Calling All Carnivores Tell Us Why It’s Ethical to Eat Meat: A Contest, A Summary, A Winner

If you go by the "Paleo" or "Primal" diet, which both seem to be the most realistic diets in terms of what you're supposed to consume, they call for alot of meat, and nuts.

I don't like the idea of consuming meat, and hope we are able to create synthetic animal proteins relatively soon. That being said, I think it's possible to be a compasionate farmer. The industrial farming practices that are regularly performed are some of the most vial things I can imagine.

That means you should try to eat "organic, free range" as much as possible.

Originally posted by Isayeva
reply to post by libertytoall

 

That's the most pathetic argument employed by people who eat meat.
It amazes me every time in the worst possible way. Like they really care about the fact that plants have self-awareness, when they have no qualms about eating animals.

No it's quite the opposite. You are the one who's confused having a big issue with eating animals when eating plants is killing a self aware conscious living being as well. I know I'm eating a dead animal or a dead plant when I eat it, you however, sing kumbaya eating plants as if nothing is wrong there and forgetting the reality that they were alive and conscious beings before they were chopped down.

I'm not in denial but you certainly are.

reply to post by RandomEsotericScreenname


We are finding out all the time that a lot of what we eat now isn't good for us. Lots of meats can kill us if we don't cook it right and they say some red meats can lead to cancer and other problems.unless that is all lies. I know some plants can kill if we eat them too. But how do we know that eating meat doesn't take years off our lives? The only way to test that would be to put a veggie against a meat eater and see who lives longer and run that over a number of people to see if there is any difference in the age they live to.

reply to post by thoiter

Well I would consider the suggestion that animals have no values or feelings is a better example of La La land reasoning. I presume you've never owned a dog, or watched a gorilla. If I prevent a lion from eating a child, am I blatantly disregarding natural systems and hierarchy?

I didn't suggest that animals have no feelings, I suggested they have no human feelings. I'm sure that they don't have any values.

Saving a child from a lion is saving a human being from death, it has nothing to do with things.

You are blatantly disregarding natural systems and hierarchy if you think that the way of one lifeform eating the other is fundamentally wrong. It's what nature is based on.

Arguments like the animals have no say in it are purely based on reasoning from an emotional human perspective that is not based on any natural law whatsoever.

Originally posted by Isayeva
reply to post by RandomEsotericScreenname

 

Why would you mention anthropomorphism when you begin your post with "Is it ethical for a bear to eat salmon?" Or maybe you think that bears, too, like humans, have consciousness.
That's the whole point, bears are not aware that they are inflicting pain on other beings (or at least not to the degree we are), whereas humans are perfectly aware of what they are doing.

Because I don't see why it would be morally wrong for us to kill and eat meat of this is the way it goes in nature.

Also killing animals for food does not eqaute inflicting pain, the meat I eat that I hunted myself never saw it coming.

If a prey is killed by a bear do you also worry about the "pain" that is inflicted on it?

Originally posted by Havick007
reply to post by Ericthenewbie

 

Have you ever seen a vegan, pale and skinny :S

edit on 5-5-2012 by Havick007 because: (no reason given)

Hmmmmm, Mac Danzig Ultimate Fighter......

www.mmabay.co.uk...

Hardly pale and skinny...... and is 100% vegan...

reply to post by Avalessa

Everybody makes sure to mention the evolutionary theory when it suits them but easily forgets it when they compare their consciousness to that possessed by cats and bears.

I think it's not right to kill any living being, with exceptions if the being is putting other living being in eminent danger, I think this includes if a human being is dying of hunger, but in other circumstances I don't think eating meat is the problem, it would be ok eating the meat of some animal that died of natural causes.

Some people have severe allergies and intolerances to certain foods and have to live on a very limited diet as it is. Take meat away from their limited diets and they could be in big trouble. Not everyone has the option of eating from the wide range of plant-based foods to make up for the lack of meat in their diets and human beings can't live off of vitamin pills and vitamin B12 shots alone.

reply to post by ThePeopleParty


Well, we got this far eating meat so I guess it can't be that bad.

reply to post by CaptChaos


If you don't eat meat, the body will adjust(if not by default) its size. It's not going to grow too big for the brain to handle. If no organisms ate meat, most likely, the first humans would have been very small.

Also, if big brains are beneficial, then why don't carnivores keep evolving bigger brains?

Notice those aliens' heads? Not sure if I want to look like that, even if say it gives me telepathic powers.

Ethics... Health...

People get pretty defensive when it comes to "justifying" their diet.
Ultimately, we know what we want to eat, and we don't want people telling us what's good for us.

Everyone knows skinny, pale, sickly people. Vegans are not immune to suntans, and meat eaters are not necessarily going to die of a heart attack.

