How do you justify eating meat?

[shiny_quill]

Personally, I'm privileged enough to be able to eat local*, and since I have health issues that make it hard for me to properly assimilate certain things (like iron or proteins) which are more readily available in animal products, I kind of have to. I also am studying to work with animals, and part of it means I have to visit certain exploitations (even when they're not directly related to my future line of work) and see the full picture; I see the ugly side of the meat industry, but I also see that the people working in this industry are not the cold blooded monsters some associations try to paint them to be, most the farmers I met care a lot for their beasts and a lot of people working in slaughterhouses do so out of necessity and do seem to try to make things as quick and painless as possible. Laws are also (slowly) evolving to try and prevent any unnecessary pain or stress, and while it's not perfect, it is improving in most places...

Unfortunately, the demand for meat nowadays is absolutely crazy, especially in western countries, which leads to intensive farming in absolutely inhumane, disgusting conditions and I have nothing but respect for the people who decide to lower it by no longer eating meat, I just wish some of them didn't gain an "holier than thou" attitude from this.



*: By local I mean, the milk I drink is from a farm literally 5 minutes away by foot from where I live, the eggs I eat are from my own chicken and the meat I eat is at the very least either from my country or the closest one, I am not kidding when I say I'm privileged in that regard, and I understand not everyone can do the same.

 

[DownwardSpiral]

I couldn't so I stopped

 

[Drogon]

I eat meat because it tastes good

 

[Lost.Empyrean]

how do you justify eating at all

 

[Hvergelmir]

how do you justify eating at all

Compare the outcome of eating, to not eating. Which one is preferable?
The most straight forward justification for eating, is that the opposite results in starvation, which we find worse.

Then compare breeding, killing and eating an animal, to planting, growing and eating a plant.

 

[inextremis]

I don't eat meat personally but I don't think the boycott model really changes anything. I mean take Gardein products for example. Tyson Foods makes the vast majority of their income selling meat and then supplements their income selling soymeats to vegetarians who think their bullshit purchases actually affect the market choices these corporations make in any way.

I think it takes more direct action if you want to actually affect their bottom line

 

[DarkRange55]

Hunting for me is something that I've always just been curious about, I've been kind of drawn to that intuitively as something that feels like as a human being we need to explore. I know hunters sometimes get a bad rep because people think of hunting as trophy hunting, as killing animals needlessly. And sometimes it is. But when done correctly, I see it as something we used to do as hunter-gatherers. I see people use it to control animal populations in areas of America that have to be controlled. And maybe it's something we do as humans and maybe it's something that is natural. I also think its something we must do carnally and I kind of want to explore whats happening. I know people that only hunt elk and they only eat the elk meat that they kill for their families. I find that to be a really interesting potentially sustainable, potentially non-carbon footprint way of being able to eat meat and maybe eat the right kind of meat and do it in a way thats ethical and okay. But I've also heard it's an incredible way to really connect with the environment. Hunters can actually be people that treat the environment better than most people in the world and I think there's a deep connection here that a lot of people aren't seeing.

 

[legionary]

for me its more about adapting to the world around me. i know the meat industry will not stop in my time of living which means animals will keep being killed inhumanely, i feel it would be a waste if i didnt eat them, if that makes sense. as in, this being has already died and now theres no one to honor it.. it had to endure a very short painful life and now it either doesnt get eaten at all or it gets eaten by any random guy that doesnt think twice about it.
of course, just because im more "aware" and conciously thinking of what this animal went through it doesnt mean that im any better or more "morally right" than said random guy. but i feel our intentions and our conciousness are the only weapons we still have, so it does make a sort of omnipresent difference to me. objectively nothing changes, but in some astral and karmic way it does.

 

[Xi-Xi]

I eat meat and don't justify myself at all, it's pretty amazing what a human can do when they move through life with minimal consciousness and care towards anything. Explains a lot of human history.

It tastes good in my stomach

 

[GyreOfAsh]

I've never needed to justify it. I was born into it. If I wasn't then I'd need a reason to justify it. And science & my perspective of the world would lead me there.

We are not in heaven. We're on a brutal planet where we're all digestible to one another. This alone means that there are no ethics to the universe & that we're really in one big free for all to survive at all cost.

