But it is harder to keep eating animals.
“The good is not as good as the absence of bad.”
For the sake of this mental exercise, let’s put the issue of killing aside for now, because one could say we humans are evolved to eat meat, we are capable of turning escargots into caca, hence it is natural to kill. That can be discussed separately, and frankly the result of that discussion would add nothing to the below exercise.
Here are some numbers:
(USDA statistics of slaughtered animals for the year 2008, limited to the USA only)
Cattle: 35,507,500
Pigs: 116,558,900
Chickens: 9,075,261,000
Layer hens: 69,683,000
Turkeys: 271,245,000
Putting aside the fact that these animals were slaughtered, the issue I can’t logically and rationally overlook, is the suffering these animals had to endure in their lifetime, because of industrial animal farms.
Most of these animals had to be processed through these farms, because of the demand we humans have on meat. It is impossible to raise this amount of animals to meet our demand without industrial farms.
If I choose to ignore these facts, including the conditions of these factories, or the lives these animals experience since the day they were born, or how big the demand for meat and how that drove the need of these farms, I am dishonest, or lazy, or ignorant, or just plain evil.
Then the fact that science has brought us proven alternatives to a omnivorous diet, it is harder to justify our actions.
Therefore for anyone to choose to do nothing about this, he or she is dishonest, or lazy, or ignorant, or just plain evil.
On the other hand, if we consider the impact of what our corrective actions could be, such as going vegan, the actual change our actions might bring to this situation is depressingly insignificant.
For instance, if I become a vegan and eat 1,000 fewer animals every year (let’s be really generous and accept I am always very hungry), that number is a drop in the ocean. Even if my entire city goes vegan, that number is 8 billion animals per year. In the US alone, back in 2008, 9 billion chickens (just chickens) suffered the hell of chick farms, their entire life. The impact of whatever action you and I choose to take, will likely be insignificant.
Another reality is, the above facts show us that the act of consuming commercial meat is wrong. We know spitting into someone‘s coke is wrong. We know stealing candies from kids during Halloween is wrong. We know peeing at our neighbors back door at 3am is wrong. Often when we know what is wrong, we would not do it, regardless of its actual impact (I can guarantee you one more glass of coke without my spit is insignificant).
Therefore any action we choose to take with this issue, is an honest act of, doing less wrong.
“The good is not as good as the absence of bad.”
Now let’s talk about the act of killing …
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