Our bodies are capable of consuming a wide variety of substances... some things more efficiently than others.
Plant proteins (yes, they do exist) are quickly digested and easily utilized. Hemp seeds are an amazing vegetarian source of protein for humans.
Like anything else, too much protein in your diet can cause severe health problems.

Ultimately, the best foods for us are the ones that are consumed in as close to their natural form as possible.
Talk all you want about our ancestors surviving on meat... they certainly weren't eating hormone, antibiotic-laden, meat that was raised on a factory farm. And they most likely weren't eating meat three times a day, every day.

Personally, I don't eat meat, but I do consume some raw dairy and raw bee products. I am very active and people say I look 25 (I'm 40).

I don't think that not eating meat is the reason that I feel so healthy, however.
I eat organic, natural foods, as close to raw as possible.
I would eat meat again before I went back to processed, packaged crap. Cutting out processed white flour and sugar is, I believe, the most important first step toward health.

I don't know if we "need" meat to evolve mentally. There seem to be plenty of carnivores in nature that aren't particularly bright.
Gorillas and elephants eat a mostly vegetarian diet, and both are extremely strong and don't seem to be lacking in protein.

Thinking about what we eat is a good thing.
Perhaps as we "evolve" it will continue to become more of a topic of concern.

2 words folks -- food chain

Caterpillars eat leaves but when they are transformed into butterflies they eat nectar.

I don't think meat eating is unethical. Animals eating animals is a natural occurrence. This is the way some animals survive. Can we say that their nature is unethical? They evolved that way and do not have a choice nor the capacity to change.

Actually, one animal has the capacity, homo sapien. It sometime chooses to change. If a human, with it's frontal lobe, doesn't decide to change its evolutionary path, is it unethical? We, an animal capable of defining, define ethics to offset our animal nature toward each other. Since other animals cannot claim murder is unethical, choosing to murder them would be considered natural and not unethical.

I just chose not to murder the other animals. It's a personal choice. I don't claim to know the level of other animals' awareness and pain. I just assume they have some level. This alone is enough for me to be a vegetarian. I feel that I am experiencing heath benefits as well, but that may be due to other factors.

reply to post by gentledissident


That's a good point.

I, for one, know that I cannot take a gun and go hunt a deer.
I wouldn't feel good about killing another creature when I don't need to in order to survive.

Going to the supermarket and buying meat that someone else has killed, when I can't do it myself, feels hypocritical.

If I was forced to hunt to survive, or to feed my family, I would. But I don't need to do that based on my circumstances.
I admire people who know how to hunt, kill their prey as humanely as possible, and utilize as much of the animal as possible. It's an efficient and healthy way to consume meat.
I just don't want to do that myself, and am thriving on a vegetarian diet.

Originally posted by Viking9019
A healthy diet on veg can only last so long.We need meat.

I've been a vegetarian for about 20 years. When will I need to start eating meat again?

Originally posted by RandomEsotericScreenname


I don't get this. Doesn't the fact that vegans have to resort to all sorts of fancy supplements in order to not completely fall apart, tell you something?

I mean why be "unnatural" and "unethical" and eat a nice steak, if you can go natural and ethical with Red Star T-6635+,, wich is made in some factory, like nature intended.


The meat industry is unethical, I'll say that much, but eating meat isn't.

Half the crap you eat probably came out of a factory. There is nothing unnatural about nutritional yeast.
en.wikipedia.org...
You can make it yourself if you want to. I get from a lady in town and she makes it herself.

Doesn't the fact that most American's in this country are fatasses and are suffering from one or more chronic conditions tell you something? Apparently eating meat isn't the panacea you people proclaim. Furthermore, most of the meat sold in this country is absolute garbage-It's laden with hormones, antibiotics and hardly inspected at all so good luck when the next E. Coli outbreak hits.

I am not a Vegan myself. I ate a piece of meat today. So why do I defend vegans and vegetarians? Simple. You guys keep bringing up the most unscientific crap to justify yourself. You are going to knock a vegan for doing something "unnatural" while you type on a computer. You are directly benefiting from technology and have no right to knock Vegans for doing the same thing.

So you want to eat a steak, I don't care.

I'm hungry.

I have K9 teeth

My stomach can handle it with ease.

The smell makes me hungry (That should be enough right there )

But the thing is I really don't care if some liberal wacko says its unethical.

Ethics as an everlasting battle.

Hell someone thru argument could, state why the Holocaust was ethical.

I say tomato you say.... Wait that don't work thru text.......

You say tomato, I say porter house...Mmmmmmm...... Noms

Originally posted by Havick007
When have you seen a chicken eat another chicken!?

My dad got some chickens one year. We kept losing them to each other. Maybe they weren't eating the flesh, but they were sure picking it off each other. My dad said that's the pecking order.