I have no issue with people who don't eat meat. I'd avoid it too if I could be as healthy without highly bioavailabile essential amino acids. If I were to get all of my protein from plant sources, it would aggravate the hell out of my sibo/sifo/ibs. And I'm not about to spend more money supplementing something I can get cheaper & in better quality lol.

 

[SoLowHollow48]

It's a bit different when you grow the animals then eat them. We assign/develop values towards other living things. We also consider the urgency of consuming them based off our own basic needs (to survive).

If I must eat a person now, I would. But I must eat them because they're already dead and that there's no other food source available. I'll hunt any animal at all and eat them because they're the only available source of nutrient there is. I cannot feel sorry for wanting to live as I cannot feel bad for wanting to die since it is my most basic right to do so.

Tigers do not feel bad when they eat zebras and offsprings whole. Shark don't feel bad when they eat other fishes. Absolutely nothing and no one cannot make me feel bad for eating other species or even my own. They're there and I'm fucking hungry.

The only limit is whether we know each other or if I raise them. I cannot bear the thought of having to kill and eat my brothers or my dog.

If we're talking about the procurement of the meat, I'll say that anything we eat now is damaging the environment/people within the industry in certain ways anyway. There's no ethically sourced food anymore in this capitalistic society where people must survive by following demands and throwing remorse for their surroundings out of the window. I can switch to becoming a vegan or a vegetarian now and STILL I would be eating the blood of underpaid workers and mistreated livestock.

 

[fishygirl]

eating meat never has to be justified. we are omnivores, meat is part of our diet. it also provides a lot of nutrition and satiety.

the real reason why there is even any discourse surrounding meat is due to our modern lifestyle. we have grown comfortable with easy options- why eat meat when you can go to the grocery store and have a million manufactured vegan/vegetarian options? why eat meat when we can just substitute its nutrition with pills and health drinks? what about bill gate's lab grown meat? no one thinks about the health effects of replacing our natural diet when it provides them mental comfort. everything is about comfort nowadays.
but the truth is is that we are animals like any other on this planet- just with the intelligence to feel sorry for the things we eat.

aside from the fact that we need meat to grow and function as healthy individuals, there is definitely a dying culture of caring about what you eat. indigenous communities still practice using every part of the animal, and taking care to not hunt to the point of hurting the animals' populations. i firmly believe that this is how we should all be eating meat- in an ethical and sustainable way.

people will criticize how meat farms treat livestock without taking into account that we've lost the infrastructure and "way of life" that allowed us to eat meat in an ethical way, and thus the real issue is that we've modernized ourselves too much and have imposed upon ourselves a moral dilemma that should not exist. we should be living in small communities with local farms, but cities make that impossible- and no one wants to actually work for their food anymore.

so basically, just eat the meat. if you really care about animals then buy locally, or from farms with good reputation, or raise chickens and go hunting if you're able to. if you're in a city, then congrats! your entire existence is a moral and ethical dilemma- that's just how modern living is.

 

[fishygirl]

I have no issue with people who don't eat meat. I'd avoid it too if I could be as healthy without highly bioavailabile essential amino acids. If I were to get all of my protein from plant sources, it would aggravate the hell out of my sibo/sifo/ibs. And I'm not about to spend more money supplementing something I can get cheaper & in better quality lol.

i agree, it also doesn't bother me if anyone chooses not to eat meat- unless they claim moral superiority and try to force others to not eat meat XD
i have IBS as well and didn't think about it much before, but it is true that a lot of plant proteins such as beans are terrible for sensitive stomachs, making it basically impossible to go fully vegan. + being underweight, im trying to eat as many burgers as i can lol

 

[Topaz111]

i agree, it also doesn't bother me if anyone chooses not to eat meat- unless they claim moral superiority and try to force others to not eat meat XD
i have IBS as well and didn't think about it much before, but it is true that a lot of plant proteins such as beans are terrible for sensitive stomachs, making it basically impossible to go fully vegan. + being underweight, im trying to eat as many burgers as i can lol

I have IBS and other GI issues as well, I already struggle a ton with nutrition and I would likely end up on IV fluids with malnutrition if I tried a vegan diet x.x
I love animals, but I don't feel bad about eating meat. To live is to kill, plant death/pain is just far more palatable for people.