1. I wouldn't want to kill animals myself in order to eat them, and I don't want to eat something that I would feel morally incapable of supplying for myself.
2. Animals are mass-produced for slaughter and not treated well while they are alive, and not killed humanely.
3. Animals take a huge amount of space and resources to be produced, slaughtered and brought to stores, from the space, time and resources it takes to grow the food they eat to the animals themselves. Many fossil fuels are wasted in this process, especially in shipping (of course this last could be said for many fruits and veggies too).
But here's a new reason: the Grist, an online environmental magazine, wrote this article today about poultry production. Apparently large poultry corporations are buying cheap land in the rural south, paying people incredibly low wages to raise the chickens, and sidestepping many environmental and health concerns for the people of the areas around these new chicken farms.So now not only is vegetarianism an animal rights issue, but also a human rights one. I knew this before, but this just brings it to the fore again.
So far I haven't felt called to veganism, I just try to eat free range eggs and such. It's probably not a perfect solution, but I think it's a step in the right direction...
ReplyDeleteIt is frustrating that the only way to eat conscientiously is really expensive (or really time-consuming, as in growing and making your own food from scratch). It's also frustrating that unless I do grow all my own food it almost always is shipped to me using fossil fuels which ruin the environment and make it even less fair for plants, animals and other people...
So many issues, so little time...It's hard to know where to draw the line on conscience and when we could be doing better things with our time. I don't know what the answer is, but I guess we just each have to listen to God and do what we feel called to and convicted on.