Okay I’m not off this bullshit yet.
The thing is, I’ve got zero issues if you personally don’t like meat or animal products, or if you’re unable to eat them. Or if you just don’t want to! You can eat whatever you like, and you shouldn’t be forced to eat something you don’t.
But what gets under my skin is when people start trying to one-up each other about why they’re vegan, and start advocating for everyone else to do it, and start calling farmers abusive and not giving a fuck about the sustainability of their diets.
Because the rub is that not every farmer’s field is right for every crop. Where I live, the soil is full of clay and sand, and fields often flood. Our fields support corn, beans, wheat, grass, and root veggies super well! But… there are plenty of foods it doesn’t support. And you have to remember that farmer’s income depends on their crop yielding as much as possible. For a small farm, trying to grow something that their soil isn’t made for requires thousands of dollars of manure and topsoil. It’s not something they can do easily. Farmers don’t see money for their efforts until they harvest and sell it. They have to get max product.
It’s hard to get a balanced diet on just plants. And while animals are their own challenge to farm, often they are the best use of the land a farmer has. You can grow cattle enough to sustain yourself on way less land than a farmer who grows corn or wheat. Chickens are easy to raise and care for humanely, the only real limiting factor is how much space you have in your yard and how you plan to feed them. Animals don’t require a specific ph of soil or a certain nitrogen content. And their manure can be composted and sold to other farmers for their fields.
This is a system that works, and the only reason we hear about animals facing abuse in farms is because huge farms care more about maximum profit and less about animal welfare.
Which isn’t to say every big company mistreats animals either - most livestocks are extremely susceptible to disease, death, and stunted growth when put into poor conditions. Unfortunately for chickens, they tend not to stop growing when stressed, and that has led big companies to abuse them.
But the point is that it’s not only possible to raise livestock humanely, it’s one of the best ways to get good quality products from them. A mistreated, malnourished cow won’t produce as much milk as one that is well taken care of. A laying hen under stress will not lay. And excluding chickens, most animals grown for meat will not eat properly when overly stressed.
It also seems like vegans seem to think that animals are only raised for their products and meat, when their hides, feathers, and bones are all usually used as well. And I hate to be that guy, but an item made of leather is going to last you so much longer than one made of plastic, and will break down once used as well.
Plus, they often seem to disreguard the fact that many types of animals benefit from our farming them. Bees, for example, aren’t native to North America but are now one of its biggest pollinatiors. And they’re dying, for reasons we don’t know. But beekeeping helps protect those bees. Often, when bees fill a hive’s available space with honey, they get stressed and start wanting to swarm and find a new place. By removing slate of honey from a hive, a beekeeper prevents that. Plus, bees always make more honey than they need, and if they have too much they may get stressed and want to split, which can lead to the death of the hive.
Not to mention that popular vegan foods are not sustainable. Agave nectar comes from a cactus that takes nearly 100 years to grow, and it is being consumed faster than it can repopulate. Quinoa is a grain that’s currently being farmed mostly using extremely exploitatative labor.
And that being vegan is both expensive and is full of foods that are common allergens, like nuts, soy, wheat, and so on.
“But if we all just used that land to farm, we could end hunger!”
No, you can’t. Because we have enough food to feed everyone. We have so much food! Way more than we need. So much that we toss out the food that looks ugly even if it isn’t bad. The reason people go hungry is because of Food Deserts. I live in a food desert. It’s an area where food isn’t sold in many places and is often expensive. The nearest grocery store to me is at least 15 minutes away if I want fresh food. Food deserts are why people are starving. Not because of a lack of food. Meat here is much cheaper than vegan alternatives, and is more widely available.
Veganism has become something of a scourge to me and where I live, which is heavily farmland. All it does here is hurt the people trying to live here, and in turn their animals.
Veganism is a diet choice, and nothing more. You are not better than me because you don’t eat what I do. You aren’t less harmful because you don’t eat what I do. There is no perfect answer, and for that I’m sorry. But veganism isn’t anywhere near perfect, either.
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