From the farm to your fridge

[MelodicMetalGod]

I respect your position. There are many things wrong in this world and many are done because of money. It's always good when people draw awareness to such issues. The emotional drive is a good thing but your message should remain detached. It makes some middle ground people turned on/off when the emotions fly.

Likewise and agreed. However, with zero emotion, would there be any issues on anything at all?

At the core of the matter is whether or not we should consider the welfare of other beings besides ourselves. Such a question is about empathy which is all about attempting to understand the feelings of others. So, I believe that emotions will always be a part of our intrepretation of matters that involve living things, ourselves included.

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

You did what you had to do, and that's why humans are omnivores. However in my opinion meat is strictly a survival food.

My proof. If you have an all meat diet, you will become very sick and will die from it (millions of Americans are currently suffering from heart disease due to a poor diet/lack of exercise). However on strictly vegetable/fruit/grains/nuts diet you will live a long and abundant life. Don't BS me and say you will miss "essential" proteins from not consuming meat. You can gain the same proteins from vegetable. Beans and rice is the perfect substitute for that protein we "need" from meat

Well said!

As examples, check out this video of athletes, some world renowned, some barely known, that are vegetarian or vegan:

- Famous Vegetarian and Vegan Bodybuilders, Athletes, Sportmen and Sportwomen[/url]

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

I love meat therefore I will eat it. I wont watch the video because I love animals but it has to be done to put the meat on the table most of us love

I love it too. But I will not eat it b/c of what has to be done to animals to put it on my table.

Your comment suggests that you are conflicted between your food choice and your personal beliefs. If you are honest with yourself about the reality, you may find that you wish to re-evaluate your choices.


"Everytime we sit down to eat we can help protect animals by leaving them off the plate."

 

[Strife]

Slaves were bred to be slaves but it was not the choice of the slave to be a slave. The fact that they were bred for the purpose of another in no way made it "OK" that they were forced to be slaves.

Similarly, the fact that we breed animals for food does not make that animal any less interested in survival, natural breeding or seeking a comfortable, natural life that is free of pain, torture and abuse.

Consider that many humans have an issue with the using of stem cells b/c this prevents life for the donor source. These animals have it far worse as they are given life only to suffer the entire time they are alive, finding release from ONLY when they actually die, which is often not until after they are well into the slaughter process. If they "kill shot" doesn't kill them, the assembly line is not slowed for the sake of their comfortable death...that would decrease profit. Therefore, the line continues and the chicken is boiled to remove it's feathers, the cow is slashed and bled out and even skinned...dead or, often, ALIVE.

Comparing Humans to livestock? Really?

 

[Strife]

Virtually all of the treatment issues are about profit issues for the companies responsible for the abuses. 90% or more of animal products in our grocery stores are the product of factory farming.

Ironically, it takes 3x to 10x as much plant food to raise a cow as it would take to feed us directly. The very industry of meat INCREASES our overall cost. It is relatively cheap to us b/c of the industrialization and massive volume that exists today. But it is hardly financially efficient.

So if we removed Meat products from our diet, it would lower the cost of Vegetables for us? Society would end up paying an increased amount of for our plant food cause of the increase use of it by us. Regardless if we overall used less then we currently using with feeding livestock.

 

[Pardini]

What's going to become of all the cattle, pigs and chickens when we all start eating THEIR food instead of them?

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

What's going to become of all the cattle, pigs and chickens when we all start eating THEIR food instead of them?

The short answer is, they would live natural lives.

I'm speculating that you're implication is that if 100% of humans stopped eating meat, then we'd have too many animals to manage and no place to keep them or means to support them. And that's probably a likely outcome...IF 100% of humans stopped eating meat at the same time.

What's more likely is that humans reduce their meat consumption gradually over time. The industry would react by gradually reducing their breeding over time. Eventually, population of animals currently bred for food would normalize just like any other animal found in nature.

