Too many vegans focus on the dilemma of consuming animal products in a vacuum instead of focusing on the cruelty regarding the MEANS of production of most animal products, cruelty that impacts workers, marginalized communities, the environment, and of course, animals.
Now, I don’t find consumption of meat, dairy, or eggs by itself morally unjustified, but I do find factory farming abysmal and wholly unnecessary.
If non-vegans (specifically those who have the means to) pursue local farms with ethical standards, buy from rifle hunting, hunt their own food, and overall just do what they can to assure the animals they consume and/or extract products from did not suffer, I do not find their consumption of those animal products to be unethical, especially given that most of the animals consumed are prey animals and would otherwise be subject to much worse.
We could eventually delve into pursuing a sort of bio-engineered future where there’s a better alternative where it’s not necessary at all (something like bio-engineered non-sentient meat that can be distributed amongst carnivores and omnivores), but as the world stands currently, there’s not much of an alternative.
Even if you’re someone (which I’m personally not) who finds killing, no matter the circumstance, to be morally unjustified, would you find it bad if someone consumed the body of something that was already dead?
The point is, I think too much of the time the focus is on the animals’ deaths and not enough on their lives.
Factory farmed animals are kept in crates they cannot even turn around in, receiving no stimulation. Many end up crushed by pen mates due to lack of space. Cage-free really just means instead of a metal cage, they’re caged in by a thousand other animals crammed together. They are beaten, branded, electrocuted, subjected to horrors that obviously most non-vegans would be completely against, but they’re unaware of because VEGANS DON’T TALK ABOUT IT. No one does.
Instead of wasting time virtue signaling, rally together to actually make a difference, educate people on the actual problem, find solutions that work for both vegans and non-vegans.
Factory farming is a trillion dollar industry that should not be a foot note in these conversations, or any conversation regarding industrial corruption.
The conversation shouldn’t end there either. We need to keep looking into the means of large scale productions, keep advocating for better conditions, keep supporting local/small businesses when possible.
