I think I will be surprised if it is ever considered politically incorrect to eat meat. The meat industry spends too much money lobbying for that to happen.
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I think I will be surprised if it is ever considered politically incorrect to eat meat. The meat industry spends too much money lobbying for that to happen.
I truly believe ordinary people with a cause are far more powerful than any lobbyists. We've just become too complacent with how things are, and not enough people care. It seems to be generational though, and I feel each new generation pushes vegetarianism into the mainstream.
There's also the sustainability factor. If environmentalists truly realized the emissions from Cattle I think they'd start turning leaves pretty quickly.
I agree. Particularly in the last 10 years, I've seen an explosion in the vegan/vegetarian scene here and we had the first vegan restaurant in Dublin open its doors last year. Whether it be out of concern for animal welfare, health or environment, people all around me seem to be limiting or excluding meat from their diets. Even the Dollar Vigilante has adopted a vegan lifestyle!
I'm hoping for new societal norms that greatly reduce meat consumption, which feels like perhaps (just IMO) a more realistic way of reaching a society-level compromise on the issue of animal rights.
While animals should not be treated the way they are in nature now... there are arguments to made for the health benefits of lean meats like Turkey, fish, etc - and not all people (medical conditions) can safely eat a vegan diet.
I'm all about the explosion in vegan food though. Great new vegan restaurant opened up near me, my friends & I have all been frequenting the place & it seems to have plenty of customers. This isn't a "hipster" area at all either.
One compromise I could maybe get behind is banning the sale of meat products. Continue to allow hunting and fishing to continue tradition, feed the hold-out carnivores and sometimes help with population control. Stem the overconsumption though.
While I would be delighted never to see another piece of meat, I would not be in favour of banning.
Imposing your values on others by force does not make a more equitable society for any of us. Like @heymattsokol, I too am hopeful that eventually, meat consumption will become an aberrant behaviour, and the wholesale slaughter of animals will be consigned to the annals of history.
Yes, I think I could get behind that too. But this forced breeding, imprisonment and genocide, all for profit, is perhaps the biggest source of suffering in society, and it has to go if we are ever going to be able to transcend our current understanding of humanity.
I believe that too. I just happen to have lost faith in the people's ability to believe it, and therefore it's hard to imagine any true, lasting progress. But, as pessimistic as that sounds, I'm not quite ready to give up on humanity yet, and comments like yours I find to be very inspiring.