For answers to question like yours, and many other:
Answers to Vegan FAQs

 

[Schexy1]

I worked in a food processing plant (non meat) for 6 years. Shortly after starting that job, I stopped eating the products we made. It took me about 7 years before I could eat it again, and I still can’t eat it on a consistent basis. There were several factors that made me stop eating it. The smell and how it looked while being processed, having to eat it at work for taste sampling and the plants sanitation all played into it. So I can understand how some people can stop eating meat.

I spent a lot of my summers in the country so I am oblivious to the way animals are killed. Mainly because I fished, hunted and participated in boucherie (Creole definition not French).

If you dig deep enough you will have a problem with everything. Some might argue that keeping animals as pets is inhumane. Putting fish in a tank, birds in cage dogs living in a house instead of being able to roam free is against their natural instincts. What about the animals used for work and sporting events? Race horses are some of the most well treated animals on the planet, but is it right?

Organic, pesticide, hormones, fertilizers and genes are some of the things that come up in fruits and vegetables conversations.

I think you just have to decide what you think is acceptable for you because regardless of the process or condition there will always be someone against it.

 

[Schexy1]

What's going to become of all the cattle, pigs and chickens when we all start eating THEIR food instead of them?

I saw some data years ago that said chickens would over-populate the word if humans didn't eat them.

We must do our part to save the planet.

 

[BlueHaya]

I eat more venison than beef.

Although I do have a couple of T-Bones spiced up and ready for the grill tonight.

According to the video....It is a bad way for an animal to live...and I believe a lot of those practices are or should be illegal, but welcome to a hungry World and I am sure we pay some government agency to monitor those places.

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

I worked in a food processing plant (non meat) for 6 years. Shortly after starting that job, I stopped eating the products we made. It took me about 7 years before I could eat it again, and I still can’t eat it on a consistent basis. There were several factors that made me stop eating it. The smell and how it looked while being processed, having to eat it at work for taste sampling and the plants sanitation all played into it. So I can understand how some people can stop eating meat.

I spent a lot of my summers in the country so I am oblivious to the way animals are killed. Mainly because I fished, hunted and participated in boucherie (Creole definition not French).

If you dig deep enough you will have a problem with everything. Some might argue that keeping animals as pets is inhumane. Putting fish in a tank, birds in cage dogs living in a house instead of being able to roam free is against their natural instincts. What about the animals used for work and sporting events? Race horses are some of the most well treated animals on the planet, but is it right?

Organic, pesticide, hormones, fertilizers and genes are some of the things that come up in fruits and vegetables conversations.

I think you just have to decide what you think is acceptable for you because regardless of the process or condition there will always be someone against it.

My uncle has a similar story to yours, though about a family in the midwest that he stayed with briefly while his motorcycle was in for repairs during a cross country adventure. The family worked at the local meat processing plant yet they WOULD NOT eat anything that came out of the facility. PERIOD. The informed my uncle as to why...he has been a vegetarian ever since.

While WE may perhaps manage to find an objection for everything, not everything objects. In the case of animals, I would submit that every single one of them "objects" to being kept out of the sun and fresh air, being confinedd for their entire existence to spaces so small that they can barely stretch their limbs, being mutilated to prevent them from hurting each other due to the mental issues they develop in such conditions, being fed food they would not normally eat or pumped full of hormones to make them grow bigger faster and to the extent that their bodies cannot support the growth...the list goes on and is quite unpleasant.

I doubt quite seriouly that fruits and vegetables every make any such objections. WE may have objections to how fruits and vege's are treated, but plants have no nervous system to perceive pain and there is no evidence that they are sentient, feeling beings. Excuse the pun, but comparing treatment of animals to treatment of plants is....here it comes...

...hardly apples to apples.

 

[SCBQQSTN]

What's going to become of all the cattle, pigs and chickens when we all start eating THEIR food instead of them?

I saw some data years ago that said chickens would over-populate the word if humans didn't eat them.

We must do our part to save the planet.

