Just as an extra note, someone mentioned something about the lives of plants (don’t feel like scrolling up to find the name), and my response would be that plants don’t have central nervous systems so they don’t actually feel pain. (If you want to get into the cruelty/respect aspect)

But yes, great post. I don’t find it offensive. I think people need to have recognition for their actions and take responsibility, so if you are eating meat you should at least be able to say “I’m aware of what’s going into producing my food, but I’m making the conscious decision to still eat it” Rather than being ignorant about what goes into the products in your life. props to bobby and the director of this clip.

There are so many layers under a piece of meat (which includes a huge waste of water, polution etc.) – that’s why people like me avoid products which exploit animals / nature. Thanks for the link. There are different kinds of studies that try to prove our needs (I was talking about our nutritional needs, not our ancestrals’ behaviour as hunters). I have some books here at home, but they’re all in portuguese. I’ll be glad to post here a link as reference soon.

Over the last 20 years the industry has gone from cruel to insanely cruel. Most pigs are now so confined they can barely move ad infinitum (easy to research if u dont believe it).

The fact that everyone just says thats the way it is, makes it the way it is, which unfortunately in 2010 is disturbingly sick. Surely at the very least these animals deserve remotely natural or comfortable living conditions before they end up on our plates?

A little bit of awareness and regulation could achieve that no problem but everyone just holds the line “thats just how it is” which makes it impossible for the people who do care to push for the ethical treatment of factory farmed animals.

Sure you would have to pay a couple of dollars extra for a steak but it would be healthier, more environmentally friendly and animal wouldn’t have had such a god awful existence.

I think your analogy to racism and sexism being compared to eating meat is a bit thin though. Humans have been eating meat since, well, forever. Humans started out as hunter gatherers, killing animals and eating them and surviving on plants as well. People don’t need to be racist or sexist to survive, haha…

Biology online has a great article talking about the evidence that we’ve been omnivores for a long, check it out: http://www.biology-online.org/articles/humans-omnivores.html

But like I said before, to each their own, just don’t try and take away my meat.

Might does not mean right and there’s no moral justification to force animals to a life of confinement; being raised only to serve us. Interestingly, human beings claim to be the ‘evolved’ ones, yet we participate in an animal holocaust everyday in the name of our palate (and other things). “They were never made to roam around free and they never will be, that’s just how it is.” We didn’t build animals in laboratories. They exist in a world older than us, so yes, I believe they’ve got the interest to be free and to be alive (although we’re different in many aspects, it’s not so difficult to understand their needs). We just learned how to multiplicate and slaughter them in an industrial scale. That’s all.

Humans are not necessarily omnivores (that’s an endless discussion – there are different explanations for being omnivore or not); how can you explain the thousands of vegans around the world, surviving in a 100% vegetarian basis diet? If we are “made to eat meat and vegetables” as you say, I guess I’m a X-Men or some kind of alien, then (heheh, just joking).

There are other ways to see and live in the world around us. I just hope people stop and think before they consume. I respect all omnivores just because I used to be one. I’m different now ’cause I don’t agree with the way we treat animals. Also, I usually don’t start conversations about veganism (just wanted to point out a part of your post that felt a little incoherent to me). Sorry to bother you, I don’t mean to be offensive. By the way, I love this blog. Congrats and peace :)