Should you feel guilty for eating meat?

[Soods]

snip

We wouldn't need so much farmland, because we would not be feeding the cattle anymore. My point about the foodchain was that: by eating meat you eat more plants than by eating plants.
Yes, human minds in most cases are more advanced than other animals' but that doesn't change the fact that other animals have minds as well.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

But lately I have been questioning if I should feel guilty for eating meat, seafood (anything that has a life).

Because plants aren't alive? Because what? They don't move and don't seem to communicate or interact in any meaningful way we can understand?

If you're going to categorize life in that way, does that mean that a mute, or a deaf. Or someone disabled to the point of immobility like Stephen Hawking is less human and less alive than others?

And if your response argument is that we know a mute or a deaf person or an immobile person or animal is intelligence because of the actions of other like animals that have no disabilities, then I must point out that you're ignoring plant intelligence. Plants can communicate with each other by releasing chemical stimuli, and are capable of perceiving many other stimuli to make them aware of their environments. They can detect orientation, inclination, temperature, light levels; they can even react to physical stimuli. They have adaptive defenses against pests, including preparing their defenses before pests arrive, by way of being warned by surrounding plants passing on trigger chemicals. They are capable of intelligent problem solving, and will change their basic architecture to better survive in an environment.

All of this of course ignored the fact that millions of field mice and other creatures are killed every year in agricultural harvest by the threshers alone, where they are ground up in tiny bits that are then baked into your bread or end up in tiny little bits on most agricultural products. Which doesn't even been to approach the other creatures that farmers kill yearly to protect their crops including the deaths of billions of insects.

Then you have to realize that everything dies eventually, and is then eaten by something else. If you don't eat the cow when it dies guess what, the bacteria, the microbes, the fly larvae will eat it until just the base components are left behind in the soil. Which is then consumed by plants. Which are eaten by vegetarians.

Basically:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=grill

It is also wrong to drive an animal to extinction or to a dangerously low level by consuming it.

Why?

We wouldn't need so much farmland, because we would not be feeding the cattle anymore. My point about the foodchain was that: by eating meat you eat more plants than by eating plants.

By not killing the cattle, they will eat more plants than they are currently and thus have an even more negative effect on the environment. Unless your plan is to murder all cows everywhere so that they are no longer utilizing plant resources.

 

[TheTurtleMan]

You should only feel guilty killing an animal if you don't intend to eat it or if it suffered unnecessarily. Almost any other situation is fine if you ask me. You should also make sure that you aren't driving an animal to extinction because that's a party fowl.

If humans weren't meant to eat meat we wouldn't have pointy k9's in our mouths, don't feel bad for what is only natural, and healthy on top of it.

Humans are very evolved and humane when it comes to eating meat. We realize the importance of animal preservation and know not to hunt things to the point of extinction. It sounds obvious, but think about humans compared to mountain lions. If mountain lions were in our position of absolute animal dominance, they would start eating everything in sight without fear of consequence. They wouldn't give a fuck about all the different species going extinct.

TL;DR= We aren't perfect, but at least we aren't mountain lions. So eat up.

 

[spectrenihlus]

Stop trying to make me eat my poop vegans

 

[Nannernade]

I don't feel guilty, really why were they raised in the first place? To be eaten, it's not like they have lives like us where they have a job and if they die their kids are going to be really sad. Enjoy the abundance of MEAT

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

But lately I have been questioning if I should feel guilty for eating meat, seafood (anything that has a life).

Plants have a life too. Just saying.

Do you guys ever wonder about things like: balance of the eco system, food chain, humans are at the top of the food chain so its justified, etc?

Is it justified to eat the food we're evolved to eat?

Is it justified for a lion to eat meat? If yes, then the same applies to us. We have canine teeth - teeth designed to tear meat. It's how we're made. We might as well feel guilty for breathing air or killing bacteria. Or, as noted above, for killing the plants we also eat.

Anyway to cut the long story short, I'm very confused if eating meat/seafood is justified and that we shouldn't feel guilty for killing living things for our consumption. What do you guys think?
Your open and honest opinions on this subject are welcomed.

They're above. Every living thing kills to survive. Plants kill one another for soil and light (ie, a weeds kill other plants to survive). A few plants (Pitcher Plant, Fly Trap) eat animals. All complex organisms have immune systems to fight off bacterial or viral infection. Herbivores eat plants. Carnivores eat other animals. Omnivores (like us) eat both.