Biggest load of bull ever. If we all stopped eating meat at once, yes there would be over population for a very brief period of time. Then it would balance itself out. There are a ton of other natural predators out there that can do the job just fine

I doubt quite seriouly that fruits and vegetables every make any such objections. WE may have objections to how fruits and vege's are treated, but plants have no nervous system to perceive pain and there is no evidence that they are sentient, feeling beings. Excuse the pun, but comparing treatment of animals to treatment of plants is....here it comes...

...hardly apples to apples.

That made me lol

 

[Schexy1]

I doubt quite seriouly that fruits and vegetables every make any such objections. WE may have objections to how fruits and vege's are treated, but plants have no nervous system to perceive pain and there is no evidence that they are sentient, feeling beings. Excuse the pun, but comparing treatment of animals to treatment of plants is....here it comes...

...hardly apples to apples.

I wasn't refering to the treatment, but how they are grown and processed. Let's face it, humans are complainers

 

[K6_7L]

I have eyes in the front of my head...I am a predator and not ashamed. Did you see the video where they cut the heads off of the live lettuce? I saw one where they were cutting the ears off of live corn! It made my stomache turn, I just couldn't take it.

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

I eat more venison than beef.

Although I do have a couple of T-Bones spiced up and ready for the grill tonight.

According to the video....It is a bad way for an animal to live...and I believe a lot of those practices are or should be illegal, but welcome to a hungry World and I am sure we pay some government agency to monitor those places.

While we may be hungry, we don't need to eat animals. In fact, but supporting factory farming of animals, we are REDUCING available food in the world b/c it takes more plant food to raise an animal than if we just ate the plant food ourselves.

As far as gov't regulation, I'm guessing that you're not serious since we all know how well the gov't does with anything it takes on. In short, there is no significant accountability for the factory farming corporations. Much like any other mega-industry, they have massive marketing and lobbying budgets to both hide the issues from the public and work for legislation in their favor and against legislation not in their favor (favor = profit, btw).

RIGHT NOW, factory farming is working to make it ILLEGAL to even document issue of animal welfare.
New laws would criminalize exposing factory farms in Iowa and Florida | The Bovine

Consider this: Farm animals are specifically excluded from laws that protect cats and dogs. Abusive and cruel treatment applied to farm animals on a daily basis would be criminal offenses if applied to dogs or cats, but simply b/c these animals are destined for the plate, they are excluded from such protections. And the industry works very hard to keep things just so.

Question: If it is not OK to do to a dog or cat, why then is it OK to do to a farm animal that has the same capacity for feeling pain, the same instinct for survival, the same desire to seek comfort? Even if such an animal is to be killed, why must if live such a hellish existence while alive and why can it not be guaranteed a "humane" and pain-free passing?

 

[MelodicMetalGod]

I wasn't refering to the treatment, but how they are grown and processed. Let's face it, humans are complainers

No argument about the humans there. But again, treating an non-sentient, not feeling item can hardly be compared to the treatment of an animal.

 

[Schexy1]

Question: If it is not OK to do to a dog or cat, why then is it OK to do to a farm animal that has the same capacity for feeling pain, the same instinct for survival, the same desire to seek comfort? Even if such an animal is to be killed, why must if live such a hellish existence while alive and why can it not be guaranteed a "humane" and pain-free passing?

This is not ment to be funny or a poke at you, but laws governing the treatment of cats and dogs are not the same in every country. Go to an open market or breeding farms in Korea, the Phillipines or most Far East or underdeveloped countries and you will see what I mean.

We have a different view of certian animals and how they should be treated. The entire world doesn't share our sentiment.

 

[Schexy1]

No argument about the humans there. But again, treating an non-sentient, not feeling item can hardly be compared to the treatment of an animal.

Ok, let me put it this way: If we were all vegiterians or vegans, there would be people outside of Walmart protesting the use of pesticides, fertilizers and genetic engineering on our food.

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

Mmmmmmmmmm

 

[Schexy1]

Mmmmmmmmmm

That is disgusting, it has mayo on it.