Meat eating ethical?

[Angrboda]

(by the by, about the pigs thinking oink oink....no no no...pigs are obscenely intelligent! - not directed at you tea, posters name escaped me)

I understand pigs are intelligent. What I was pointing out is that vegetarians project their interests, emotion laden ones mostly to do with death, onto the animals. Poor conditions in factory farms are something that needs to be changed, but it seems vegetarians are concerned about the killing first and foremost, and that specifically isn't a rational concern.

[Zen Badger]

Anyone here know of good arguments against the notion that eating animals is unethical? Why exactly is it ok to cage a cow its whole life, slaughter it, and then eat it but it's not ok to cage a human its whole life, slaughter it, and eat it? What exactly is the difference that makes the former ethical but the latter unethical?

If your only argument is "Duhhhh cow tasty!" then please leave. Serious arguments only please.

How do you debate the ethics of biological necessity?

We have evolved to eat meat.

You might as well discuss the ethics of a shark eating a fish.

[Autumnlicious]

I can't wait for artificial meats to take off and end this stupid debate permanently.

I like meat, but I would prefer the animal be raised humanely and terminated humanely.

Plus, stress makes the meat less tasty.

[KUSA]

I can't wait for artificial meats to take off and end this stupid debate permanently.

Unless killing and eating animals is outlawed and strictly enforced this debate will never end. The creation of artificial meats will not stop traditional meat consumption.

I will choose traditional meat over laboratory meat unless a radical difference in price swayed me.

[The Grand Nudger]

Until synthetic meat is made out of sunbeams the cow is doing it better.

[Zen Badger]

I can't wait for artificial meats to take off and end this stupid debate permanently.

Unless killing and eating animals is outlawed and strictly enforced this debate will never end. The creation of artificial meats will not stop traditional meat consumption.

I will choose traditional meat over laboratory meat unless a radical difference in price swayed me.

And we all know how much better the synthetic alternatives to natural foods are...

Like margarine is healthier than butter.

Or aspartame is better than sugar.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

Unless killing and eating animals is outlawed and strictly enforced this debate will never end. The creation of artificial meats will not stop traditional meat consumption.

I will choose traditional meat over laboratory meat unless a radical difference in price swayed me.

And we all know how much better the synthetic alternatives to natural foods are...

Like margarine is healthier than butter.

Or aspartame is better than sugar.

Aspartame is fine. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

[Zen Badger]

And we all know how much better the synthetic alternatives to natural foods are...

Like margarine is healthier than butter.

Or aspartame is better than sugar.

Aspartame is fine. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

Thank you, I stand corrected.

[Jackalope]

And we all know how much better the synthetic alternatives to natural foods are...

Like margarine is healthier than butter.

Or aspartame is better than sugar.

Aspartame is fine. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy

On the other hand, Aspartame tastes like wildebeest piss.

What? What do you mean "how do you know?" What kind of fucking question is that?

[Confused Ape]

Unless killing and eating animals is outlawed and strictly enforced this debate will never end. The creation of artificial meats will not stop traditional meat consumption.

I will choose traditional meat over laboratory meat unless a radical difference in price swayed me.

Mass production of in-vitro meat is unlikely to happen in our lifetimes but it's being developed for practical reasons. Vertical farming for crops is also being researched.

Special report: 'In vitro' beef - it's the meat of the future

Stem cells taken from just one animal could, in theory, be used to make a million times more meat than could be butchered from a single beef carcass. The reduction in the need for land, water and feed, as well as the decrease in greenhouse gases and other environmental pollutants, would change the environmental footprint of meat eating.

"Eventually, my vision is that you have a limited herd of donor animals which you keep in stock in the world. You basically kill animals and take all the stem cells from them, so you would still need animals for this technology," Professor Post said.

There would be no need to keep these herds in factory farms because the technology wouldn't require billions of food animals and birds. Conventional meat would still be available because they'd have to do something with the rest of the carcasses but it would probably be a very expensive luxury food.

"Right now, we are using 70 per cent of all our agricultural capacity to grow meat through livestock. You are going to need alternatives. If we don't do anything, meat will become a luxury food and will become very expensive," he said.

Carnivorism is a huge global industry, producing some 228 million tonnes of meat each year – the retail value of beef in the United States alone is $74bn (£50bn). By 2050, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world will be eating twice as much meat as we eat now, primarily driven by the increased demand from a growing middle class in China and other developing nations.

Each Briton, on average, eats about 85kg of meat a year, which roughly translates into 33 chickens, one pig, three-quarters of a sheep and a fifth of a cow. This kind of appetite accounts for why some 30 per cent of ice-free land in the world is used for growing food for animal livestock while just 4 per cent is used for crops destined for human consumption.

Would people eat it? Humans eat all kinds of things and, in some parts of the world, they'd be able to carry on eating local delicacies - eg. fried tarantulas in Cambodia and termites in Africa.

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