We can't live without harming other creatures. However, we can do our best to make sure that the creatures we eat are treated humanely while they're alive. Pasture raised beef instead of pen raised, chickens raised outside rather than in cages, etc - it is possible to eat meat responsibly.

 

[Ryotknife]

snip

For the first point:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production

Now show me the opposing statistics.

For the third point:
You are greatly underestimating animals' minds: some of them are almost smart as us (an example) [http://www.cracked.com/article_18930_6-amazingly-intelligent-animals-that-will-creep-you-out.html]. And even the dumber ones feel pain and sorrow.

You're overestimating animals' minds and learned behavior.

Opposing statistics as in "beneficial" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production#Beneficial_environmental_effects] for the environment? I think the free removal of weeds, handy fertilizer and biogas (renewable energy) don't outweigh the huge consumption of water, overgrazing, greenhouse gas emissions and water contamination. Also: plants are lower on the foodchain than animals. The lower we can get in the foodchain, the higher population we can sustain.

And human minds really don't differ in any big way from other animals' minds, do they?

considering we can over-ride our instincts and are capable of unraveling the mysteries of the universe, yes i would say our minds are quite different. Hell, we are the only species that can harnass fire, something nearly all animals fear.

Sure, there are animals out there that are smart compared to other non-human animals, but in comparision to us their intelligence is laughable at best. Their ability to survive is greater than ours usually, but we are smarter.

Also, animals dont feel even the slightest bit of guilt when eating meat, and they are downright dicks about it. They eat their victims alive or toy with them for hours killing them slowly. the average human at least if given the choice would kill them quickly.

 

[acosn]

The US eats too much meat- this much is indisputable. Your average human needs about an amount of meat equal to a deck of standard playing cards to actually get their daily allotment of protein.

No, actually, it's not indisputable. Nor is stating the bare minimum amount of meat required to not be deficient in protein or other nutrients and saying we don't NEED more than that completely true. We don't need a whole lot to avoid dying really soon. But if we're not getting much energy from meat, then we're likely getting it from carbs, particularly breads and grains. At which point, congratulations! You've now got a population that is obese and deficient in muscle mass.

Point is, to have a diet which will result in ideal health, we need more meat than many supposed experts (particularly the USDA) say we do.

The average American gets 200% of their daily allotment of protein.

Most of this comes from meat.

The research on meat heavy diets- especially the lower quality meats that tend to creep up most often because of their lower price points- is pretty much open and shut. What's more, the most prized meats are valued for their marbling- which is to say their fat content. Meat on it's own isn't bad, but the US love affair with red meat is. And when you can establish you're eating too much, and it's grossly inefficient...well, it speaks for itself.

The problem with carbs isn't carbs themselves, its the fact that a staggering number of foods that are incredibly popular in the US offer carbs with no real substantive nutrition. Realistically your average person who's trying to lose weight should have little (EG: literally two slices of bread in a sandwich or so) or no carbs, and you can crank it up to maybe a serving of pasta for someone who's trying to maintain weight. We don't exactly eat like that.

Actually, what the US needs is a more veg / fruit intensive diet. The last thing we need to do is continue shitting up the water table for a bunch of cows.

 

[Soods]

We wouldn't need so much farmland, because we would not be feeding the cattle anymore. My point about the foodchain was that: by eating meat you eat more plants than by eating plants.

By not killing the cattle, they will eat more plants than they are currently and thus have an even more negative effect on the environment. Unless your plan is to murder all cows everywhere so that they are no longer utilizing plant resources.

I'd say that we just stop breeding them and use the remaining cattle as we normally would have (eat).

 

[CrazyMedic]

the way I see it that cow would have never born if it weren't for the demand for meat so unless it is treated unethically, I figure it would rather have been born and gotten to live then to have never been born.

 

[TomWiley]

Point is, to have a diet which will result in ideal health, we need more meat than many supposed experts (particularly the USDA) say we do.

Then I guess you must know better than the "supposed experts" at USDA, because according to both USDA and the ADA, vegitariens are at lower risk of developing; "Heart disease, Colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers, Diabetes, Obesity abd Hypertension", and they live longer and healthier lives than their fellow meat eaters.

And this is simply because they eat less than meat than we do. So no, it seems like we don't need more meat to stay healthy. If anything we need to eat less meat and consume more vegetarian alternatives.

