Well there's certainly some good stock images there! I love them 😍
I wonder how many atrocities have been performed under the rule of;
"Everyone else was doing it too"
One of the biggest, ofcourse, being the whole animal abusing industry (or is that still hitting too close to home for most?).
Is everyone abusing animals?
Some try to better their ways and that group is growing, but so far, the majority of the western world is and without good reason other than 'I'm used to it, we've always eaten meat, I like the taste, don't force your extremist lifestyle onto me!11!!1 etc.'
I mean, tell me what seems right about this to you:
Throwing a massive amount of chickens together where they don't even have a proper space to walk around or fresh air to breath. Feeding chickens so much that their legs can't even hold their weight. Pigs being put in pens, never seeing daylight and not even having enough space to turn, while we cut others tails off, so they don't bite them due to stress. Cows being forced into pregnancy every year, only to steal their kids away from them right after birth, so we can steal the milk that was meant for her baby. And that baby, if it's a female, she'll repeat mom's cycle. If it's a male, we either kill it for meat, or let it starve to death, because it has no use and feeding it would cost money. Losing massive amounts of forests for soy production which, yes, largely feeds animals, not vegans.
And all of this for what? Because we're used to it? Because it tastes good? We no longer need meat to survive. We can take those nutrients from other foods and be better off for it, because they have less unhealthy sides than animal products do. Not everyone has the means, but the rich, western world has all the resources it needs to never eat another dead animal or use any of their products again. As a bonus, stopping the animal industries would probably be the biggest blow we could ever deal to our environmental problems.
So yep, if that's not atrocious and crazy behaviour, I don't know what is.
Bah, big wall of text...
So how do we stop animals 'abusing' other animals? We are also animals. We can't even stop abusing each other.
As for this, there isn't enough cultivatable land on earth to support over 7billion humans on a plant-based diet.
As for your Soybean rant, its primary use is for its oil, the stuff that's leftover is the by-product and that, like many other food production by-products, is what's used for animal feeds. Increasing the number of vegetarians will increase the amount of Soybeans grown even more as it's a staple ingredient of margarine, vegetable oil, tofu, as well as the obvious ones like soy sauce and soy milk. It goes into thousands of non-animal-based food products as well as thousands of non-food products which would have used a more traditional, fossil fuel oil to manufacture, and we certainly don't like fossil fuels!
You want an organic plant-based diet? Cool, but when on a soap-box, education with a rounded, non-confrontational attitude is much preferred to rhetorical rants!
Wait, what's up? What did I do to offend you? Why are you being so hostile? I'm just answering @tarazkp
Please check your temper before you reply.
We don't have to stop other animals from hurting each other. Other animals kill each other to survive, which is exactly what we've done for many years. Now, however, we've learned that that is not needed for humans to survive and better yet, it's better for both our health and the planet if we stop eating animal products. So when we have the option, it's better to not abuse animals. How is less violence and hurting wrong?
Then how do we feed the 70 billion farm animals we create and kill each year? If we stop doing that, there's more than enough land to feed many more people than the ones that are alive now.
You're not correct about soy. The majority of soy produced is for meat and dairy production. If that's no longer required, we could do with a whole lotta less land.
Not angry, offended or bad tempered in the slightest.
I will be back in a while with some Soy references for you to have a look at.
Great, thanks! I'm always open to learn. I'm trying to do what I can, but honestly have given up hope for humans to do what's best for the earth. Economics seem too important. In the end, we'll just wipe ourselves out and the earth will recover. But what I can do is think about the animals living a horrible live in captivity. I don't want animals to hurt, just to feed me when it's not necessary, so I don't eat their products anymore. Doing what's best for nature is a good second to that ofcourse.
On that point, we ABSOLUTLY agree, but I would add 'and for each other' to the end of that statement too! Many opposing opinions can find commonality. I will go away and spend the evening reading up from as many 'neutral; sources as possible but this is always a problem. Finding neutral facts that aren't biased by someone's agenda is very difficult!
I am genuinely sorry you thought I was being hostile, I can be brusque without intention so I appreciate it when people point out that that is how I came across.