wouldn't feel so great if I decided I could eat you if I damn well please.
This post was edited by AEtheric on May 19 2010 07:20pm