 

[Amaror]

It's possible to live life without eating meat, but it's not recommended, there are just some nutrients we get from meat that are greatly lacking in vegetarian diets.

Oh yeah, that again. The answer is no.
YES, there is some stuff in meat that is good for you. NO, it is not only in meat or living creatures in general.
Everything important that you get from meat you can get simply by milk, cheese and eggs.

At OP:
You shouldn't really ask this question here.
First, there is going to be really much hate against Vegetarians and Vegans in this thread.
Second and most important, You shouldn't ask this question to anyone at all. When there is one person that can tell you to feel guilty or not it is yourself.
And since you posted this question at all, i will make the assumption that you DO feel guilty.
So i would say listen to yourself, your conscious is telling you your answer.

 

[TomWiley]

By not killing the cattle, they will eat more plants than they are currently and thus have an even more negative effect on the environment. Unless your plan is to murder all cows everywhere so that they are no longer utilizing plant resources.

I know right. What an absurd thing to suggest. Only that this is exactly what we're already doing. So we consume 9 billion animals per year for food. Just keep up the pace we're going and those cows will be gone in a matter of months.

Then we can start to face out the meat industry over time. With other words, the problem you suggested would never at any point we a problem.

It's possible to live life without eating meat, but it's not recommended, there are just some nutrients we get from meat that are greatly lacking in vegetarian diets.

No, that's not true [http://brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/nutrition_&_eating_concerns/being_a_vegetarian.php]. And it's been discarded in this thread many many times already.

 

[TomWiley]

EDIT: Double post

 

[jklinders]

I'd love to see the meat industry handle things...better. Factory farming is hardly an ideal situation for either the animal or in truth the consumer.

Overall I say let your own choices guide you one way or the other rather than some pre-conceived concept of "guilt." Also, buy from a local producer when possible. I when I can afford it get some meat from the local farmer's market. It's just better.

 

[Jimbo1212]

Of course not! What else is cattle going to do with its life besides exist and who am I to argue with millions of years of evolution?

 

[Exocet]

For me, basically any animal is fair game.

Rabbit meat? Delicious
Horse meat? A rare and juicy, juicy treat
Hell, I'm not even against dog meat, but since I had several pets over the years, I'd feel bad eating it. Not for the dead animal, but by thinking of my deceased pets.

Anyways, screw vegetarianism. I like meat, meat is good for you, and I don't really want to go hunting around for a specific plant product that, in addition with an other, could replace meat, when I can simply just buy chicken.

I also wouldn't trust USDA reports that have been mentioned above my post, simply because meat-eaters will be lambda citizens in the US, which has a reputation of not being the healthiest country on the planet food-wise, if you catch my drift, while vegetarians will typically be much more mindful of their diet, and by extension health.
Unless they took similarly sized people, in which case I am wrong. But I still would rather eat things I enjoy eating and not live as long, rather than each meal being a fucking drag and live 5-10 more years.

 

[likalaruku]

I feel guilty occasionally, but it hardly prevents me from eating it. I often even feel guilty for letting my cats torture & eat bugs I could have moved to safety. I mean, bugs are pathetic sad little things that should live their short lives, yet i really don't want them populating in my house. It's a lose-lose situation.

I think it's pointless when people boycott meat in protest though; the animals will be slaughtered regardless of demand. Any meat that rots just means the animal died in vein & that's even worse than dying to be a tasty treat.

 

[Patrick Buck]

If god didn't want me to eat meat, he wouldn't of have made steak so delcious.

 

[Tomeran]

I eat meat on a daily basis and I sure dont feel guilty. Its something we've been doing since we started walking on two legs and thus its fairly natural.

That being said, I dont mind vegetarians(except the militant truly hardcore ones that are up in my face about it) and I sorta get where many enviromentalists are coming from, as livestock tend to represent quite inefficent use of arable land. At least that's what I've been told!

And the meat industry sure has some work to do. Industrial meat production with chickens and cows and whatnot living in such tight spaces they cant move coupled with some really nasty stories of animal cruelty and abuse is not exactly a nice way to treat an animal, even if said animal just ends up on someone's plate anyway.

So I guess I dont consider myself a vegetarian, but I'd gladly consider myself an animal friend, at least to the point where I dont want to see them suffer needlessly.