You know what the ultimate solution to so many problems concerning Environment, Animal abuse and etc, is
to cut down 99% of the human population. ( and at the rate how we do stuff it will happen =D)
There are 4 groups of people here.
-against
-for
-realist
-don’t care
This is a discussion that never has been solved and probably will never Be solved.
also between countries there are way different rules concerning animal care etc.
And this process to change how we do things cannot be done in a few years it takes hundreds if not thousands of years to change.the solution will show eventually but not within our lifetimes. all we can do is work towards a better planet etc but it’s no use colliding with each others opinions when that opinion is already absolute for that person.
@Yomigaere there isn’t really a right or wrong answer, we’re just sharing our thoughts and maybe changing opinions. Also, why lock it? This discussion is still civil, more or less.
It was getting pretty close to a full on flame war for a few minutes there, though. It’s been steered a bit more on course sense, definitely gonna stay open for at least a little bit longer.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t take a website called ‘cowspiracy’ seriously.
Either way, I read the page and would like to show how misleading some of these facts are.
All quotes are from cowspiracy unless otherwise stated.
Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.
The source provided by the website backs up this claim, but I can find no other sources to corroborate. In fact,
[url=https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-02/documents/2017_complete_report.pdf]an EPA report[/url] (page 2-24 to 2-25) puts agriculture emissions at 8.7% of all human sources.
Transportation exhaust is responsible for 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
27% actually, according to the same EPA report as above. But but that covers transportation of everything, including vegetarian and vegan foods. I'm not 100% sure why this is listed on this website.
Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
There is no way that this can be true when just 2 statements above, the same website claims animal agriculture is only accountable for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Methane is 25-100 times more destructive than CO2 on a 20 year time frame.
Methane has a global warming potential 86 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame.
Cool. But it isn’t ONLY animal agriculture that produce methane. In fact, animal agriculture isn’t even the largest producer of methane. That would be fossil fuel production and use.
Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years.
This is just plain wrong. Even one of the cited sources says so:
Emissions for agriculture projected to increase 80% by 2050.
All agriculture, not just animal agriculture. World population is rising exponentially, so this is to be expected.
Energy related emissions expected to increase 20% by 2040.
I presume this statement exists to make the agriculture one look worse. Things to note:
This statement has a shorter window by 10 years (around 1/3 shorter than the longer one).
Green energy is on the rise as the technology becomes cheaper and better. Advancement is slower in agriculture.
US Methane emissions from livestock and natural gas are nearly equal.
None of the provided sources actually seem to back up this claim.
I would go through more, but I have stuff I want to do that isn’t researching agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.
Not arguing facts of whether or not the consumption (food or otherwise) of animal-related agricultural products is detrimental to the Earth, just wanted to state that I am pro-veganism purely from a moral standpoint of being against the raising/killing of animals solely for human use. Not advocating that anyone switch to a vegan diet, just adding my two cents.
Sidenote: I am personally not vegan due to my love of animal products (chicken, turkey, cheese, alfredo, ice cream, food in general, etc.).
Here’s my 2 cents on veganism, it’s interesting. That’s about as far as my opinion goes. I’ve tried it and its difficult in the sense that vegan products seem to be more expensive.
I’m vegetarian on religious belief. I’m not gonna go on a ad spree saying ‘veganism is great’ or whatever but try it. If you don’t like it, cool move on.
[size=12pt]I think there are definitely pros and cons to lab grown meat, if the cells used are self replicating and animals aren’t constantly used to keep production going, this would reduce a great amount of animal suffering and damage to the environment. Unfortunately there are some people who will just never give up meat and if there’s an alternative for people that is still actual meat (minus all the suffering), then that’s a win in my book. Lab grown meat could end the cycle of endless reproduction and slaughter. Is lab grown meat vegan? I feel like that’s not a black and white answer and it’s a gray area I’m not sure about. I found this video to be very insightful about the topic.
Lab grown meat is to regular meat as tractors are to slavery.
Historically, attitude towards slavery had been pretty “meh” until tractors and other agricultural technology made slaves redundant. What previously had to be achieved with hundreds of slaves harvesting food could now be done with one farmer and mechanical muscle. Suddenly, public perception of slavery changed, because it was no longer economically favourable to keep slaves. There was now an alternative to slavery - not slavery - and it was just as cheap. There’s a strong link between states that had supported the Emancipation Proclamation and states that had widespread agritechnology.
Everybody knows factory farming is bad, nobody argues it’s an actual good thing. However, most people still retain this “meh” attitude. There’s no alternative to animal killing if you want to eat some meat. But as lab-grown meat becomes more viable, there will be a shift. Once you can buy a cruelty-free hamburger at the same price as a traditionally-made one, I suspect a lot of factory farms will close because nobody will buy their products anymore.
In realist terms, the best alternative to factory farming for producing meat is the next best thing.